High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 757: Building Confidence at Work: Why Gen Z Needs a New Playbook

Episode Date: June 18, 2026

Confidence may be the missing skill today's workforce needs most.   In this episode, Dr. Cindra Kamphoff shares insights from her National Research Study on Confidence and her upcoming book, The Confidence Habit, explaining why nearly half of Gen Z workers frequently feel like they're "not enough." Learn how self-doubt impacts performance, why confidence is a business issue, and what leaders can do to help people thrive.   You'll also discover Cindra's Learn, Burn, Return™ framework—a powerful tool used by athletes, executives, and high performers to recover quickly from mistakes and move forward with confidence.   Power Phrase: "I build confidence by learning, letting go, and moving forward."   To download our full study report, visit: confidencestudy.com To Request a Free Breakthrough Call with a Mentally Strong Coach, visit: http://www.freementalbreakthroughcall.com/ To learn more about the Mentally Strong Institute, visit: https://mentallystronginstitute.com/ To learn about Dr. Cindra Kamphoff's speaking and coaching, visit: https://cindrakamphoff.com/ To follow Dr. Cindra on Instagram, visit: Cindra Kamphoff, PhD (@cindrakamphoff) • Instagram photos and videos

Hi, Dr. Cinder Campoff here. Myself and my team just conducted this national research study on confidence that you have to check out. The report which you can download at Confidencestudy.com shows research-backed ways you can grow your confidence. What leaders do to both kill and grow confidence and how confidence is not just a personal issue, but an organizational issue. I'm telling you, you've got to check this out. It's a game changer. You can find our full report at Confidencestudy.com. It's time to check in with Cinder Campoff today.

We're talking about building confidence at work and why Generation Z needs a new playbook. Cinder, start us off with one of your quotes. This is a quote from my new book called The Confidence Habit, and it goes like this. Confidence is not a feeling you wait for. It's a skill you practice. So what are we talking about today in addition to confidence? Well, Lisa, I recently was coaching a young professional who was absolutely crushing it from the outside. And she was smart, hardworking, respected by her team, and consistently delivered great work.

But she came to our coaching session frustrated. And she said, you know, I spend more time worrying about whether I'm good enough than actually doing my job. And she talked about how she replaced mistakes in her mind. She consistently compares herself to her coworkers and just to hesitate to share her ideas during meetings. And here's what stuck with me is that she wasn't lacking talent. She was really lacking confidence. And I think a lot of people can relate to that. In fact, I recently wrote an article for Fast Company that basically talked about our national research study on confidence.

And we found nearly half of Gen Z workers, which is ages 18 to 29, frequently feel like they're not enough. So we're talking today about not a motivational problem, not a work ethic problem, but a confidence problem. Well, that's a pretty powerful distinction. And why is confidence such a challenge right now? Well, Gen Z grew up in a world unlike any other generation before them. You know, they've spent much of their lives connected to social media where comparison is constant. And our national research study found that 73% of working Americans believe that social media contributes to the confident struggles among young people. And so if you think about it, Lisa, right?

Every school school can become a comparison. And so someone gets promoted, someone watches a business, someone buys a home. and people can, you know, think to themselves like, why am I not there yet, or what's wrong with me, or why am I falling behind? And these thoughts can really slowly tip away at confidence. And so how does that confidence problem show up at work? I would say it shows up really in subtle ways, where people stay quiet when they have a great idea. They avoid opportunities because they don't feel like they're ready. They procrastinate because they're worried about mistakes.

And they spend a lot of time with, you know, energy questioning. themselves rather than really having this energy to perform. And one of the biggest lessons I've learned from coaching Olympians and professional athletes and executives is that self-doubt can be really expensive. It costs us attention, it costs us energy, and it costs us opportunities. And many leaders actually think confidence is just a personal issue. Exactly. And that's, I think, where many organizations get it wrong, that confidence is a business issue.

For example, one, you know, our study found that 81st, percent of working Americans are attracted to organizations that prioritize confidence. And 63 percent said they would take a lower-pin job to work with a leader who actively build their confidence. So, you know, people are looking for an environment where they can grow and contribute and believe in themselves. What do leaders need to do differently? I would say, you know, first, understand that confidence is a skill. It's not fixed. And it's not something people either have or don't have. It's something that we can build. And one of the most important confidence, skills, we can teach us how to recover from mistakes because, you know, confidence isn't about

never messing up. It's about moving on quickly. And so I teach this tool called learn, burn, return that we could kind of talk through. How does that sound, Lisa? Yeah, can you walk us through it? Sure. I would say the process is really simple. First, you want to ask yourself, what would I do differently next time, find the lesson, and then second, you want to burn it. You want to let it go with a phrase or action, and then you want to return. And this builds your confidence back to the present moment. You want to check your confidence, your self-talk, your body language, and you can use this any time to let go of things more quickly. You've got a good example of that as well. I do. One of my favorite examples is Adam Thielen, who is a former Minnesota

Vikings player. He fumbled the ball during a playoff game, and, you know, most people would spiral, but instead he walked over to the sidelines and made a flushing gesture. And that was his burn. So he wasn't pretending the mistake didn't happen, but he was choosing not to carry it onto the next play. And so a few moments later, right, he was back making plays, like the mistake never happened. Uh-huh. Well, flush it. I know you've talked about that before, too.

That's a good example. How does it relate to people at work? Well, the same thing happens at work. Maybe you send a wrong email or you missed a deadline or maybe a presentation didn't go as planned. And so the question isn't whether you'll make a mistake. You will, right? The question is, how quickly can you recover from that? And the faster you recover, the faster your confidence grows. So what's one thing that anybody listening to us that is a leader of people can do this week? I would say start normalizing mistakes as part of growth. And when someone makes a mistake,

don't just ask what went wrong, but ask, what did you learn? And help people focus on the lesson instead of the shame. Confidence grows when people know that they can make mistakes and move on. Sandra, how do we summarize today? I would say the future workforce needs a new playbook, and so people don't just need technical skills, they need mental skills, and they need tools to help handle self-doubt, setbacks, criticism, and pressure. And leaders have a great opportunity to do that, because when confidence rises, performance rises too, and innovation and engagement rises. So just remember confidence isn't something you're born with. It's something you can build every day. Sandra, what is the power phrase for this week? I build confidence by learning,

letting go, and moving forward. And if people want to learn more about what it is that you do, where can we follow you? You can head over to Dr. C-I-N-D-R-A.com. And you can also already order the Confidence Habit books that comes out September 1st. And you can find over $400 of bonuses over there just by purchasing the book before then. Way to go for finishing another episode of the high performance mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe, and you can head over to Dr.

Cindra for show notes and enjoy my exclusive community for high performers, where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can add over to Dr. C-I-N-D-R-C-A. See you next week.