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The hidden confidence crisis

Why confidence is critical for workplace success (and expensive to get wrong)

You know the type: talented individuals who have all the right qualifications but freeze during presentations, avoid taking initiative, or crumble under pressure. Lack of confidence doesn't just hurt individual performance – it creates a ripple effect that damages entire teams.

Research shows that confident employees are more likely to take on challenges, recover from setbacks, and contribute innovative solutions. They speak up in meetings, volunteer for difficult assignments, and build stronger client relationships.

The confidence gap costs organisations dearly: Low-confidence hires are 3x more likely to leave within their first year, and teams with unconfident members show significantly reduced innovation and problem-solving capabilities.

But here's where most hiring teams go wrong: they assume interviews will reveal genuine confidence levels. In reality, the candidates who perform best in interviews often struggle most with real-world confidence when the pressure is on.

Meanwhile, some of your most genuinely confident potential hires might not interview as smoothly but would thrive in the actual role.

The interview confidence trap

Why interview questions can't measure real workplace confidence

Think about what confidence actually looks like at work: It's volunteering for a challenging project when resources are tight. Speaking up when you disagree with a popular decision. Bouncing back from criticism and using it constructively.

These are situational behaviours that emerge under real workplace pressure, not polished responses delivered in a controlled interview setting.

Three critical flaws with interview-based confidence assessment:

1. The performance paradox: Interviews reward candidates who can appear confident rather than those who genuinely possess workplace confidence. Many naturally confident people struggle with artificial interview scenarios.

2. The preparation effect: Interview training teaches candidates how to sound confident, but can't instill the deep self-assurance needed for real workplace challenges.

3. The context mismatch: Interview confidence and workplace confidence are different skills. Some people excel at structured conversations but freeze when facing ambiguous work situations.

Even worse, overconfident candidates often interview exceptionally well while lacking the genuine self-awareness and resilience that characterise truly confident employees.

This creates a hiring bias toward candidates who are excellent at talking about confidence rather than demonstrating it consistently over time.

Video insight: Ben Schwencke, our lead consultant, explains why confidence is worth measuring accurately and the limitations of interview-only approaches.

For teams still using interviews

5 confidence interview questions (use with serious caution)

If you're not ready to implement behavioural assessments yet, here are five interview questions that might provide some insight into confidence – though remember, they're measuring interview performance, not genuine workplace confidence.

Critical warning: These questions will favour candidates who are good at talking about confidence over those who actually possess it. Use them only as a supplement to more reliable assessment methods.

Question 1: The pressure response

"Describe a time when you had to maintain confidence during a high-pressure situation with uncertain outcomes."

What you're looking for: Specific examples where they stayed composed and decisive under genuine pressure, not just busy periods or tight deadlines.

Red flags: Vague examples, stories where they weren't actually responsible for outcomes, or examples that show they avoided rather than confronted difficult situations.

Probing questions
  • 1. What made this situation particularly high-pressure for you?
  • 2. How did you maintain focus and decision-making quality when outcomes were uncertain?
  • 3. What specific actions did you take that demonstrated confidence rather than just perseverance?

Question 2: The initiative test

"Tell me about a time when you took on responsibility for something that wasn't explicitly your job."

What you're looking for: Examples of genuine initiative where they stepped forward without being asked, not just helping out when requested.

Probing questions
  • 1. What motivated you to take on this responsibility when it wasn't required?
  • 2. How did you handle any pushback or uncertainty about your authority in this area?
  • 3. What was the outcome, and how did you measure success?

Question 3: The setback recovery

"Describe a significant professional setback and how you rebuilt your confidence afterward."

What you're looking for: Evidence of resilience and self-awareness, plus concrete steps they took to move forward constructively.

Probing questions
  • 1. What specifically made this setback significant for you professionally?
  • 2. How did you separate the failure from your overall self-worth and capabilities?
  • 3. What concrete actions did you take to rebuild your confidence?

Question 4: The advocacy moment

"Tell me about a time when you had to advocate for an unpopular idea or decision."

What you're looking for: Evidence they can stand behind their convictions even when facing opposition or skepticism.

Probing questions
  • 1. What made this idea or decision unpopular with others?
  • 2. How did you handle resistance while maintaining your conviction?
  • 3. What strategies did you use to build support for your position?

Question 5: The learning edge

"Describe a situation where you had to perform well in an area where you lacked experience or expertise."

What you're looking for: Confidence to tackle unfamiliar challenges without being paralysed by imposter syndrome or the need for complete certainty.

Remember: Even excellent answers to these questions only indicate interview confidence, not workplace confidence. The most articulate responses often come from candidates who struggle with genuine confidence under pressure.

Probing questions
  • 1. How did you approach learning what you needed to know quickly?
  • 2. What gave you the confidence to proceed despite your limited experience?
  • 3. How did you balance humility about your knowledge gaps with the confidence needed to perform?
The reliable solution

What actually works for measuring workplace confidence (and how to get started)

Here's the reality check: There's a much more reliable way to measure genuine workplace confidence than hoping candidates can articulate it convincingly in interviews.

Behavioural assessments measure confidence as an underlying personality trait, not a performance skill. Well-designed confidence assessments examine:

  • Self-efficacy patterns: How do they typically respond when facing unfamiliar challenges?
  • Stress response consistency: Do they maintain decision-making quality under pressure?
  • Initiative-taking tendencies: Are they naturally inclined to step forward or wait for direction?
  • Resilience mechanisms: How do they bounce back from setbacks and criticism?

The assessment advantage: These tools measure deep-seated confidence patterns that candidates can't easily manipulate, giving you insights into how someone will actually behave when workplace pressures mount.

The evidence is compelling. Companies using confidence assessments report higher employee engagement, increased innovation, and significantly reduced turnover among new hires.

The optimal approach combines both tools strategically:

  • Assessments first: Screen for genuine confidence traits early in your process
  • Interviews second: Use targeted questions to explore role-specific scenarios with candidates who've already demonstrated solid confidence foundations
screenshot of a candidates test results

This approach means you're interviewing candidates you already know possess workplace confidence, allowing you to focus interview time on cultural fit, role-specific judgment, and motivation.

How to start measuring confidence accurately:

  1. Deploy confidence assessments early: Use scientifically validated behavioural assessments that measure genuine confidence traits as part of your initial screening process.
  2. Set confidence benchmarks: Define the confidence levels required for success in specific roles, from customer-facing positions that need high confidence to analytical roles where moderate confidence might be optimal.
  3. Use interviews strategically: Focus your interview time on role-specific scenarios and cultural fit with candidates who've already demonstrated appropriate confidence levels through assessment data.

The result: You'll identify genuinely confident candidates more accurately while avoiding both overconfident hires who lack substance and underconfident hires who won't thrive in your environment.

Our confidence assessments are built on decades of workplace psychology research and validated against job performance data. They measure the specific traits that predict confident behaviour across different work contexts and pressure levels.

Ready to measure confidence accurately? Explore our behavioural assessments to see which tools best measure confidence for your specific roles and requirements.

Or if you need support developing better interview questions while you evaluate assessment options, try our AI-powered interview questions generator for more targeted confidence-focused questions.