Confidence

In this summary you will learn

• The four levels of confidence necessary for success
• The three reasons confidence erodes
• The nine reasons losing streaks persist
• The three keys to gaining and maintaining your confidence professionally and personally

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Why you should read Confidence

Why do winning streaks and losing streaks continue in sports, business, politics, education and even in individual personal lives? The answer, according to Harvard University business administration professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, is "not in our stars, but in ourselves." Winners have, and losers lack, a distinct, learnable, positive attitude toward the future, which Kanter boldly sums up in a word: confidence. Drawing on more than 300 interviews with top coaches, business people and other leaders, and using data from two surveys of more than 1,200 companies, Kanter illustrates the keys to confidence with case studies of various organizations, especially some win-from-behind sports teams. While many pearls are hidden at the bottom of her text, be prepared to dive through a murky sea of verbiage to find them. Nevertheless, getAbstract recommends it confidently to those who want a (mostly) painless refresher on managerial basics, especially morale building.

About the Author

Rosabeth Moss Kanter has been a professor at Harvard Business School since 1986 and was editor of the Harvard Business Review from 1989 to 1992. An adviser to numerous companies and governments, she serves on the boards of several public service organizations, including City Year, the national urban youth service corp. This is her sixteenth book.