The Confidence Code: A Scientific Guide to finding Trust in Your Decision Making

The Confidence Code by Claire Shipman and Katty Kay is a wonderful book. It's funny (Katty Kay learning to kiteboard), relatable (stellar international leaders Christine Lagarde and Angela Merkel comforting each other when male politicians beat up on them), and easy to read. Well researched, the book contains pages of helpful information, not only to understand why we as a gender tend to lag in confidence but also what to do about it. (Although the book would be good resource for any adult who lacks confidence, it's aimed at women.)Apart from making you feel good, why is confidence important? According to the authors, ..."there is evidence that confidence is more important than ability when it comes to getting ahead," on the job and in life generally. Good compensation, happiness, and professional fulfillment may depend on confidence. Not born confident? Don't worry. "The newest research shows that we can literally change our brains (to make us) more confidence prone."There's a lot of wisdom in the Confidence Code. One nugget is this: "Most people believe they need to criticize themselves in order to find motivation to reach their goals. In fact, when you constantly criticize yourself, you become depressed, and depression is not a motivational mindset." Also, "...Of all the warped things that women do to themselves to undermine their confidence, we found the pursuit of perfection to be the most crippling...you'll inevitably and routinely feel inadequate."But most of us are perfectionists. How do we overcome these behaviors?To get answers, Shipman and Kay interview and cite many thoughtful and engaging experts, who are quoted throughout the book, but the short course is this: Stop overthinking everything. Have courage, take action, congratulate yourself for trying regardless of outcome, and move on. Engage in self-compassion. Practice / do the work. Mastery in one thing spills over into other areas. Meditation can shrink your amygdalae (the region of the brain that amps up fear) and stimulate your prefrontal cortex (the calm, rational area). If that's too much work, concentrate on how you present yourself physically. Practice power positions. Spread out. Take up space. Keep your chin raised. Don't use "upspeak" (i.e. sound like a Valley Girl when you talk).There's so much more, but here's the thing I want you to remember: the development of confidence is volitional - a choice. Or as Shipman and Kay put it: "Our biggest and perhaps most encouraging discovery has been that confidence is something we can, to a significant extent, control." What an important life skill for women of all ages to learn, and to teach their daughters and granddaughters.

As an expectant father, I’ve been considering how to nurture confidence in my soon-to-arrive daughter. I stumbled upon The Confidence Code and found it to be both insightful and practical.The authors provide compelling examples of the challenges women face that can erode their confidence, ranging from societal expectations to workplace biases. However, they don't leave the reader feeling discouraged. Instead, the book offers practical solutions and a hopeful yet realistic perspective on building resilience.The personal stories and scientific research interwoven throughout make this a highly relatable and informative read.Highly recommended for those looking to empower the next generation!

Brought up amazing, life-changing points on why we women have not just been trained to hold back, but how we are co-conspirators in our own bondage.I would have liked to see more explicit exercises to overcome this, but this is still an incredible read nonetheless. I intuitively know what to do. I've also piled on some other books on my reading list regarding women and confidence: "Playing Big" by Tara Mohr and "Unbound: A Woman's Guide to Power" by Kasia Urbaniak (pre-ordered)."The Confidence Code" brings up some really poignant psychological, genetic and social observations about how we as women behave and treat power, and it's an eye-opener. You of course may not agree with every little thing. And I have to say the chapter that describes lab rats having a cap of brainwave-reading wires surgically attached to their heads was pretty awful and disturbing. Not gonna lie. Did NOT like that.But good book.

Great book. Essential reading for every young lady.

I'm suspicious of some of the five star reviews of this book. If you check out their total reviews, for many this is their only review, and for others, they have just 2 or 3 reviews, all 5 star. And they gush a bit too much about this book. I'm having difficulty getting through this book because it's boring. It's mainly stories about wealthy, highly educated women, or celebrities, who expressed at some point that they felt lucky or unworthy, etc. There are other things in the book, and it is enlightening in some respects. But it's not geared toward helpful advice for the average woman. I agree with the several other reviews for this book that say much the same thing as I am saying. It's not a total waste of money, and if the stats apply to you, you may find it more applicable to yourself.I did find one thing in the book that I am using, which is that women apologize all the time, whether it's justified or not. I've noticed that I do the same, so am trying to alter this. The response has not been great. The problem is, and perhaps the reason why, women appear to lack confidence and apologize, is because the response when they don't do that is not good. The goal is to get certain things, whether it's a job or a raise or congeniality in the office. I believe that women have learned how to win the end game through experience, and that experience has shown that the best way to do this is to APPEAR more subserviant and pleasant than you are. I saw a documentary once about how girl toddlers & boy toddlers are treated differently, and wondered why girls cry more than boys. You could see in the test that when girl toddlers cried in a child pen area, they got picked up more often than the boys did when they cried. So the girls learned that to cry is to get the result desired, and boys learned that crying did them no good. So the accomplished women in this book, for all their assertions that they attribute their success to luck or whatever, actually did achieve what they wanted, using precisely the things that this book is saying not to use.Maybe the book changes a bit in the second half. If so, I'll update this review. Don't get me wrong...it's interesting. Just not a practical guide for the average American woman.

I highly recommend this book to all professional women!

Very through research . Lots of useful insights that make you feel hopeful but also relieved you are not the only one experiencing doubts .

The quality of the book is as expected.

Perfecto, el libro llego en perfectas condiciones al igual que el empaquetado en el tiempo indicado, le doy 5 estrellas ya que fue sin ningún problema, AMAZON sigue sin fallarme.

Excelente material sobre confiança. Muito bem escrito e muito importante para a mudança de comportamento necessária para grande parte das mulheres modernas