Be Confident When We Drop the Ball

At Be Challenged, one of our values is Be Confident.

When people hear the word confidence, they often imagine certainty. They imagine someone who never doubts themselves, never hesitates and perhaps most unrealistically of all, never makes mistakes. But that isn’t real confidence.

True confidence is believing that when something does go wrong, we have the capability, resilience and support around us to navigate it well.

In organisational psychology, there is a concept known as collective efficacy; the shared belief that a group can successfully overcome challenges and achieve its goals together. In many ways, this sits at the heart of what confidence means to us at Be Challenged.

Confidence is recognising that mistakes are inevitable, but catastrophe is optional. It is the ability to reduce emotional reactivity and dysregulation when things don’t go to plan, instead focusing on accountability, collaboration for solutions and learning for the future.

Recently, I came across a wonderful video of a group of young children performing a synchronised basketball routine. You can view the performance here. Part way through, one of the children drops his basketball. In front of a large audience, in the middle of a carefully rehearsed routine, he makes a mistake. What happens next is what makes the video so remarkable.

He doesn’t freeze. He doesn’t catastrophise. He doesn’t abandon the routine or become consumed by embarrassment. He keeps moving.

He continues performing his role within the choreography of the routine, trusting that he can recover and that the routine itself is more impactful than his single mistake. Meanwhile, another child notices what has happened and, without disrupting his own performance, calmly helps by returning the ball at exactly the right moment. Together, they continue. 

What strikes me most is that the boy appears to have confidence on multiple levels. He has confidence in himself to recover, confidence in the quality of the routine, knowing that one dropped ball does not define the entire performance and perhaps, most importantly, confidence in his teammates. There is no visible fear of judgement, condemnation or blame. Instead, there is an assumption that the people around him will support him to get back into rhythm. 

At Be Challenged, we see this dynamic play out every day in high-performing teams. The strongest teams are not those that avoid mistakes entirely. Rather, they are the teams that respond well when mistakes happen. They create cultures where people feel safe to acknowledge errors, seek support, learn quickly and move forward together.

This aligns with the way we’ve been discussing confidence across our organisation. Confidence comes from drawing on our professional knowledge and experience, recognising the expertise of those around us, and trusting the processes that support us.

When confidence is present, accountability becomes easier. People do not need to waste energy protecting their ego or defending their reputation. Instead, they can focus on finding the best solution and drawing on the strengths of those around us.

To be confident is not to believe we will never drop the ball. It is to trust that when we do, we have the capability, courage and collective support to pick it up again and keep moving forward together.

Thanks for reading, 

Lisa Kelliher 

CEO Be Challenged