Sally Neale, Chief People Officer, explores why confidence is the key to unlocking innovation, supporting change and helping colleagues see what they’re truly capable of.
How many brilliant ideas are lost because someone’s not confident enough to share them?
I think about this a lot. Not because people don’t have ideas. They do. In every team, on every site and in every role, there are people who can see where a process could work better, where a customer experience could be improved, or where technology could take away unnecessary effort.
But what if they don’t feel able to say it?
Confidence is often seen as a personal trait. Something you either naturally have, or need to work on. I see it differently. In a business, it grows – or shrinks – depending on the culture around us. It grows when employees are listened to, trusted and given opportunities they might not have thought were open to them.
That matters more as AI and automation change the shape of work. Routine tasks are increasingly being handled by technology, which means colleagues are spending more time on work that needs empathy, problem-solving and decision-making.
For that, they need to trust their own judgement.
Why employee confidence matters
In customer service and back-office operations like ours, employees often work within clear processes. That’s important, especially in regulated sectors where consistency, compliance and care are vital.
But good outcomes can’t be reduced to simply following a script.
There are moments when a colleague needs to slow a conversation down, switch channel because it’s better for the customer, ask another question or challenge whether a process is giving the right support. That takes knowledge, but it also courage.
The same is true inside the business. If someone can see a better way of doing something, but doesn’t feel able to speak up, we lose that insight. If a colleague has leadership potential but can’t see a path for themselves, their potential stays hidden.
That’s why confidence isn’t a soft issue. It affects innovation, retention, customer outcomes and the way people respond to change.
What I’ve learned from CEO Club
One of the clearest examples of this at ArvatoConnect is our CEO Club.
CEO stands for Coaching, Empowerment and Opportunity, and is sponsored by our CEO, Debra. It was created to support employees who want to grow in the business, whether that means moving into leadership, building specialist expertise or simply understanding more about how our organisation works.
It’s not only for colleagues who already see themselves as future leaders. In fact, that’s exactly the point.
Some of the most capable are not always the most visible. They may be doing excellent frontline work or be in more junior roles, but they haven’t had the exposure, encouragement or opportunity to show what else they can do.
Our CEO Club helps create that. Participants get time with senior mentors, insight into commercial decision-making and training in areas such as leadership, personal brand, data and strategy. They also take part in sessions that stretch their thinking, from mock board discussions to pitching ideas in a Dragon’s Den-style format.
Those experiences pull back the curtain. They help our people understand how decisions are made, where they fit into the bigger picture and how they can contribute to more strategic conversations.
And when someone senior takes the time to listen, it can change how that person sees their own potential.
Making confidence part of everyday culture
Programmes like CEO Club are obviously important, but for us, confidence has to show up in everyday culture. That means being transparent with our people about what’s changing and why.
AI is a good example. There’s no point pretending technology isn’t changing roles. Employees can see it, read about it and feel the impact in their day-to-day work. They deserve honesty, not silence. I think the worst thing businesses can do right now is leave people to fill in the gaps themselves.
That’s why we create space for open conversations. The Big Debate brings colleagues from across ArvatoConnect together with senior leaders to discuss major business topics, including AI and automation. Some discussions happen under NDA, which gives room to be honest and challenge thinking more freely.
We’ve found that when employees can ask questions, they feel more informed. They are also more likely to engage with change and want to help shape it.
It doesn’t mean we always have the answer, but it does mean they’re brought into the conversation.
From speaking up to making change happen
Confidence also needs somewhere to go.
We’ve channelled some of that through our innovation and ideas platform, MyCreationStation. It gives colleagues a way to suggest practical improvements to systems, processes and ways of working, as well as come up with completely new ideas. If you can see a better way, tell us.
This has worked really well in our work with Government Commercial Agency. Financial Viability Risk Assessments were highly manual, with the team spending time extracting data from financial statements and creating reports.
Through an employee-led idea, we introduced an AI-enabled tool that analyses financial statements and generates draft assessments automatically. Assessors can now focus their time where they add the most value – interpreting risk, reviewing outputs and applying professional judgement.
What I love about this is that it didn’t start with a boardroom theory. It started with those closest to the work seeing a better way.
Our role as leaders
Leaders often ask how they can create more innovation – and the answer is usually closer than they think.
Start with the basics: listen properly, allow challenge, share earlier, open doors, and show employees their ideas go somewhere.
And a word of warning: don’t confuse confidence with loudness.
Some of the best ideas come from those who need encouragement. Some of your future leaders need someone else to spot their potential before they fully see it in themselves.
The organisations that adapt best won’t be the ones that simply introduce more technology. They will be the ones that build cultures where employees feel able working alongside it, questioning it, improving it and using it to deliver better outcomes – and know that their own judgement is very much still valued.
Give people confidence and they’ll show you what needs to change, and then help you make it happen.
