One of the strangest things about moving into management is that years of competence can suddenly feel as though they have disappeared.
You may have spent years solving difficult problems, making sound decisions and being trusted for your technical judgement.
Then you become responsible for people, and suddenly you begin second-guessing yourself.
Was that the right decision?
Did I handle that conversation badly?
Should I have been firmer?
What if everyone else can see that I don’t really know what I’m doing?
For engineers and other technical professionals, this can be especially unsettling.. You were used to working in a world where competence could often be demonstrated.
You could check the calculation.
Review the design.
Test the system.
Compare your answer with a standard.
Management rarely gives you that certainty. Unfamiliarity can feel like inadequacy
There is an important distinction here. Not feeling confident does not necessarily mean you are not capable.
Sometimes it simply means you are operating in a situation where you have fewer familiar reference points.
Your brain notices uncertainty and may interpret it as danger or deficiency:
I should know this.
Everyone else seems more confident than I am.
Maybe I’m not cut out for this.
Yet think back to when you first entered your technical profession.
You probably didn’t feel as confident then as you eventually became.
Confidence often followed experience.
It did not necessarily come first.
Look for evidence, not just feelings
When self-doubt appears, try asking yourself:
What evidence do I actually have that I am not capable?
What evidence do I have that I have handled difficult things successfully before?
What part of this role is genuinely new to me?
What could I learn, rather than judge myself for not already knowing?
The aim isn’t to talk yourself into false confidence.
It is to stop treating a temporary feeling of uncertainty as proof of inadequacy.
Because sometimes the problem isn’t that you lack the ability.
It is that your internal sense of capability has not yet caught up with the role you are now performing.
When you moved into greater responsibility, did you find your confidence increased straight away — or did it temporarily drop first?
