What is self-efficacy and 10 ways to build it

Imagine you’re about to give a presentation. As you wait to begin, your thoughts spiral through concerns, fears, and potential outcomes. However, when you stand up on stage, all your doubts disappear and are replaced with motivation and affirmations like “I can do this.”

Your ability to approach situations and tasks confidently is called self-efficacy. If you’re high in self-efficacy, you trust yourself to overcome obstacles, and your mindset helps you stay motivated and encouraged. On the contrary, if your self-efficacy is low, you might doubt your abilities, have limiting beliefs, and steer clear of challenging tasks.

Don’t worry if you experience low self-efficacy; you’re not alone. With the right steps and knowledge, you can improve your self-confidence and reach your full potential.

According to Canadian-American psychologist Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory, self-efficacy beliefs are foundational to behavior. In his 1977 article published in Psychological Review, “Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change,” Bandura says that an individual’s self-efficacy plays a role in determining how they cope in the face of obstacles and aversive experiences. Bandura’s social cognitive theory says those high in the trait trust their own ability to handle difficult situations. 

At BetterUp, we’ve studied the role of self-efficacy in achieving successful outcomes. Members high in self-efficacy are 2.3 times more likely to receive a promotion or pay raise within three to four months of coaching. Compared to those who scored low in this trait, BetterUp members who scored high in self-efficacy reported:

• 26% more resilience
• 21% more innovation
• 14% more productivity

Maintaining a strong sense of self-confidence aligns with professional and personal development. The more you trust your abilities, the more likely you are to take reasonable risks, learn new things, stay motivated, and grow. 

Self-efficacy vs. self-esteem

Your perceptions about yourself impact self-efficacy and self-esteem, but the two concepts are not the same beliefs. 

Self-esteem is your overall sense of self-worth and personal value. If you have high self-esteem, you are likely comfortable with yourself and regularly cultivate self-love. You may have good emotional regulation skills, healthy relationships, and open-mindedness when dealing with constructive criticism. It’s also likely that you live according to your personal values.

Alternatively, self-efficacy is confidence in your ability to handle complicated tasks or navigate challenging situations. You trust that you will be OK no matter the outcome. Such solid self-belief in your abilities leads to a positive mindset in the face of adversity.

If you have low self-esteem, you will likely lack self-efficacy. However, this isn’t always the case. You might think negatively about yourself, but trust your capabilities and ability to perform. 

When it comes to self-efficacy and self-esteem, it’s important to remember that working on improving one can boost the other. The first step to changing your beliefs is identifying if you lack self-efficacy and how your perceived capabilities could negatively impact your life.

Do you have low self-efficacy?

Reduced self-efficacy can manifest in your life in several ways. You’ll notice it in work performance, academic tasks, physical well-being, and relationships. Once you learn how to spot its signs, you can adequately address and overcome it. Here are some of the most common characteristics of low self-efficacy:

• Low self-confidence: You might doubt your abilities to handle complex tasks or navigate new situations. 
• Low self-esteem: You may negatively perceive your capabilities, heavily critique your actions, and engage in negative self-talk. 
• Avoidance: You could avoid trying new things or taking risks to prevent potential mistakes. 
• Showing signs of burnout: Because of a lack of trust in your abilities, you might feel the need to prove your worth and push yourself to the point of burning out. 
• Poor sleep hygiene, exercise, and nutritional habits: Low self-efficacy can also impact your physical well-being regarding nutrition and sleep. 
• Mental health issues: A low self-efficacy can correlate with depression, anxiety, or other mental health concerns. 
• Hyper-focusing on failures or possible adverse outcomes: If you doubt your abilities, you might be more likely to fixate on failures instead of enjoying successes. 
• Avoiding connecting with others: An aversion to connecting with others can result from negative self-perception and a lack of confidence. 

To more accurately measure a person’s degree of self-efficacy, mental health professionals use the official General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE). To use the assessment yourself, you’ll need to respond to each of these 10 statements with a 1 (not true at all), 2 (barely true), 3 (moderately true), or 4 (exactly true). Examples of GSE statements include:

• I can always manage to solve difficult problems if I try hard enough.
• If someone opposes me, I can find means and ways to get what I want.
• It is easy for me to stick to my aims and accomplish my goals. 
• I am confident that I can deal efficiently with unexpected events.
• Thanks to my resourcefulness, I know how to handle unforeseen situations.

The GSE helps identify and validate characteristics of low self-efficacy. It can point out specific areas to focus on as you work to boost self-efficacy. It’s also helpful to note that how low self-efficacy presents itself can depend on how you developed it in the first place. 

How does self-efficacy develop?

According to Bandura’s social cognitive theory, four factors influence self-efficacy. He outlines the following in his research:

• Performance accomplishments: Also known as mastery experiences in modern research, performance accomplishments give a person insight into successes and failures. When you succeed at something, it gives you that extra boost of self-confidence. That means you’re increasing your self-efficacy beliefs with each success. However, failing at experiences can lower self-efficacy beliefs. 
• Vicarious experience: Vicarious experiences help you believe in your ability to achieve something based on a point of reference. By gathering information about yourself and your abilities by observing others, you learn more about your level of mastery and how to improve. 
• Verbal persuasion: This factor is based on the idea that you can use verbal persuasion to convince other people of your capabilities. Because receiving external validation can help boost your sense of self-worth and confidence, someone telling you you’re good at something makes you feel more capable of handling it. 
• Emotional arousal: Moods, emotions, and stress all affect how you feel about your abilities. You might experience self-doubt if you’re having a bad day and don’t feel confident. On the other hand, if you have little anxiety, got a good night’s sleep, and ate a healthy breakfast, you likely feel more motivated to take on the day. Your degree of emotional arousal can be expressed as your physiological and affective state. 

Each of these experiences occurs from various situations throughout your life. For example, whether in school as a child or in the workplace as an adult, you often receive feedback on your abilities. This feedback is internalized and determines how you establish self-efficacy. 

10 ways to build self-efficacy

Bandura calls for “...a persistence in activities that are subjectively threatening but are in fact relatively safe” to improve self-efficacy. He says continued perseverance produces experiences of mastery that enhance self-efficacy and correspond to reduced defensive behaviors. 

To build self-efficacy, start by taking on small tasks and attempting to overcome minor challenges. As you experience positive outcomes, your self-confidence will increase, motivating you to pursue more complicated goals. 

Consider incorporating one or more of the following 10 suggestions to give yourself a self-efficacy boost.

Set achievable goals

Making an action plan to achieve your goals is one of the best ways to increase self-efficacy. With each success, you prove to yourself that you can do great things. Over time, this increases your confidence and sense of self-worth. 

When setting goals, it’s important to ensure they are realistic. Use SMART goals to create specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound tasks. Consider setting a series of smaller, more specific goals to build momentum with several small wins. 

Seek mastery experiences

Mastery experiences are situations in which you complete a difficult task or overcome a complex problem. According to social cognitive theory, environmental experiences that reinforce your abilities can help boost your self-confidence. 

Original research published in 2021 by Frontiers in Psychology noted that people tend to lose self-efficacy when they experience failures and mistakes. To remedy this, try to learn from perceived failures and view your mistakes as guides on your journey to achieving mastery.

For example, say you give a good presentation that receives loud applause and congratulatory remarks from attendees. Since this outcome reinforces confidence in your public speaking abilities, it will likely help you feel more confident when facing challenging public speeches and subsequent presentations.  

Pro tip: As you try new things and seek out mastery experiences, experiment with activities for personality development. These tasks allow you to get to know yourself better, cultivate new interests, and discover personal values that help guide self-efficacy.

Practice positive self-talk

Self-talk impacts your perception of yourself, which, in turn, influences self-efficacy. When you speak positively to yourself, you extend self-compassion and maintain self-confidence. A 2022 study at the National College of Ireland found that negative self-talk and poor self-efficacy correlate significantly. 

The first step in shifting your mindset toward positive self-talk is learning to identify negative internal dialogue. For example, when thoughts begin to spiral related to self-doubt, challenge them with evidence of your accomplishments and replace them with positive affirmations.

Look to successful peers and mentors

It’s important to remember that even the most successful people experience self-doubt. To succeed, they had to learn new skills and overcome their fear of failure. It may not be easy to boost your confidence, but it’s possible.

Consider being vulnerable with successful peers or mentors. You can also reach out for feedback and perspectives you can leverage to change your mindset and confidence. A 2023 study in Psychology Research and Behavior Management found that people can increase self-efficacy through high-quality sources of engaging education. These sources might include coaches, mentors, or 1:1 teaching. 

Not only might peers and mentors help challenge your negative self-perceptions, but they can also provide tips they’ve personally used to overcome them entirely. Learning about others’ experiences with low self-efficacy can be humbling and help you feel like you can handle it.

Embrace challenges

When you embrace a challenge, you welcome the possibility of failure and success. You know the task, project, or situation might be difficult, yet you also recognize that difficulty is an opportunity for growth. 

For example, imagine that your manager mentions the option to take on a new project during your team meeting. It’s unlike anything you’ve worked on before. You will have to learn new tools and processes, but since you know it’s a chance to stand out and improve your skills, you take on the project.

If you succeed, you reinforce self-efficacy by proving you can do challenging things. However, maintaining a growth mindset and high self-efficacy means that you can learn from mistakes, too. Identifying what went well and what could’ve gone better will help you further develop your skill set.

Visualize success

When you visualize success, you create a mental image of accomplishing your goal. Remember to pay attention to how these achievements feel, as well. Make a vision board or describe in a journal how your achievements make you feel. 

Practicing visualization daily is essential, either through guided meditation or simply focusing on your goal. The more precise your mental image, the more confident you’ll feel.

Acquire new skills

Learning new skills helps you prove to yourself that you can set goals, commit to them, and accomplish successful outcomes. With each new skill, you complete another mastery experience, adding to your self-efficacy. Additionally, a benefit of receiving positive feedback is that it boosts your belief in yourself. 

Try getting started acquiring new skills by breaking a big goal down into a series of smaller ones. Work to accomplish them one by one. Each success is a new skill that you can add to your toolbox. By maintaining a growth mindset and being consistent, you can gain new abilities that increase self-efficacy.

Manage your stress

When tackling a difficult task or project, you may deal with stress. To ensure you don’t lose motivation, it’s important to remember to support your emotional well-being. When you take care of yourself in times of high stress, you can approach each challenge with more clarity and confidence. It’s a good idea to have a toolbox of go-to stress relief strategies for every situation.

Techniques like exercising, engaging in hobbies, or spending time with loved ones can help manage stress. Additionally, tending to your physical health through good sleep hygiene and nutrition can help boost overall wellness.

Pro tip: One of the best ways to manage your stress and avoid overwhelm is scheduling downtime. Journaling, exercising, experimenting with new skills, or meditating are all things to do with your free time that can help reduce stress. 

Cultivate a support system

Surrounding yourself with people who encourage and support you can help improve self-efficacy. Your support system should be a network of individuals you trust. They can validate your experiences and help challenge negative beliefs you have about yourself. As shown by a 2022 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, a sense of community can boost self-efficacy for people with disabilities and caretakers. In sum, a reliable support system can help increase self-confidence and trust. 

Helpful support can come in many different forms. Family members, trusted loved ones, and close friends may be part of building a strong emotional support system. Coaching, mentoring, mental health support, and professional development opportunities can also provide you with clear ways to be proactive when improving self-efficacy. 

Track your goals and celebrate your successes

When you don’t feel as though you’re progressing, take a moment to reflect on how far you’ve come. Recognizing your personal achievements, no matter how small, can help you maintain perspective on your actual outcomes. 

At the end of each day, taking a moment to write down everything can aid you in feeling accomplished. You could also celebrate milestones as a reminder of your capability and progress. They reinforce the belief in your ability to overcome future challenges.

Examples of high self-efficacy

Consider these examples of high self-efficacy to help round out your understanding of what it looks like:

• You set a goal to run a marathon despite never having done it before. The confidence in your ability to successfully train for a marathon indicates high self-efficacy. 
• As a student, you’re facing a difficult final exam. It features several confusing and complicated concepts, but you trust your ability to learn them before the test. You’re demonstrating high self-efficacy. 
• You’ve never planted a garden before and know little about growing vegetables, yet you want to enjoy fresh produce you’ve grown yourself. High self-efficacy means having confidence in your skills to learn how to plant and tend a garden. 
• After a long job search, you’ve just accepted a new role. While you’re excited to start, you’re also nervous about all the information you need to learn and the people you need to build strong work relationships with. However, due to your high self-efficacy, you know you can do it. 
• You and your partner have determined that you want to improve your communication skills. You know it will take time, patience, and practice. However, you trust in yourself to make the necessary improvements, which will enhance your relationship. 

Think about examples of self-efficacy in your life. These experiences prove that you can accomplish your goals and complete complex tasks. 

How high self-efficacy improves your life

A firm belief in yourself and your abilities opens doors for greater life success and satisfaction. With self-trust, you can rest assured you’ll handle challenging and complex environments. When projects, tasks, or situations grow complicated, you remain confident in your ability to find a solution. 

Through self-efficacy, you can cultivate a growth mindset. You’ll begin to see that every challenge presents a new problem to solve and an opportunity to learn. Just remember, there’s no need to go it alone. Research published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings emphasized the importance of social support and self-efficacy in managing depression and anxiety. 

The more confident you feel about your ability to handle challenging mental health situations, the more likely you are to successfully manage them. With high self-efficacy, you can remain resilient in the face of obstacles, maintain good mental health, and have a strong sense of commitment to what is most important to you. 

Improve self-efficacy to accomplish your goals

Self-efficacy measures the belief you have in yourself. The stronger your confidence in your ability to handle challenges, the more likely you are to strive for ambitious goals. 

Invest in a better you and enjoy the many benefits of coaching. In doing so, you can strive for greater purpose, clarity, and passion. A BetterUp Coach can help you discover your full potential and belief in yourself.