I never set out to write a book about confidence, and honestly, for a long time, I wasn’t sure I was the right person to write it.
But after years of coaching leaders and watching brilliant, capable people hold themselves back, I kept seeing the same pattern. It wasn’t a skills gap or an experience gap people struggled with, but a confidence gap. It was costing people, teams, and organisations far more than anyone was willing to name out loud and that’s what led me to write Decoding Confidence: The 7 Habits of Confident Leaders.
If you work in HR, people development, or organisational leadership, I think it might be one of the most practically useful books you’ll read this year.
This isn’t a self-help book that tells you to believe in yourself, and everything will work out. I have very little patience for that kind of advice, and I suspect you do too.
Decoding Confidence is grounded in research, including a survey of 507 professionals, and built from over a decade of coaching more than 150 leaders across sectors. What I consistently found is that confidence is not a personality trait you either have or don’t. It is a learnable skill, built through deliberate, repeatable habits.
Those habits form the BELIEVE framework: Boldness, Empathy, Learning, Integrity, Empowerment, Vulnerability, and Energy. Each gets its own chapter with real stories, honest reflection, and practical tools you can actually use and there is no jargon and definitely no fluff.
The book doesn’t prescribe a type of leader you should become but rather meets you where you are. Whether you’re a first-time manager wrestling with imposter syndrome, a senior leader who’s stopped taking risks, or an HR professional trying to build a more psychologically safe culture, there’s something in this book that will speak directly to your situation.
It also takes the structural and systemic dimensions of confidence seriously. There’s a reason some people have to work harder to be seen, heard, and believed in the workplace, and the book doesn’t shy away from that. McKinsey’s research tells us that employees who don’t see leaders like themselves are more likely to doubt their own capabilities, regardless of how qualified they are. Confidence doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The environment shapes it, and leaders have a responsibility to shape the environment.
Primarily, this book is for leaders at any level who want to lead more authentically and effectively. That said, I’d argue that this is essential reading for anyone in HR designing leadership development programmes, building culture, or trying to understand why certain people keep getting passed over despite being clearly capable.
The foreword is written by Juergen Maier CBE, Great British Energy Chair and former CEO of Siemens UK, who describes it as “a fabulous way to help us reflect on our own leadership styles.”
Writing this book was its own exercise in confidence.
There were moments when I questioned whether my voice, my story, and my research deserved a place in the leadership conversation.
As we get closer to launch day, I can say I’m so glad I pushed through the doubt because one thing I know for certain, after everything I’ve researched and everyone I’ve coached, is that the world doesn’t need more leaders who perform with confidence, it needs more leaders who’ve actually built it.
That’s what this book is for.
Available from 5th May on Amazon and all major book sellers.
Advita Patel is an award winning business communications consultant and professional confidence expert. She is the founder of CommsRebel, a consultancy supporting organisations to build inclusive, high performing workplace cultures, and the co-founder of A Leader Like Me, an international agency focused on inclusive leadership and employee experience. Advita is the host of the Decoding Confidence podcast, which explores confidence at work through honest conversation and practical insight. Her forthcoming book, Decoding Confidence, will be published in May 2026. An international speaker and award winning podcaster, Advita regularly speaks on confidence, leadership, inclusion, and communications. In 2025, she was the President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in 2025.
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