Very often, when speakers talk about success, they focus on self-confidence – having faith in your abilities. And sure, that’s certainly a piece of the success puzzle. Yet, self-confidence will only take you so far. The reason for this is simple – there’s only so much that you can do all by yourself.

The one thing that all great accomplishments have in common is that they were accomplished by a team. Think about it. You don’t build a Fortune 500 company by yourself. It’s a team effort. The same can be said for starting a church, producing a play and especially raising children. If you’re a parent, then you know just how hard it is for any one person to raise happy, healthy and well-adjusted children. And while many single parents out there are doing just that, many of them have help from family members, teachers, clergy and neighbors. As the old saying goes, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Well, the truth of the matter is that it takes a village (or at least a team) to do anything worthwhile.

For this reason, it’s not just important to develop self-confidence but team-confidence as well. You must have confidence in the members of your team. You must have every confidence that they will do what they say they will do and when they say they will do it. After all, you certainly can’t play your role on the team if you’re trying to play everyone else’s as well.

I must confess that this is easier said than done. This is particularly true if you’ve been let down by others in the past. And who hasn’t? We’ve all had times when we depended upon someone else and they let us down. However, just because you’ve been disappointed by people in the past, it doesn’t mean that it will happen in the future.

Besides, if you’re like most people, you’ve probably disappointed yourself in the past. Did you give up on yourself? Of course not. Well, if you deserve a second, third, fourth or even one hundredth chance, don’t other people deserve the same opportunity? In fact, it’s not only important for us to give others this opportunity but it’s important to give them the confidence they need to perform to the best of their abilities.

You build their self-confidence by giving them the benefit of the doubt. Certainly, by now, you’ve noticed that people generally perform up to (or down to) the level of the expectations that we have for them. You see this all of the time with children. Kids who are expected to go to school, get good grades and finish college, do just that more often than not. On the other hand, kids who are told that they’ll never amount to anything usually don’t. To illustrate, take a guess what most prisoners have in common, despite the fact that they often come from different racial, religious or socio-economic backgrounds. You guessed it. Almost all of them were told at some point in their lives that they would end up in prison. And what were meant as words of warning became words of prophesy. The same holds true for the members of your team. If you expect them to be flaky and inconsistent, then that’s exactly what they’ll be. On the other hand, if you expect them to be dedicated, intelligent and resourceful, you’re more than likely to get that result as well. In some sense, this requires you to have selective amnesia regarding your team members. In other words, you must attempt to remember the good experiences and forget the bad ones. And most importantly, your selective amnesia must be contagious. When they’re tempted to doubt their own abilities, you must be the one to come around and erase those negative memories. “What do you mean you always mess up spreadsheets? You run the office March Madness pool on a spreadsheet, don’t you? That has to be the most intricate spreadsheet ever. The investor spreadsheet is child’s play in comparison!”

This may seem silly, but trust me; it’s no sillier than beating up team members over past mistakes (or allowing them to beat themselves up). Therefore, build up your team confidence and just watch how high you will all climb up the ladder of success.

“I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among my people the greatest asset I possess, and the way to develop the best in a person is by appreciation and encouragement. I believe in giving people incentive to work. So I am anxious to praise but loath to find fault. I am hearty in my approbation and lavish in my praise.” Charles Schwab