How to be more confident

At times, university life can seem like a tightrope walk along the line of interesting and absorbing challenge. This is great for staying engaged with our job, and can also be difficult if things become too demanding; particularly if our self-esteem has got mixed up with our results.

Similarly, there are a whole number of other challenges to our confidence, from getting feedback on work, to presenting, to dealing with change and people we find tricky to work with. By practicing the methods learned in this workshop with Jamie McDonald, you’ll have tools to help you rediscover those moments of natural confidence, so you can practice approaching challenge with a reasonable and compassionate perspective.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the workshop, you will have learned:

• how to use tools for working through nervousness
• a practical understanding of methods to understand and work with perspective
• how to devise actions and experiments that can help develop confidence through time
• how to work with colleagues and peers and how to develop a sense of common ground

Methods

This is a highly interactive, hands-on workshop – we won’t be lecturing or diving deeply into theory. We use small group, paired and whole group discussions to review a range of focused, structured activities and reflective exercises. There is no role play, and we ask participants to apply what they are learning to genuine situations, to make things practical, useful and personal, as well as enjoyable and informal. Models and personal experience are the foundation of the programme. Please come along ready to reflect, to contribute and to practice.

Competences

An important part of preparing for any further professional step is becoming (more) aware of the competences you have developed and/or want to develop. In the current workshop, the following competences from the UHasselt competency overview are actively dealt with:

• Personal effectiveness:
  • self-confidence
  • self-development
  • stress management
• Interpersonal competences:
  • assertiveness

Who is it for?

• PhD students & postdocs -  18 places available

When & where?

• 16th February, 2026 - 09:30-12:30
• Online

Preparation

Come along with some of your experiences of confidence, or its opposites, in mind. These should be things you are happy to work on and chat about during the workshop with other participants. We will use these on the programme.

During the workshop, the online note-taking package, Padlet will be used – and the calls will be on Zoom. Please familiarise yourself with these packages before coming. Specifically, the desktop app for Zoom is better than the mobile and web-based versions. 

Registration?

• Registration will open on 8 December 2025. Register.
• As places are limited, registering does not automatically imply that you will be able to participate. You will be notified by email after the registration deadline has passed.
• Please cancel your registration at least one week in advance in case you cannot make it (cf. cancellation & no-show policy).

Acknowledged as?

• DS BSH: career management & personal development: session aimed at personal development
• DS ST: career & Personal Development: course/session about career or personal development
• DS HLS: compulsory elective transferable skills courses - half of a transferable skills course