From Lebron James to Barack Obama, confidence plays an important role in success. But there is a fine line between taking calculated risks based on your skills and ignoring the high-chance of failure that comes with every venture. That is why people must appreciate their level of confidence to better approach business decisions, negations, and the hiring process.

In Non-Compliant Podcast Episode 28, Host Jay Edelson, nationally recognized plaintiff’s attorney and founder of Edelson PC, and Guest Don Moore, overconfidence and organizations professor at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business” discuss overconfidence, how confidence plays a role in negotiations, and how to change the recruitment process to better, and more fairly, measure future success.

Jay and Don first discuss how adolescence plays a role into how much confidence humans display (3:01). Don, the author of “Perfectly Confident,” shares that youth often struggle with confidence because they don’t know their place in the world and are unsure of their abilities to function as an adult (4:36).

Jay and Don continue the discussion of confidence and how people need to make better bets with the skill sets they have (9:00). To limit the chance of being too-confident, people need to take a data-driven approach and weigh the risk of failure with the potential rewards of starting a venture or pursuing their dreams (13:00). The ultimate journey, career growth, and connections can all weigh in favor of being confident in a particular pursuit (15:23).

Next, Jay and Don delve into how fraudsters and politicians can often tap into overconfidence to scam individuals (25:35). From former President Trump to the Music Man, fraudsters can often thrive because people often take others' displays of confidence as their potential for leadership. People must anticipate these risks and ask leaders to put up or shut up.

Later in the show, Jay and Don break down how to successfully navigate negotiations and how overconfidence plays into the results of a deal (28:40). Don explains that putting incentives into a deal and making it more costly to decline is a good way to expose adversaries' misguided confidence. A good strategy, Jay explains, is to lean-in to people’s positions to get them to recalibrate their overconfidence for a better result for all parties (35:24).

To wrap the show, Jay and Don explore the role confidence plays in recruiting and the difficulties in predicting the future performance of a candidate (37:55). Many companies get the hiring process wrong and need to restructure their interviews to focus on objective questions that focus on a candidate’s actual skills (43:17). Don explains that offering candidates a longer probationary period with financial rewards can better predict a candidate’s performance and screen out overconfident individuals (47:26).

Check out the show to hear more about Edelson PC’s negotiation strategy (35:24); the firm’s recruitment process (44:35); and how people get entrenched in their own beliefs (50:10).

If you liked the show, please subscribe and leave a review. You can also send us an email at podcast@edelson.com with any questions or for guest booking.

Connect with us:
Website: https://www.edelsoncreative.com/#podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edelsonlaw
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EdelsonCreative
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/edelson-pc

Connect with Don:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/donandrewmoore
Website: https://t.co/fv1MpBouYK?amp=1
Berkeley Profile: https://haas.berkeley.edu/faculty/moore-don/

Check out Don’s Book “Perfectly Confident: How to Calibrate Your Decisions Wisely”: https://perfectlyconfident.com/buy/

Recent Non-Compliant Podcast Episodes:
Non-Compliant Podcast Episode 27: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/non-compliant-podcast-episode-27-one-where-we-lift/id1491233296?i=1000508640601
Non-Compliant Podcast Episode 26: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/non-compliant-podcast-episode-26-one-where-we-walk/id1491233296?i=1000507385902
Non-Compliant Podcast Episode 25: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/non-compliant-podcast-episode-25-one-where-we-talk/id1491233296?i=1000506637686

Check out Edelson Creatives' videos:
"Big Law Refuted": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmAx68EoWXE&t=1s
“Raise The Bar”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDGA4IM3TLM
“I Am Not a Donut”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1aAD9beqII
“Non-Compliant”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paPmaUUhJ8I