The Power of Self-Efficacy

In times like these, we keep asking ourselves the same questions: Why is this happening to us? When will it end? When can we get back to our healthy life here in America or anywhere else? These questions appear on the surface as COVID-19 related. In reality, they have nothing to do with the virus and everything to do with our self-efficacy.

Self-efficacy is the belief we have in our own abilities, specifically our ability to meet the challenges ahead of us and complete a task successfully. We struggled with this problem before the pandemic occurred, and we will long after it's over.

Albert Bandura knows a great deal about self-efficacy. Bandura is a Canadian American Psychologist who is the David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. In 1963, he published a paper titled “Social Learning and Personality Development,” which helps us understand precisely what self-efficacy is all about.

Self-efficacy is not self-confidence. According to Bandura, “Confidence is a nondescript term that refers to the strength of belief but does not necessarily specify what the certainty is about…Perceived self-efficacy refers to belief in one's agentive capabilities that one can produce given levels of attainment.”

Examples of people with a high level of self-efficacy:

• A student who is not particularly gifted in a specific subject but believes in his/her own ability to master the subject matter.

• A man or woman who has had bad luck with relationships, but retains a positive outlook on the meeting the next person.

• An entrepreneur who can go from one idea to another without losing confidence or faith. Winston Churchill was referring to a high level of self-efficacy when he said: “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”

According to Bandura, there are 4 sources of self-efficacy:

1. Mastery Experiences: When we take on a new task, small or large, and succeed. We build self-efficacy. We need to do it every single day. Plan on doing this tomorrow.

2. Vicarious Experiences: Having a role model or mentor to observe, emulate. Reach out, find someone who can help you.

3. Verbal Persuasion: Our self-talk, our words impact our actions. Be kind to yourself, it works.

4. Emotional and Physiological States: Our health, mental and physical. We must take care of our minds and bodies. Read, work out, place your mental and physical health as an essential part of the day.

We all have time to work on our self-efficacy and to teach others this valuable lesson. Write a note to your players, staff and those you lead today explaining why self-efficacy is so important. Once you place those words on a piece of paper, you will then fully comprehend the value of self-efficacy for yourself.

Remember, when we teach something, we learn more ourselves.

P.S. If you are in search of a book recommendation, our team at The Daily Coach highly recommends What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen by Kate Fagan. This is the story of Maddy Holleran's life, and her struggle with depression, which also reveals the mounting pressures young people — and college athletes in particular — face to be perfect, especially in an age of relentless connectivity and social media saturation.

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