Meet a company's 40 salespeople. For each one we measured two things: how confident they feel about the job (left to right) and how well they actually perform (bottom to top). Does confidence drive results?
How to read it: each dot is one person. Use the button under the chart to walk through three views, one step at a time.
A good week → more confidence next week (strong)
More confidence → a better week next (barely)
Same people, opposite stories. Across different people, confidence and performance rise together, so confidence looks like the cause. But follow one person and the good weeks come first, and the confidence follows. The confidence is mostly a mirror of how they have done, not the engine of what they do next. That is why you build it with real wins and relatable role models, not pep talks, and why raising someone's stated confidence on its own rarely moves their results.