I’m not jumping on anyone’s bandwagon here. Just making the observation:

National leadership is experiencing a credibility deficit. It is too easy, too reductionist to blame one person or one party or one group.

The truth is, credibility is in short supply. The reasons behind this are not mysterious: The kinds of behaviors that result in credibility are no longer widely practiced or expected.

As a result, we had a general presidential election where no candidate was viewed as credible by a majority.

Our legislative leadership, as a whole, are not viewed as credible.

The media love this. But their credibility numbers are just as low. Left media. Right media. Doesn’t matter. The choirs they preach to are tiny and shrinking. However, they control the cameras. So with a tight enough focus, it’s easy to think their choirs fill the whole picture. But they don’t.

This is a major problem. Neither the leaders nor their watchdogs are trusted.

Distrust for leadership has seeped into popular culture. #Resist is a popular hashtag – even though precisely what is being resisted against or for is rarely articulated.

Being “contrarian” is frequently advised to people like myself – people who are writing, trying to make a little splash, people who are looking to influence the way others think and act. Being contrarian is edgy. It catches people’s attention. Unfortunately, being contrarian for no purpose other than to get attention gets reduced to just being oppositional and cynical.

Now, being oppositional and cynical is viewed as a morally or intellectually superior perspective.

It isn’t.

The inability to create value, for others, is never morally or intellectually superior.

The Answer? We Need To Learn to Earn Credibility

Many people believe that credibility comes with a particular position or role or accomplishment. And it might. But only for a time. Then you need to earn it.

Credibility, or trust, is something that is earned. It isn’t earned once. It is something that must always be earned and maintained.

When leaders forget this, they run into problems. They can no longer pull people together. They spend all of their time putting out fires. They start to blame others.

They no longer create value.

You and I need to earn credibility. It isn’t sufficient to point elsewhere or to blame. You and I need to own our roles, our actions, and our credibility.

When we do – we can create tremendous value. We can have a significant impact.

The Four Pillars of Credibility

Whatever you lead, in whatever capacity you lead – credibility is your prime currency. It is the electricity in your system. It is what allows you to catalyze others to act with you.

Without it, it is like driving a car that has lost power steering. It isn’t that you can’t lead, but it’ll be a whole lot harder.

Here are the four pillars for building credibility. All four of them are necessary for stable credibility. Remove one, and you are always working against erosion.

First Pillar: Keep Your Word

Do what you said. Follow through. Be consistent. Consistency creates predictability. Being credible means that your reliability is predictable.

When people can predict that you are reliable, that you’ll make good on your word, they start to trust in what you say. You no longer need to ask them to extend you trust. You don’t need to put extra time and effort into being persuasive.

In leadership, what is done is what matters. Being well intended means very little.

Don’t work against yourself. If you don’t do what you said you would do – over time you start working against yourself. If you don’t keep promises – you start working against yourself. If you state values but don’t act in alignment with them – you start working against yourself. If you don’t complete what you started – you work against yourself.

Don’t work against yourself. Keep your word.

Second Pillar: Cultivate Character

Character. A common colloquialism describes character as, “What you do when no one is watching.” Being a person of character is becoming someone who allows themselves to be led by guiding virtues. Such as integrity, generosity or kindness.

In his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey discusses common focuses people organize or center their lives around such as Money, Work, Possessions, Pleasure, Friends, Enemies, Church or Self.

He goes on to recommend that a Principle-Centered life is the one that leads to the greatest personal security, it offers the best guidance in life, it cultivates wisdom in decision making, and ultimately allows you the greatest engagement with your personal power.

In organizational development, we often try to identify the core values of an organization or team. Leaders need to do this exercise as well. Take time to identify their core values and the character traits that express them the best.

Some core values might be what comes naturally to you. Some might be aspirational, and you seek to grow into them. Either way, your character naturally leads to what you do. And it is what you do that establishes your reputation or credibility.

Third Pillar: Lead to Serve

During the 60’s, Robert Greenleaf was examining the social change and turmoil that wasn’t entirely unlike today. One of the questions he took on is a classic American question: “What makes you the boss of me?”

His answer was leadership motivated to serve others. Leaders who authentically sought or accepted leadership as a path to bringing value to others were viewed as legitimate and accepted. Any other motivation caused people to disenfranchise or agitate against them. In his own words:

“The servant-leader is servant first, it begins with a natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first, as opposed to, wanting power, influence, fame, or wealth.”  – Robert K. Greenleaf in Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness

In our own leadership, the degree to which we are viewed as leading with the best interests of others in mind is often correlated with the credibility that we have. We are most easily viewed as leading in the best interests of others when we:

• Take the time to learn what their interests are.
• We use language that reflects we heard and understood their interests.
• We act and decide in ways that consider those interests.

Servant leadership is frequently misunderstood. I’ve often heard leaders, who frequently referred to it, discuss needing to be willing to clean the toilets, or take pay cuts when needed or so on. I’ve also noticed that those same leaders can be very controlling, micromanaging and untrusting.  So, while they participate in some acts that might be viewed as service, their credibility may still be conflicted.

Again, from Greenleaf, “”The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the (servant leader) to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?”

Staff, well served, aren’t necessarily driving the ship. The leaders aren’t abdicating their authority. But they utilize their authority to grow and better the circumstances of others.

Employees who are healthy, wise, able to work and make decisions with less need for direct oversight, are more likely to help serve other co-workers are ideal employees.

Servant leaders build them. By doing so, they build their own credibility.

Fourth Pillar: Become Skillful at Leadership

One of the most common leadership challenges is the belief that a technical skill in one area of life directly translates into leadership skills. The world is full of gifted surgeons who don’t know how to function as medical directors. Engineering firms are notorious for skilled engineers who lead teams of demoralized staff. This translates into any profession.

Skill in your profession may make leadership positions available to you. Ambition and assertiveness will, as well. But the credibility that comes with your professional skills will eventually fade if you don’t cultivate leadership skills. Ambition and assertiveness have value, but neither are great pathways to building credibility.

Leadership is a skill. There is both art and science behind what makes leadership work. The more proficient you become as a leader, the more credibility you’ll earn. Here are the twelve basic skills that I believe leaders need to cultivate:

1. The ability to listen well and understand underlying interests.
2. The ability to ask good questions.
3. The ability to communicate clearly and well in as many formats as possible.
4. The ability to manage your priorities and time.
5. The ability to delegate well and empower others (managing others priorities and time).
6. The ability to develop and implement strategy.
7. The ability to see, develop and improve systems.
8. The ability to resolve conflicts.
9. The ability to address crisis.
10. The ability to discover and address causal issues.
11. The ability to facilitate meetings that are relevant, useful, focused and allow engagement.
12. The ability to adapt your leadership style to the people or needs at hand.

These aren’t the only skills that leaders need. But these apply to any leadership situation, whether running a Fortune 500 company, directing an all-volunteer non-profit, or anything in between.

When you think of a leader that people liked but didn’t thoroughly view as credible – they often didn’t have one or more of the above skills.

Each of these skills can be learned, practiced, and improved. Your growth in these skills will correlate to improvements in your credibility.

Final Thoughts

There isn’t anything magical or elusive about credibility. When you look at it, it becomes pretty clear.  Credibility comes from who you are and what you do – over time.

It is never too early to start cultivating personal credibility. If you wait until you need it – you’ll be too late.

Take good care,

Christian

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