I once worked with someone who had the makings of a great leader.
Their words were inspiring. Their ideas were forward-thinking.
They could command a room with their wise words and emotional storytelling, and they had the credentials to back it up.
But they were not a credible leader. To me, at least.
Huh?
Last week, Libby talked about credibility and building it through your humanity. We don't willingly follow robots (not yet, anyway!) because if we can't relate, we can't connect. And if we can't connect, we won't willingly follow.
But what happens when we connect with everything they're saying, but realize there's a disconnect between what they say and what they do.
They quickly lose any goodwill they gained through their words.
They lose credibility.
And credibility is at the core of leadership. You lose credibility; you lose followers.
Why did the colleague I talked about above lack credibility?
While what they said was inspiring and forward-thinking and lit me and others up, I realized over time that they seldom followed through.
They didn't walk the talk.
They didn't put their money where their mouth was.
They didn't practice what they preached.
Their actions didn't speak louder than their words.
Whoa, that's a lot of idioms to describe the same thing.
That's no accident.
Over the past 30 years, Barry Posner and James M. Kouzes surveyed over 100,000 people to identify the top characteristics of a leader people would willingly follow. These are consistently the top four:
- Honest
- Inspiring
- Forward-looking
- Competence
What's important to keep in mind is that it's a combination of these four characteristics and one does not live in a vacuum. While the person I referenced above hit 3 of the 4 characteristics, ultimately, their inaction and unkept promises made them untrustworthy. They lacked credibility. And, ultimately, I decided they were not a leader I wanted to follow.
Researchers have determined that source credibility (that is, the "why" behind why people believe something that someone says) is determined by trustworthiness, expertise, and dynamism.
Trustworthiness.
Dynamism.
Expertise.
Hmm, sound familiar?
What we look for in the source of the information is strongly correlated with what we look for in a leader.
Trustworthiness — Honesty
Expertise — Competence
Dynamism — Inspiring
As you build your leadership skills, keep in mind that credibility is at its foundation.
When people are choosing whether or not to follow you, they are asking themselves these types of questions:
- Are they honest with me? Are they honest with themselves? Do they follow through on their promises and commitments? Do their actions match their words? Can I trust them?
- Do they know what they're talking about? Do they have the expertise or ability to do the job? Do they understand me? Do they understand my needs?
- Are they passionate about what they're saying and doing? Do they inspire me? Do they make me want to jump into action? Do they encourage me? Do they get me excited?
So what can you do?
STEP ONE: Go through the questions above and ask them of yourself.
STEP TWO: Ask these same questions to those close to you or, if you're courageous, those who report to you (and we hope you are because that was last month's theme!), and identify gaps between what you answered and what they answered.
STEP THREE: Start developing a plan to build your credibility and fill in the gaps. Here are a few resources to kickstart the process:
