Asessing and Improving Credibility

To matter in a conversation, your thoughts must be perceived as helpful. This is a MAJOR hurdle for many people and, until they adjust their priorities so that being perceived as credible is number one, almost no amount of training will help their communication effectiveness.  Your PERCEIVED CREDIBILITY determines if others will:

·         Actively exclude you from discussions

·         Politely dismiss what you say

·         Listen carefully when you speak

·         Seek you out for your input

Your perceived credibility is reflected in the actions of others as I listed above. Whether you are being ignored or shunned, or sought out by others for your input, it is their perception of you that is at the root. So it is NOT up to them to find a way to see you in a different light; it is up to YOU determine if you are credible, improve it as necessary, and demonstrate it so they can see it. This article is about changing that perception by demonstrating your credibility, taking steps to become more credible, and revising behaviors that undermine your credibility.

Whether we are analyzing our own credibility or someone else’s, we need to understand what it is made of and what evidence we will accept. Credibility has three components, and each has some evidence that should be considered when analyzing your own, or someone else’s:

1)      Competence

Þ     Background, like education and training, conveys competence. The usual examples are diplomas and certificates.

Þ     Track record or history of good results. Reputation, testimonials, or examples of high-quality work produced is used as evidence.

Þ     Currency of subject matter knowledge. Demonstrating up-to-date knowledge of the topic demonstrates passion.

2)      Trustworthiness

Þ     Truthfulness is evidence of trustworthiness, especially if truthfulness runs contrary to self-interest.

Þ     Demonstrated reluctance to distort facts (exaggerate or downplay)

Þ     Demonstrated reluctance to overplay emotions for dramatic effect (Drama Queens and Kings)

Þ     Ability to recognize your own bias and temper its impact

3)      Dynamism

Þ     Optimistic

Þ     Eager to succeed (but not manic)

Þ     Engaged with team members

Pretending to be credible when you aren't is a short-term approach to solving a credibility issue. I recommend a long-term solution. If you are not being treated as credible, it is important that you do some self-evaluation (using the above as a checklist). Find the areas where YOU feel you are lacking, and determine what you are willing to do about them. If you are weak in one area, you can compensate for it by getting MUCH stronger in another. I have known many people that were prone to exaggerate, but were still considered credible because they had a long track record of good results.

The best approach is to write a few ideas about where you rank yourself on each of them. If you feel a little pain surrounding one, you might be one to something. Determine which you think are holding you back, regardless of how you feel about fixing it and prioritize those as to which you think you can do something about.

Examples - 

If you feel that you are dismissed by your coworkers because you are considered to be “not serious”, then realize from their point of view you may not be eager to succeed or engaged enough to take seriously. You should concentrate on demonstrating your commitment to tasks and coworkers.

If you feel that you are dismissed by your coworkers because you are considered to be “under skilled”, then realize from their point of view you may not be skilled to take seriously. You should concentrate on relating your track record, or adding to your examples of high-quality work. Just a note – degrees and certificates are almost bare minimum requirements these days .  If these are all you have, you need to produce and be able to share examples of high-quality work product that is meaningful to the topic in order to increase your credibility.

The most obvious (and for some, the most difficult) thing to do is to stop distorting facts with exaggeration or downplaying. Oh – and be nice, but work hard.

Frankly, most people I run into have the skills they need. The problems are in two areas:

• They are either trying to consult on things for which they don't have the credibility needed. That is, they mean well, but the company has people that know more about the issues under discussion.
• They are credible, but have weak relationships or bad relationships with key people. We will begin addressing relationship next time.

If you need more help on these, give me a call.

Insist on great business results! Go to Pathfinder Communication

Culture Busting

When we talk about company culture, the conversation often goes right off the rails. The conversation is generally about practices that are ridiculous, unwritten rules, and people that are frequently characterized and “crazy” or “idiotic”.

I remember when I viewed the people I worked with the same way. I described myself as “astonished” or “amazed” at what some “idiot” had done. “Any child would know better!” I would say. But I wouldn’t talk to them about it. It wouldn’t do any good PLUS they were friends with the bosses and I would get fired.

I didn’t spend a LOT of my career thinking that way, because I was a single father and HAD to keep a job continuously – I couldn’t “job hop”. With the economy the way it is now, I am sure there are lots of you that feel the same pressure.

I decided I had to talk to someone – my boss – about some of these things. He wasn’t very much help. He kind of patted me on the head and asked me to figure out how to work with it because it wasn’t changing any time soon.

I waited until I once again was the recipient of some work that was all screwed up in a way that was INDEFENSIBLE. “NOW I have them!”, I thought.  “Certainly I can get them to change this!” I confronted the guilty party and we argued bitterly, me telling them that what they did was stupid and them telling me that I didn't know what I was talking about… that everything was fine and exactly as it should be and if I knew ANYTHING I would know that. Which of course is impossible – I know EXACTLY what’s right. Don’t I? So in this guy’s version of the story, I am the idiot.

 I immediately got busy coming to understand what was happening with this instance. I found he was doing things just as he was instructed, the instructions that were given to me were new, and the person that gave me the instruction hadn’t considered all of the factors.

What I realized YEARS later was that the reason I called the one guy an idiot, AND the reason I imagined there was some “unseen hand” guiding all this, and that talking to them wouldn’t do any good was because I was afraid. I was afraid that the confrontation would go bad, I was angry that I had to do it in the first place (why not my boss), I was afraid I would be embarrassed, and I had imagined all kinds of things from a fist fight to long term hurt feelings.  All of the things wrong were things going on in my head because of what I was not paying attention to the FACTS and being manipulated by my fear of what MIGHT happen.

This obviously had less to do with “the company culture” and what I THOUGHT the company culture was. I set about to prove this by learning to act differently. I began saying “I am going to assume that everyone here just wants us to do well. I am going to say that THAT is the company culture, and act accordingly”. Things got a lot better, but I also found out that my assumption wasn’t necessarily true, that there were lots of people that were not very concerned about the company at all. So after learning that the company wouldn’t just get rid of them, I needed to find a way to get the most out of them to move the company forward. More than that, the process had to build the people in the process, and make them feel more engaged and more able. Even though I can’t make everyone feel the way I feel , I can help many of them see that working in a successful company, and being a big part of a company’s success, is better than the alternative.

There are 11 steps to doing better. The first five are:

1. 1.       Establish credibility
2. 2.       Develop productive relationships
3. 3.       Begin optimizing your communication style
4. 4.       Learn to coach
5. 5.       Learn to manage and lead

I will start working through each of them next time, and you will learn quickly and easily how to get more satisfaction and cooperation than you ever have. Until then, look at the things that make it hard for you to get excited about your job. Notice how your coworkers are apparently fully competent in their jobs, but they are hard to work with. Consider the possibility that they don’t have to change for it to become easier.

Insist on great business results! Go to Pathfinder Communication