I often get asked, "How do I increase my credibility?" Maybe you are starting out in your career or you got a new job or got assigned to work with a new team, or you've been on a team for some time, but just don't seem to be getting the merit you feel you earned.
One of the best books I read on building credibility is called The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey.
In the book, Covey talks about what he calls "The 4 Cores of Credibility".
Core 1 is Integrity, Core 2 is Intent, and together these make up one's character. Core 3 is Capabilities
and Core 4 is Results, and together these last two make up one’s competency.
Let's dive into each one of these in more detail
The first core deals with issues of integrity. This is what most people think about when they think of trust. To many, integrity basically means honesty. While integrity does include honesty, it includes much more.
In the book, Covey defines Integrity as being congruent inside and out. A congruent person acts in harmony with their deepest values and beliefs.
Integrity also includes Humility. In doing research for the book "Good to Great", author Jim Collins discovered that there were two things that transformed good companies into great companies. One... all great companies had what Jim calls Level 5 leaders (I won't go into details on that here, pick up that book if you're interested), but the second thing he discovered was what characterized Level 5 leaders. I'll quote from the book "Compared to high-profile leaders with big personalities who make headlines and become celebrities, the good-to-great leader seems to have come from Mars. Self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy - these leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. They are more like Abraham Lincoln than George Patton."
Integrity also includes courage. Courage to do the right thing, even when it's hard. There is another definition of courage that I like. Courage is not the lack of fear. Courage is being able to move forward despite having fear.
Let's move on to the second core - Intent
This has to do with our motives, our agenda, and resulting behavior. Trust grows when our motives are straightforward and based on mutual benefit - in other words, when we genuinely care not for ourselves, but also for the people we interact with, lead or serve. When we suspect a hidden agenda from someone or we don't believe they are acting in our best interest, we are suspicious about everything they say or do.
So how exactly does Covey define Intent. He talks about three things:
First is motive - Motive is your reason for doing something. It's the "why" that motivates the "what".
Second is agenda - Agenda grows out of motive. It's what you intend to do or promote because of your motive.
Third is behavior - Typically, behavior is the manifestation of motive and agenda.
Remember at the beginning of this section I mentioned that trust grows when our motives are straightforward. Here is something to think about. You can do all the right things for all the right reasons, but if those reasons are unclear, the perception may be that what you are doing is wrong.
People can't see your motive or your agenda, they can only see your behavior. So for your intent to be straightforward, make sure you declare your intent.
As we wrap up the first two cores, remember, both integrity and intent matter as character.
The third core in Covey's book is Capabilities.
These are the abilities we have that inspire confidence - our talents, attitudes, skills, knowledge, and even style. They are the means we use to produce the final core - results.
In the book, Covey gives us a handy way to remember what makes up capabilities with the acronym TASKS
Talent are the things that come to you naturally. As we think about talent, we need to realize that we may have talents within us that we don't currently know we have. Going through a deep, introspective, personal process of talent identification may reveal surprising and exciting avenues to pursue for development.
Attitudes - What are your attitudes about work? About Life? About Learning? About yourself, your capabilities, and your opportunities to contribute? Are there more productive attitudes and paradigms you could embrace that would help you to create better results?
Skills - What skills do you currently have? What skills will you need for the future that you don't currently have? To what degree are you constantly upgrading your skills?
Knowledge - What is your current level of knowledge in your specific field? What are you doing to stay current? What other areas of knowledge are you pursuing?
And finally Style - How effective is your current style in approaching problems and opportunities and interacting with others? Does your approach facilitate or get in the way of accomplishing what needs to be done? What can you do to improve the way in which you go about doing things?
Finally let's talk about the last core - Results.
Results refer to your demonstrated track record, your performance, your getting the right thing done at the right time.
If we don't accomplish what we are expected to do, it diminishes our credibility.
If on the other hand, when we achieve the results we promised, we establish a positive reputation or performing, being a producer, and... our reputation precedes us.
Remember, both capabilities and results are matters of competence.
Results matter. They matter to your credibility. They matter to your ability to establish and maintain trust with others.
People evaluate results by three key indicators. One is past performance - your track record, your reputation, the things you've done and the results you've achieved already. Another is current performance - how are you performing today. And third is anticipated performance - how people think you will perform in the future. Our credibility comes not only from our past results and our present results, but also from the degree of confidence others have in our ability to produce results in the future.
That's not to say credibility comes from results at any cost. We have to consider the what and the how.
When people evaluate their own performance, they often focus on the what. They have no idea that the answer to the how may be doing them in.
That's why you have to ask the how question. How am I getting the result? The how can generate huge roadblocks for future results - or it can grease the skids. It's so much easier to get results the next time around if people trust you. If they know you are going to give them credit to seek mustal benefit, to not place blame. They will want to engage with you, to give you information, to help you because you've become credible with them. They trust that you will go for results in a way that will benefit them as well as everyone involved.
This is why the trust abilities of integrity, intent (which is character), and competency are so important as well as results, which is capabilities.
Leadership is about getting results in a way that inspires trust. The how matters every bit as much as the what. And you see it manifest on every level - individual, relationship, team, organization and societal.
In creating credibility with others, it's not just the results that count, it's people's awareness of the results. Thus it is important to be able to appropriately communicate results to others.
As we wrap up this chat, I'll leave you with some closing thoughts from the book The Speed of Trust.
Covey talks about whether we're aware of it or not, people notice the 4 cores. They affect your credibility. Understanding them will give you conscious competence. It's like putting your trust glasses on. It will enable you to see beneath the surface, to see specifically why you - or others - are trusted or not. It will enable you to pinpoint what you can do in your own life to increase trust, and how you can work with others to help them increase trust at work and at home.
