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June 25 - June 27, 2021
Credibility is currency for leaders and communicators. With it, they are solvent; without it, they are bankrupt. With credibility, leaders continue to connect with people. Without it, they disconnect.
Credibility
As time goes by, the way people live outweighs the words they use. If they live well, time is their friend.
Credibility is all about trust. Stephen M. R. Covey wrote in The Speed of Trust about the impact of credibility in business. He asserts, “Trust means confidence,”
“Low trust,” he writes, “is an unseen cost in life and business, because it creates hidden agendas and guarded communicatio...
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A lack of trust stymies innovation and productivity. Trust, on the other hand, produces speed because it feeds collaboration...
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As time goes by, the way people live outweighs th...
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Even the most skilled performer can’t keep up a facade forever. Eventually who you really are will show through— onstage, at work, or at home.
if you want to connect well with people, you must become the kind of person you would like to connect with. How you portray yourself, what you communicate, and how you live need to be consistent. Here
CONNECT WITH YOURSELF The relationships we have with others are largely determined by the relationships we have with ourselves.
you are the most comfortable in your own skin.”
My strengths are few—I believe I have only four (leadership, communication, creating, and networking). My weaknesses are many. I try to be honest about my weaknesses, focus on using my strengths, and have integrity in every area of my life.
Failure to admit mistakes causes the message to be questioned which causes the integrity of the leader to be questioned!
To be human is to mess up; to connect, you must fess up.
Acknowledge Your Mistakes. When decisions don’t turn out the way they were intended to, you owe people an explanation.
Apologize. When your actions hurt others, you need to admit that what you did was wrong and say you are sorry.
Make Amends. And of course, if it is within your power, you need to find ways to make it up to the people you have wronged.
BE ACCOUNTABLE
What is one of the best compliments you can give to another person? I believe it’s this: “I can count on you.” That’s why I included the Law of Countability in The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork. It says teammates must be able to count on each other when it counts. But that need for us to be “countable” and accountable to one another is true for any relationship—not just those on a team. This is why: When you make a commitment, you create hope. When you keep a commitment, you create trust.
People who live their message, who lead the way they live, who have integrity between words and action, are different from others who don’t.
Where some people see a message as a lesson to be given, connectors look at a message as a life to be lived.
“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful.”
“Credibility is not perfection but a willingness to admit imperfection.”6
BE VULNERABLE
“We all know that perfection is a mask. . . . The people with whom we have deepest connection are those who acknowledge their weaknesses.” —PARKER PALMER
When you are honest with people, it makes you vulnerable. Many people find that to be very uncomfortable.
It’s better to be authentic and vulnerable because people can identify with that, and that leads to connection.
“Our lives improve only when we take chances—and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.”
Nobody likes a phony or a know-it-all.
FOLLOW THE GOLDEN RULE
If you want to connect with others, you need to treat them according to the Golden Rule—you need to treat them as you want to be treated.
Golden rule
“It took me years to create credibility with my team, to create ‘change’ with them,” Collin says, referring to the idea that you create relational currency in leadership every time you made good decisions and lead with integrity. “I earned that change a nickel and penny at a time. I had to spend it that day by the dollar.”
Greg Schaffer remarked, “If you do not connect with others, influence is out of the question.”8
We can make a difference in our world, but to do so we must begin with ourselves—by making sure our words and our actions are consistent every day. We must live what we communicate. If we do that, there’s no telling what we will be able to accomplish.
START CONNECTING TODAY!
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