Note from Art: the list below was adapted from my first book as co-author, Practical Lessons in Leadership.
If you’re responsible for getting work done through others, you will be as effective as you are credible. Of course, those of us working for you take our time in assessing your words, actions and motives before we deem you credible as our leader.
While a leader’s credibility is a qualitative assessment of the individual’s character, there are a number of good habits that anyone in a supervisory or management position can apply daily on their road to building credibility and growing as a leader.
9 Credibility Builders to Lead and Live Every Single Day:
1. People mirror the boss’s attitude. Your positive attitude and high energy level are infectious to everyone around you.
2. Respect is contagious. Paying attention and truly listening to your team members is one of the strongest ways for you to show your respect.
3. Honesty is not an on/off switch. Talk openly about tough topics.
4. Share your agenda. Your visible agenda builds trust.
5. There’s only one time to do the right thing. All of the time.
6. ABCDEFGH JKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ No I. Remove I from your vocabulary.
7. Results count. You own the failures and the team owns the successes.
8. Mistakes happen. Encourage experiments and support the constructive assessment of mistakes on the road to achievement.
9. Humility is a virtue. Practice it daily.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
Feel free to add to the list of credibility builders. However, take care of these 9 and they’ll take good care of you.
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About Art Petty:
Art Petty is a Leadership & Career Coach helping motivated professionals of all levels achieve their potential. In addition to working with highly motivated professionals, Art frequently works with project teams in pursuit of high performance.
Art’s second book, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development, is available at Amazon.com for paperback and kindle versions. For team/group orders, contact Art directly.
Contact Art via e-mail to discuss a coaching, workshop or speaking engagement.
Art – great list; leads to a bit of introspection. Anyways, here’s one I’d add: setting stretch but acheivable goals. Establishing (demanding?) targets (e.g, pay for performance plans, project milestone dates, etc) that are achieved enhances the leaders credibility. “If our leader says we are going to take that hill, then we know that we ARE going to do it”. Poorly set targets that aren’t acheived subtracts from leader credibility. Set targets wisely: aggressive enough to move the person, project, company, etc., forward, but not so unrealistic that failure – and diminished credibility are likely!
Eric, well-said (as always!)…thanks. -Art