Credibility as a leader may be your greatest asset. Just to be clear, credibility is the quality of being believable or worthy of trust. This is a quality I want in my leaders and a quality I want to have as a leader. The weather guy on the other hand? He can be wrong 50% of the time and still keep his job.
Last night in SW Louisiana we were told by the local weather guys to stay home. Dangerous weather was on its way. 40 to 60 mph winds, hail, tornados, etc. Schools cancelled ball games. Well my wife and I decided to take our chances and drive 40 miles to a nearby town and eat dinner and do some shopping. We figured, as is usually the case, the weather guy was giving doom and gloom forecasts more for dramatic affect than anything. Not surprisingly, we had a pretty great night with very uneventful weather. We actually ran into one light rain shower while driving and one heavy storm for about 10 minutes while we were in the comfort of a store. Now what’s going to happen one day is we’re going to take our chances and end up running into some pretty severe weather. But when the weather guy keeps crying wolf and is consistently overstating reality we tend to get a certain sense (maybe a false sense) of security. Bottom line with the weather guy, he’s lost credibility with us.
As a leader is critical that you don’t do like the weather guy and miss the mark or overstate things so often that you’re not taken seriously and eventually lose all credibility. You don’t want to become a Chicken Little Leader. Here are a few of the obvious things to always follow…
Be Honest – Once you lie, you lose your ability to lead. Some leaders will say I didn’t lie, I just didn’t tell you all the information. Sometimes information has to be withheld for certain reasons but if the information withheld changes the reality of what is being communicated then it’s still a lie. It’s best just to have no comment.
DWYSYAGTD – Do What You Say You Are Going To Do. Lots of things get said in a meeting, especially in the insanely long 2-hour plus type meetings. Have someone keep notes for you and follow up on everything you promised you would do. People remember what you said you were going to do and they will judge you on how you follow up and follow through.
Share and Receive Openly – If you have an issue with an employee or other leader, share it with her and talk about it. That’s usually the easy part… sharing. When an employee or other leader has something to share with you, it’s imperative that you receive the information in a professional manner and not take it as a personal attack. It’s called communicating. When sharing, offer solutions, not a litany of criticisms. A good rule of thumb is to bring just one or two issues to discuss at a time. Any more than that and you’ll likely be tuned out.
When you lead like a weather guy you will lose all credibility. When that happens your future forecast becomes pretty bleak. Storms will be on the horizon.
Do you have any more to add to this list?
