Why is Your Leadership Credibility SO Important?

When busy leaders fail to establish credibility for themselves and their companies, it leaves others wondering about them personally and professionally. Credibility influences the loyalty of internal and external customers. If the marketplace’s perception is that the business, its leader, their products or services are untrustworthy (not credible), this perception drives purchasing decisions whether the perception is accurate or not.

As a leader, your employees emulate you. The keys are to Honor:

  • Your word. Follow through. “I’m too busy” is one of the biggest excuses busy professionals use to justify their behavior. Have you considered, if you’re too busy to follow-through, you’re probably too busy to provide the quality of products and services promised? Get yourself well-organized to keep track of your commitments and find the money to hire necessary support. Develop a dependable system to follow-up and follow-through. Then, follow it!
  • Your company’s vision and mission. Credible leaders consistently make decisions that support their companies’ values. Implement them in a manner that promotes positivity. Too often we follow our ego (aka as our own self-interests) and this quickly limits sustainable company growth. Others will shy away from doing business with you if they perceive association with you could limit their own success.
  • Your commitments. We judge others by their behavior and ourselves by our intentions. What are your commitments? Are you conscious of them when making decisions that impact others? Most people make decisions based upon the tiniest fragments of information and forget about their values and commitments. As a leader, this can be excruciatingly painful if you need to defend your decisions. Instead, apologize and admit when you are wrong. Encourage others to provide you with their opinions and fact-based solutions in the future – don’t forget to include the impact on others. Simply make good decisions based upon all the information you have; your credibility hinges upon them.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011-2015

I specialize in straight talk with immediate results. With proactive and extensive “people” management experience, I have been particularly successful in coaching and training business owners, their executives and managers, to achieve unprecedented results by working with and through others. 

Build faster credibility when introducing yourself — get your “brag” on with a copy of my book, It’s Time to Brag! http://Time2Brag.com

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