Nobody Believes You: What is Credible Leadership? S5 EP1

In the first episode of Season 5, Jenni delves into the theme of credible leadership. She discusses the importance of credibility in leadership roles, her research on the topic, and introduces her definition of a credible leader.

The episode reflects on the impact of the 2020 pandemic on leadership behaviours and explores the eight practices associated with credible leadership. Jenni also shares insights from her LinkedIn community and presents findings from her research report. 

Throughout the season, each episode will focus on one of the eight key practices that define credible leadership, as well as provide you with practical things that you can implement to build that practice that will enable you to lead effectively.

Episode Timestamps:

Leaders are struggling to get employees to do what they need them to do. But also, the leader believes that the problem is everyone else. And I’ve found that a breakdown in communication is often linked to the behaviour and the approach of the leader. Leaders think they have a team or culture problem, when really, they have a credibility problem of their own. – Jenni Field

Key Takeaways From This Episode:

Thank you for listening! 

Keep the conversation going, ask questions and share your thinking by joining the Redefining Communications community, and connecting with Jenni on LinkedIn, Instagram and X(Twitter).

Important Links & Mentions: 

Transcript for this podcast

Welcome to the first episode of Season 5 of Redefining Comms with me, Jenni Field. Today, I’m going to be talking about credible leadership, which is the theme for this season. In this episode, I’m going to talk about why credible leadership is important, the research that I’ve done that’s shaped my thinking, and how I define a credible leader. 

Why am I talking about credible leadership?

So, let’s start with why I’m talking about credible leadership, and it really all started for me during the pandemic in 2020. Now, that hit everyone everywhere, and leaders especially were catapulted into a new territory. There was an immediate focus on leadership behaviour, and everyone was under a microscope.

I remember seeing so many articles on LinkedIn and in the media talking about leadership behaviours, traits, what they should be doing, what they shouldn’t be doing, all while the world was in crisis. 

Now, throughout the pandemic, leaders were told they needed to be more empathetic, more human, and to show compassion. Everyone was being told to bring their whole self to work, and authenticity was something that was being talked about more and more. But all of these attributes are just big words, and they’re open to a lot of interpretation in different parts of the world, and they evoke different expectations in individuals everywhere.

What do we really mean when we’re saying to leaders, you need to be more empathetic? What are we saying when we’re asking people to be more human? What does that look like?

So on the back of all of those conversations, I started to read and research more about empathy, more about being human at work, and looking into what all of those things meant. I was delving into the depths of empathy around what it really is and how we build it. I was exploring where emotions and behaviours come from in us as human beings, and I was looking more into how our brains work, and where our attention goes when it comes to relationships with others. How do we navigate really difficult times in the relationships with others, which we have to do in the workplace.

And throughout all of that reading and research, I remained uncomfortable with authenticity as a focus for leaders. Now, I’ve been questioning that focus of authenticity now for over four years, and it really comes down to the fact that I don’t believe it’s what we want people to strive for in a leadership role, and this is why. 

It’s easily weaponised, and it’s very subjective. It gives people permission to, quite frankly, just behave very badly. I was just being authentic. And that’s not what we want when we want to follow someone. And I’m sure many of us can think of a few leaders in politics, in business who are arguably very authentic, but are they leaders? Are they people to follow? Are they people driving forward a better world? And ultimately, are they credible?

What is credibility?

Because I believe what we want in a leader is someone who is credible. But what does that really mean? So I kicked off a conversation with my LinkedIn community where I asked people to define credibility, and I got around 20 responses back, and I want to share three of those with you. 

Why is it that we follow some people and not others? Why do I believe some people and not others?

And all of that for me was part of being credible. So I explored different leadership types, personality types, the challenge of leading across cultures and what that meant, as well as some academic papers linked to the topic, specifically looking at the credibility of people like speakers who present on stage. 

All of these things led me to the creation of nine practices that I then wanted to test with leaders and followers. I wanted to understand if these nine practices were the right things that we needed to focus on for someone to be credible. But I also had an extra hypothesis to test. I wanted to explore whether men and women felt differently about these practices.

Did they rank them differently in terms of importance? Did they feel that one practice was more important than all the others?

And that was what I wanted to look at. That was what I wanted to explore. So the research asked questions around that. It asked them to rank things. I asked for all of the protected characteristics, not just gender. And I created a research report, which you can access through the link in the show notes. 

In the research, I also asked some open questions. I asked leaders what stops them being credible. What are the blockers to really achieving that? And I also asked followers why they followed some leaders and not others. So based on their experience, why was it that some leaders made them follow them and some didn’t?

And combined, that helped me understand more about credibility and also that the nine practices that I had weren’t quite right. They were almost there. I’d say about 80 to 90 percent. And a few of them just needed to be tweaked a little bit based on that insight. 

Now, as I said, you can grab a copy of the research report in the show notes. But there’s a few things that I want to highlight here in case you don’t get a chance to grab it.

What we found out was that…

And I found that really interesting. The followers were putting such importance on it, probably more so than they felt their leaders were.

So what gets in the way? What are the things that stop leaders being credible?

There are eight key themes that came out and I’ll share four of them here. 

Now, these are all genuine reasons from leaders struggling to ultimately make the time to invest in themselves and their relationships. 

But really, can we afford not to, you know, how we communicate, how we behave are so much more important when we lead others. And if we just focus on trying to be more vulnerable or more authentic, it just won’t work. Our behaviours, our communication style needs so much more consideration. And there’s more depth to both of those things than I think we realise.

And for me, this is why as a leader, if we just talk about be more empathetic, be more human or be authentic, it’s just not enough for people that are leading others and have a responsibility to others.

What are the eight practices of credibility that we need to build for people to follow us?

So, based on the research and those eight traits, when I talk about defining a credible leader, I have a couple of paragraphs for it rather than just a couple of sentences.

So, this is my definition that I use when I talk about what it is to be a credible leader:

“A credible leader encompasses a remarkable blend of qualities that naturally attract admiration and respect. Their capabilities shine through in their adept handling of challenges and their knack for delivering consistent results. With a warm and likable demeanor, they effortlessly connect with others, fostering an environment of approachability and camaraderie. Empathy courses through their interactions, allowing them to understand the needs and feelings of their team members, and they offer unwavering support in times of both triumph and difficulty. Their integrity is unassailable, guiding their decisions with an unwavering commitment to ethical principles. Trustworthy beyond measure, they honour their promises and inspire others to entrust them with their aspirations. Their visionary perspective extends beyond the horizon, leading the way with innovative ideas that set new standards. And they are unafraid to be vulnerable, creating a safe space for open dialogue and genuine connections.”

What does all this mean for leaders today?

Well, for the last 20 years, I’ve been stepping into workplaces and helping teams solve their communication and culture problems. And over and over again, I’m faced with the same challenge, the same complaints. Leaders are struggling to get employees to do what they need them to do. But also the leader believes that the problem is everyone else. 

And I found that a breakdown in communication is often linked to the behaviour and the approach of the leader. Leaders think they have a team or culture problem when really they have a credibility problem of their own. 

We want people to follow us. We want people to believe us. And being credible is the only way to make sure people will genuinely want to follow you. Simply, for me, credibility is what happens when effective communication meets true accountability. And that’s what we need to follow a leader. 

In my definition of credible leadership, I’ve included a blend of traits and behaviours. Those eight things that I listed are both traits and behaviours. And combined, I refer to them as practices. So, they are all the things that someone needs if they want to be credible. It’s a blend of these traits and behaviours that are important. And I explore those in a lot more detail in my book, Nobody Believes You, How To Become A Leader People Will Follow. 

Thank you for listening!

Each week in this season of the podcast, I’ll be taking one of these eight practices and discussing them in depth. I’ll share a story with you from my own work. And we’ll talk about the practical things that you can do to build that practice that will enable you to lead effectively. 

So, if you want to find out more about the research or take our online Credibility Gap Assessment or find out more about the book, you can access all of that information in the link in the show notes.

And in the next episode, I’ll be kicking things off with a look at capability, what it means to be capable, why it’s an important part of credibility and how to build it. 

Thank you for listening. And if you haven’t already, please do join my community by subscribing to my mailing list. All of the details are in the show notes.