I’ve been talking a lot recently about credible leadership – what it means, why it’s so important, and how to achieve it. But in this blog, based on the first episode of the new season of my podcast, I wanted to explore the issue of credibility from a slightly different angle.
We might appreciate the importance of credibility as a leader, and be striving to cultivate it, but it’s important to be honest about the hurdles we may face on this journey. Let’s look at the obstacles to being a credible leader and how to overcome them…
The path to credibility
Since 2019 I have been researching the idea of credibility, culminating in the publication of my latest book Nobody Believes You: How to Become a Leader People Will Follow. I’ve spoken to hundreds of people from organisations across the world, read numerous books and research papers, and drawn from my own experience and those of businesses I’ve helped.
A number of key themes came up time and again when discussing what people wanted from their leaders, but there were also commonalities in why people felt it wasn’t easy to be the type of leader they’d like to be.
Here are the top eight things people cited as obstacles to being a credible leader:
- Navigating change and uncertainty: Dealing with uncertainty in the business environment, managing change, and overcoming resistance to change
A lack of leadership development: Developing as a leader, including mentoring the next generation of leaders, training opportunities, and gaining leadership skills - Poor communication: Effective communication is crucial to credibility, both within the organisation and with external stakeholders
- Remote work and hybrid workplaces: Adapting to remote work, leading in a hybrid workplace, and maintaining team cohesion in a virtual setting
- Time management: Challenges related to time constraints, balancing priorities and managing workloads effectively
- Tricky relationships: Leading to difficulty gaining buy-in from superiors, peers and staff that they manage
- Navigating diversity and inclusion: Understanding and navigating diversity across generations, combatting ageism and sexism, and a lack of diversity and inclusion in leadership roles
- Self-doubt: Overcoming imposter syndrome and a lack of self confidence when it comes to personal growth
These are all genuine reasons from leaders struggling to make the time to invest in themselves and their relationships.
But can we afford not to?
The dangers of not being credible in leadership
How we communicate and how we behave are so much more important when we lead others.
And, as my research highlighted, credibility is about so much more than just being vulnerable or authentic. (See this blog for the reasons I believe authenticity is the wrong approach).
If we focus solely on trying to be more vulnerable, or more authentic, it just won’t work. Our behaviours and our communication style need more consideration, and there is more depth to both than we realise.
If we don’t get it right, it can feel like we’re not trying, or that we don’t really care.
Interestingly, the research with followers shows that for those being led, “It’s more important to me that my leader is credible than it is to my leader to be credible.”
If people don’t believe their leaders care about being credible then something is clearly going awry.
For the last 20 years, I have been stepping into workplaces and helping teams solve their communication and culture problems. Over and over again, I am faced with the same problem, the same complaints. Leaders are struggling to get their employees to do what they need them to do.
The leader believes the problem is everyone else, but I have found that a breakdown in communication is often linked to the behaviour and 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 to follow people we believe, and being credible is the only way to make sure people will genuinely want to follow you. Put simply, credibility is what happens when effective communication meets true accountability. And that is what we need in order to follow a leader.
You can hear more about each of the eight practices of credibility in the latest season of my podcast. In each episode I share a story with you from my own work and discuss practical things you can do to build that practice to enable you to lead effectively.
To see how you are doing on the credibility front you can take our free Credibility Gap Assessment or to talk to our team about how we can help you become a more credible leader contact us on info@redefiningcomms.com.
