How to be a credible leader
Discover what it takes to be a leader people will follow and find out what’s stopping you being believed by those you lead.
Credibility is what happens when effective communication meets true accountability
Many leaders think they are doing everything right. And yet, they are running an ineffective team or organization. We see this in retention numbers, profitability, innovation, productivity and broader employee engagement scores. If a leader wants to succeed, they have to look at their behaviours, their communication style and their ability to build relationships with those they want to lead.
Nobody Believes You - Become a Leader People Will Follow
The book explores how we as individuals build and undermine ourselves on a daily basis in the workplace (often as an unintended consequence) and what we all can do to become more credible so that others will believe and follow us.
Based on four years of research, the book delves into the eight practices of credibility including empathy, trust, and capability.
You will learn why the problem is closer to home and practical skills and strategies to make a difference to your relationships at work.
Because if nobody believes you, they won’t follow you.
Nobody Believes You was published in October 2024. It has sold 4,000 copies and has been shortlisted for Business Book of the Year in the Leadership category.
Course
Mastering the 8 Practices of Effective Leadership
This self-paced online course is designed to help leaders bridge the “credibility gap”—the disconnect between holding a leadership title and genuinely earning the trust and commitment of your team. Grounded in research, the course delves into the eight core practices essential for credible leadership that are outlined in Nobody Believes You.
By mastering these practices, leaders can transform from being merely authoritative figures to becoming individuals who teams willingly follow and support.
Discover your credibility gap
ONLINE credibility GAP assessment
This Assessment has been developed to help you quickly identify your gaps in credibility. It will help you identify which practice or practices you need to improve.
If you want to be a leader people will follow, with a better understanding about how take practical steps to make a difference to your team, this will give you a place to start.
Tools
The Credibility Compass
The Credibility Compass is a diagnostic tool that reveals which of the eight essential leadership practices you might be missing, based on observable symptoms in your team or organisation. Rather than guessing why your team isn’t fully engaged or aligned, this tool connects specific behaviours you’re seeing – like disengagement, turnover, or resistance – directly to credibility gaps in areas such as empathy, trustworthiness, vision, or integrity.
By pinpointing exactly where your credibility needs strengthening, the Compass offers targeted guidance to help you become the leader people genuinely want to follow, transforming symptoms of disbelief into signs of trust and commitment.
research report
Become a leader people will follow
After exploring different leadership types, personality types and academic papers from journals linked to the topic, an initial set of traits of credibility were defined.
I tested the traits, practices and behaviours with leaders and followers, along with an extra hypothesis: ‘Did men and women feel about and prioritise the traits differently?’
The full research report is now available to download to discover the findings and understand the practices that make a leader ‘credible.’
Podcast
Build your credibility with the Redefining Comms Podcast
If you want to listen to some bitesize advice about building your credibility listen to season 5 of the Redefining Comms with Jenni Field podcast. With 15-minute episodes Jenni talks you through what each of the eight practices of credibility are and shares some practical pieces of advice on how to improve and build your own credibility.
Delve into earlier seasons of the podcast if you want to explore broader topics like culture, employee experience and internal communication.
Join our community
Subscribe to join the Redefining Comms community and receive our fortnightly Chaos To Calm email newsletter, with helpful advice, updates and industry insights. Our community also get invited to quarterly 90-minute Ask Me Anything online sessions with Jenni Field, as well as early access to events, discounts and research.
