‘Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.’

Henry Ford, American industrialist

This chapter covers:

• how credibility results from experiences and value set. It can take on different meanings for different stakeholder groups
• what types of experiences – technical and situational – will provide or accelerate credibility building
• why values are essential to being a leader and how to demonstrate and promote your value set
• how to balance credibility and authenticity.

The concept of credibility is, to some extent, similar to the concept of beauty – you know it when you see it. Credibility is what makes a person a long-lasting leader. It is rooted in what others expect from a leader – ‘others’ here being a diverse group of stakeholders (teams, peers, bosses), each with specific filters and each with ever-changing expectations.

Establishing credibility and maintaining it is essential. How is it possible, though, to please so many and meet such different demands? How can anyone truly build unquestionable credibility?

The secret is to work at simultaneously developing the following three elements:

• experience: efficient career management will help you demonstrate what you can do – credibility is based on experience
• values: these are pivotal in helping to establish who you are – credibility can’t be maintained without values
• authenticity: this cardinal point is that you always embrace who you are – credibility only stands up if a leader is true to him- or herself.

Mastering career management

Ensuring that you get the right experience boils down to one thing: adequate career management. This is usually done by defining what is the right experience for what you want to achieve. You will generally need to be exposed to the top three or four well-recognised skills and character-building events, as appropriate for your organisation. It requires you to be crystal clear on your intent, proactive in looking for opportunities to be stretched and willing to confidently grasp any unusual or difficult assignments thrown your way. Finally, to accelerate your career path, differentiating and adjusting to ever-changing market trends is key.

Identifying what is the right experience

Some 80 per cent of leaders would tell you that you mostly develop by means of ‘on-the job’ activities and this is the best way for you to gain experience. The ‘right’ experience for you is that which caters for and meshes harmoniously your needs as a professional with the needs of your organisation. This might be defined as a range of skills acquired via diverse experiences where you have been successful. It allows you to move beyond your comfort zone and learn and develop both your technical and interpersonal skills. It is experience that takes you one step closer to your objectives (what you want to achieve) and is aligned with what your organisation needs you to know in order to fulfil a role. It is experience that would add to your credibility within your area’s or corporation’s culture.

The right experience includes diversity and stretches you

Jack Welch has always been a huge advocate of experience and learning on the job, pushing this to another level with the concept of stretch.

One of his fundamental leadership concepts is to build leaders up by putting them through different and diverse experiences – ‘Push them up the rank, never let them rest’ is one of Welch’s maxims. In General Electric, the average tenure in one position for someone recognised as having high potential (a possible future leader) is about 18 months: 3 to 6 months to learn the business and assess critical problems, 6 months to work on solutions and strategy and the remaining time to implement and test results.

By undergoing such intense and relatively short assignments, these individuals are constantly increasing their ability to learn, act quickly and decisively and, of course, make mistakes, as they never stay in their comfort zone for very long. Through the process, they create a wider frame of reference to build on, develop a certain self-confidence in their own ability and, without doubt, gain a huge amount of credibility.

The right experience involves proactive learning

Building credibility is not about multiplying experiences for the sake of it but getting the right experience for what it is you want to achieve.

As Loren Gary states in her chapter ‘Pulling yourself up through the ranks’,¹ there are about 16 critical events that are relevant or fast experience builders and drive huge credibility and leadership success.

They include:

• turning around a business or a group
• starting a business from scratch
• dealing with employee/workforce issues
• handling your own mistakes and failures.

Most leaders in Fortune 500 organisations would add the following to the list:

• being accountable for financial results
• handling difficult people
• negotiating an important contract
• finding and closing an investment.

These last are particularly relevant to building credibility as they draw on a complete skill set, including technical skills, finding resources, strategic thinking, challenging leadership skills, people skills and a flawless ability to deliver.

The right experience gives you the right mix of technical and soft skills

The right experience builds skills in two main dimensions – technical and interpersonal (communication, having influence and leadership).

The right experience relates to what you want to achieve

If, for example, you want to become a chief financial officer, having solid experience in financial planning and analysis will give you a head start and develop your numeracy and business thinking. If you are more drawn to a chief executive officer role, then having spent some time leading different business units, in different cultural contexts or in a mergers and acquisitions department will be critical to you being credible in such a position.

All the above qualities also need to be complemented by a solid understanding of the industry you are in. Having knowledge is the overarching requirement for top-notch credibility. The current Executive Director and member of the Board of the French shipping company CMA-CGM has over 30 years’ experience in shipping. There is not a cycle, situation or issue that he has not either seen or experienced in his career. When he talks about shipping, he is able to give you the history of the industry with the strategic implications and potential competitive responses. That is what credibility is all about.

Gaining your experience

Gaining the right experience or, as previously mentioned, adequately managing your career, building on both your technical and soft skills, is based on three distinct elements.

Asking yourself the right questions

In Part 2, you spent some time finding the leader inside you. This included understanding your natural leadership make-up and the things that motivate you to succeed. You identified your strengths and your areas for development, as well as your fears and how to overcome them. You also reflected on your leadership/personal brand.

Your reasoning or questioning around gaining the right experience should relate to all of the above dimensions, with a specific focus on the following two questions:

• What do I want to achieve?
• What makes someone credible in such a role?

The first question allows you to ask yourself not only what function or position you want to attain but also, more generally, how you can express ‘who you are’ in career terms and so, ultimately, gain credibility. For example, if you are not particularly numerate, it might be unwise to choose to aim for a high-ranking finance position. Look at what you like doing, what you are naturally good at, then look for positions that require these qualities and skills. What do they really entail? What kinds of people are currently holding these positions? Why are they credible in these roles?

The second question focuses on the meaning of your desired role and what its attributes are, so will help you visualise how to get there. To answer it think about someone you feel is credible in that role and the attributes they demonstrate. You will then be able to hold a mirror up to your own attributes and assess the gaps between your experience and where you want to end up. Then you can decide what you want to address immediately or sooner rather than later.

Translating your goals into tangible skills or attributes

This process should be based on what you have defined as the must have skills or attributes of people who are credible in the role you ultimately want to achieve. Complement this by assessing the gaps in your current experiences or attributes. Ultimately, you will need to proactively develop a comprehensive plan to fill these gaps.

Staying flexible and grasping opportunities

Even when you have a well laid-out action plan, as defined above, stay tuned in to any potential opportunities that will either:

• stretch you and take you out of your comfort zone
• present a high strategic stake
• allow you to focus on your long-term strategy
• allow you to build your network and demonstrate influence.

Also, stay open to opportunities outside of your current organisation.

Keeping up to date with your environment

Potential leaders commonly possess the characteristics of curiosity and impatience.

It is therefore relevant to address ways to accelerate your gaining of experience and credibility and develop a sense of what is to come while always applying rigorous self-analysis to everything you do.

Sensing what is to come

This really means keeping abreast of the changes in your environment – not only industrywise and wide but also in terms of technology or organisational theories. You need to know this as it may mean that you then need to acquire a particular new skill or skill set as a result of some development.

Here are some examples to illustrate the importance of sensing what is to come:

• General Electric very quickly realised that mastering the Six Sigma methodology² would have a tremendous impact on its product quality and productivity in general, boosting both customer satisfaction and financial results. The organisation heavily embraced the methodology and, as a result, any leadership position required Green Belt certification.
• After the Enron case that led Arthur Andersen to collapse, a compliance skill set became top of the skill list for a finance career.
• After the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, demonstrating accountability and a health, safety, security and environment (HSSE) skill set became critical to gaining any leadership position in the industry.
• In 2008, when the oil price reached record levels, risk and exposure management, paired with how to assess counterparty risk, were essential if you wanted to be seen as a credible as a businessperson.

Self-analysis

This is an efficient way to keep things in context and set you on a constant path of gaining credibility and building on this. Regularly ask yourself the following question in order to assess what is missing that you also need to factor in on your gap list:

• If I were a young graduate today looking to join my organisation, would I have what it takes? How successful would I be?

This does not mean that you need to keep changing direction. However, picking up signs and defining trends will help refine your overall strategy. It will help ensure you gain relevant experience to boost your credibility and move faster.

Maintaining momentum

Your credibility increases every day. It is rooted in how you behave and react in the moment to whatever is thrown at you.

The following examples or situations are classic cases that, badly managed, can immediately damage your credibility, but, if well managed, help sustain a long-lasting positive perception of your leadership:

• A crisis – Stay calm, assess the consequences and allocate resources.
• A people crisis – Stay calm, assess the person’s emotional state and decide whether the best course of action is to do nothing or address the issue, involving other parts of the organisation as necessary.
• When you make mistakes – Be forward and up front. The minute you know about your mistake, come clean to whomever you need to. Present a clear assessment of the situation and potential corrective actions.

Approach all the infinite possibilities of what can happen in one day in the life of a leader. Increase your credibility by:

• being confident in your abilities to succeed
• making sure you are doing the best you can.

The four key rules of effective career management

As mentioned above, credibility is gained every day and backed up by every decision you make when it comes to your career.

The following four simple rules have proved useful for those building their careers.

Keep your sensors working

Have regular discussions with your line manager and/or your peers to find out if any opportunities for special projects or temporary assignments outside your area of expertise might be possible. For instance:

• if your line manager is going on leave, ask if you could stand in for him or her.
• ask if you could shadow one of the executives in a role you are particularly interested in, in order to get first-hand experience of what is involved
• ask to work on a project with someone you know is challenging or very demanding
• invite someone you do not naturally work well with to join you on a specific project.

Constantly expand your horizons

The higher up you go in any organisation, the more difficult it is to take on additional assignments. You will already have a list of cross-functional projects to work on as part of your yearly goals. Do not hesitate to think also about personal projects that could help you with your career development.

Complement your skills with courses

If you have identified specific technical skills you need, enrol for an evening class or look for a conference on those topics. At times, it can be better to enrol with a couple of other people, so that you have the opportunity to debate the ideas and crystallise what you have learned.

Regularly test your skill set and value on the market

Using external (market) validation to test your experience and credibility might seem controversial. Remember, however, that employment at just one organisation for life is a thing of the past and exposing yourself to cultural change is also a way to accelerate your learning and gain experience. It also shows your ability to take risks, adjust and grow.

Over the course of your career, dedicate some time to building and maintaining a network of human resources professionals or headhunters to help you with this process. Make sure you are always open about your objectives (for example, you might be clear with them that you are testing your value, not actively looking, wanting to go through some questions on what to do next and so on).

This does not have to be an aggressive strategy – doing so every couple of years or when you are thinking of making a move in your current organisation is generally effective. Testing your value in this way is a useful exercise. It allows you to compare, contrast and assess what level of responsibility you could aim for in an organisation.

To conclude, credibility is gained by acquiring experience and staying current. Doing this requires discipline and commitment. Credibility is only gained when there is an element of impact, tangible results or change at the personal level, arising from the experience, job or role. There is no need to become obsessed about gaining the right experience and becoming credible. What matters is that you have a clear overarching strategy, with flexibility, and commit to your personal development.

Day in, day out, it is crucial to stay focused on the expectations of your current role and the tasks at hand.

Living by your values

The process of gaining credibility as a leader will be incomplete if the questions of value and authenticity are not addressed. Being aware of what is acceptable or not in your organisation and, more importantly, what is acceptable or not for you as a person, are key elements of successful leadership. Only strong values can yield long-term business performance. Leveraging your value set to gain credibility will require you to first assess your values by means of self-questioning. It will then be important to compare and contrast your value set with that of your organisation. The more aligned they are, the more chances you will have of being able to gain credibility and be true to yourself. Finally, always abiding by your values will require discipline and the integration of regular checkpoints into your everyday life as a leader.

Credibility mostly comes as the result of gaining experience, but your value set impacts several parts of your leadership skill set: decision making, teambuilding and the ability to have influence. Your values are also essential when establishing yourself as a credible and authentic leader. Without personal values, there is limited business value.

The link between values and business performance

The leadership literature generally focuses on examples of good leadership and omits saying anything about ‘bad’ leadership, yet there is a plethora of it. It can result from a variety of causes – lack of vision, lack of innovation or lack of values.

Without proper values, leadership may become meaningless – even harmful. Leaders have an impact on the lives and incomes of thousands and with this comes responsibility. Leaders set the tone of their organisations and act as examples and role models. If they do not, they may put businesses at risk.

Identifying your value set

As mentioned previously, credibility is based on a mix of personal and organisational needs. When it comes to value sets, the need for alignment between personal and organisational values is even stronger than it is for credibility.

Everyone has a value system, shaped by a mixture of education, religious beliefs and experiences. Individuals’ personal values are the foundation for the credibility of their leadership. However, credibility is enhanced when it is somewhat aligned with the expectations of your environment. When it comes to values, it is hugely beneficial for them to be strongly aligned with the corporate values of the organisation.

Building a strong understanding of your value set and that of your organisation is a three-step process. This will require three to four hours of your time and your feedback group’s time in order to come up with a comprehensive and tangible outcome.

Self-questioning

This is the first step. The following questions will help you to discover your value set and sense what they mean for your organisation:

• What are my core values? Enquiring about your core values will enable you to add another dimension to your self-awareness and get a clear idea of your own boundaries. To answer this first question, think about what matters to you in your life and your relationships with others. Think back to business situations or discussions where you felt uncomfortable from a values point of view. For example, when a high-ranking person was talking to a subordinate in a demeaning tone of voice or someone was giving inaccurate information about a sensitive topic in a meeting. Consider how you felt, how you behaved and what you might have done differently.
• What are the perceived values of a leader in my organisation? This question will allow you to evaluate what it is that you want to become. It will also cause you to reflect on corporate values and gauge how leaders embody them. To answer this question, look for leadership models in your organisation. Who are these people, what values do they demonstrate, how do they live and breathe their values and how can you emulate them?
• What kind of leadership values do I want to be known for? This question enables you to work on how people perceive you. To answer it, consider the following list of possible attributes and pick three to six of them that particularly resonate with you.

• Accountability
• Accuracy
• All for one and one for all, attitude
• Calm, quiet, peaceful
• Charity supported
• Collaboration
• Commitment
• Community
• Concern for others
• Connection
• Cooperation
• Democratic
• Disciplined
• Diversity supported
• Equality
• Excellence
• Fairness
• Faithfulness
• Family feeling
• Freedom, liberty, friendship
• Generosity
• Gentleness
• Giving
• Goodness
• Security established
• Self-reliance
• Sensitive
• Service given to others and society
• Simplicity
• Spirituality
• Strength
• Timeliness
• Tolerance
• Good will
• Gratitude
• Happiness
• Hardworking
• Harmony worked for
• Honourable
• Inner peace, calm
• Innovation
• Integrity
• Justice
• Kindness
• Love life, joy
• Meritocracy
• Oneness
• Openness
• Others’ points of view, inputs valued
• Patriotic
• Peace, non-violence
• Privacy preserved
• Reliable
• Respect for others
• Responsive
• Safety paramount
• Satisfy others’ requirements
• Tradition
• Tranquillity
• Trust
• Truth
• Unity
• Variety
• Well-being
• Wisdom

In a similar fashion to the elevator pitch exercise in Chapter 5, work on creating your value or moral statement or catchphrase and practise it as if you were in a lift. It is a good idea to spend some time comparing and contrasting your value set with the corporate value set. This gives you a point of focus for addressing matters of authenticity and analysing how well your value set matches your organisation’s.

Recalibrating your value set

Values are critical to gaining credibility, mitigating any misperceptions or gap between what you think you project and what people around you actually see.

Consider seeking feedback to establish how you come across. As values might be a delicate topic to talk about in the work environment, it is highly recommended that you explore this with your feedback group. However, if you feel that this is too personal or too daunting, you might consider seeking feedback from those in your personal network only.

With each member of your feedback group or personal network, present and discuss:

• the values you think you demonstrate Ask the group if these are qualities that you demonstrate and/or whether these are traits that someone in your particular leadership position should demonstrate.
• your value statement Ask whether if this is truly representative of you, they would feel comfortable saying this about you and whether or not there is something missing that should be added: then integrate it into your value statement.

Crafting your value action plan

Bringing your value statement to life really comes down to actions and making the commitment to exhibit certain behaviours. It should be put into action in the way you make decisions, choices and communicate. For every attribute you have decided to include in your values statement, write down the tangible behaviours and actions that will be required to put them into practice.

Also reflect on the specific language you should start using to ingrain the message and create the right perception. Only a mix of actions and ways of communicating will make people clearly perceive your value set. Be disciplined and demonstrate this consistently to yield results.

Maintaining momentum

Demonstrating your personal core values and the corporate values should be the backbone of your leadership style and your credibility. When we are put under pressure, in times of crisis or when experiencing a significant increase in workload, it is easy to slip and let performance, attitudes and behaviours slide. To stay in tune and be able to correct behaviours quickly you may consider doing the following:

• Use your performance card (see Chapter 3) to keep an eye on the external and internal conditions required for you to perform well.
• Factor into your routine time to think and reflect on the following.
  • Have I always lived and breathed my values: most of the time or not at all?
  • If not, what I have done wrong?
  • What should I mend and/or adjust?

This analysis can be completed in a bi-weekly or monthly session of about 30 minutes.

Experience and demonstrating a strong set of values are the fundamental building blocks of credibility. These are underpinned by one last element – authenticity.

Authenticity and remaining true to yourself

Part 2 of this book focused on understanding who you are as an individual. It asked you to look inside yourself, understand your drivers, strengths and areas for development. Having come to know yourself better enables you to reflect on leadership in an authentic way.

Authenticity is one of the key drivers in terms of gaining credibility. It is important to your decision making when it comes to gaining experience and what you should do next. When carrying out your self-questioning and debating with others as to what would be the natural or logical next steps for you, keep the following questions in mind at all times:

• Does this resonate with who I am? What I like? What I want to do?

There is always the question of stretching yourself to consider and it is important not to shy away from this in terms of gaining credibility. You can find different types of stretch:

• technical stretch – moving from one function to another – say, from the position of analyst in marketing to a business development position
• interpersonal stretch – spearheading a function in an emerging market far from your cultural framework or getting into your first team management role
• span of control stretch – moving from a country-based role to a regional one.

Above all, it is important to remember that credibility comes from times when you perform at your best, and you will tend to excel in either things you have a natural ability in or passion for. Hopping on the bandwagon and listening to other people’s advice might feel good at times, but also might lead to regrets. Being true to yourself will help you filter out peer pressure and popular opinion, allowing you to base your actions on your own passions, skills and convictions. It will also help you learn how to be courageous enough to act on them.

Authenticity will also allow you to assess just how good the fit is between you and your current corporate environment as well as with others around you.

The best way to take the authenticity test is spend some time assessing any gap between what your values are and the perceived values that a leader in your organisation should demonstrate. Looking at these two side by side will give you a measure of how closely the match actually is with your organisation.

This does not mean that you have to shy away from environments that do not exactly match your value set – this may, in reality, be a different type of perfectly healthy stretch. However, it is good to bear in mind the following:

• Leaders embody the values of the companies they work for. If they cannot fully commit to them due to their personal beliefs, it becomes difficult to stay the course, act as a role model and be a credible leader.
• Professional people need to be able to assess the tipping point when how well they perform and even their well-being are affected by a lack of alignment between them in terms of their values. This is soon revealed in the form of increasing feelings of inadequacy or a sense of drifting of values when completing the monthly or bi-weekly analysis of values. When this happens, it is important to pause and reflect. Eventually it will mean deciding to take the necessary steps to change course.

Summary

The corporate environment is the soil in which you plant the seeds of your success, so it is crucial to find a mix that allows you to flourish and thrive. You owe it to yourself to find the right environment for you.

Here’s a reminder of some of the key points from this chapter:

• credibility comes as a result of proactively looking to gain the right experience, in terms of both technical and soft skills
• the right experience will be built on a mix of knowing what you want to achieve in your career and what your organisation perceives as building your credibility
• there are always specific events that help you to gain credibility and experience within your organisation, so find them and make sure you are proactively experiencing them – such as being accountable for a business, leading a major restructure, change agenda or transaction
• you will only increase your credibility if you multiply different types of experiences and always proactively look to step out of your comfort zone to be stretched
• stay in tune with your environment to quickly assess what skills will become useful or give you a strategic advantage in the long run – pay attention not only to technical skills but also any organisational or management skills
• you increase your credibility every day by participating in and reacting to difficult or unexpected situations or crises
• be aware that credibility and the right experiences come from doing and also reflecting
• work on a vision, your career vision as something to aim towards, not a fixed plan, as this will allow you to stay fluid and be able to grasp opportunities that come your way
• if you really want to assess how credible you are, take the acid test of seeing how the jobs market reacts to you on a regular basis – it will help you recalibrate to fill your gaps and assess your skill set
• credibility comes from living and breathing your values and the values of your organisation, so invest time in identifying them and assessing how aligned they are
• cultivate your values in the same fashion that you cultivate your leadership brand
• if your value set does not fit well with your organisation’s one, do not be afraid to move on – success is built on authenticity.

¹ In (2005) The Results-driven Manager: Becoming an effective leader. Harvard Business School Press.

² A data-driven business management methodology developed by Motorola in the 1980s. Its aim is to eradicate any faults from the original manufacturing process by focusing on the root cause. The idea is to reach the Six Sigma: that is, 3.4 defects in 1 million. It has three levels of qualifications – Green Belt, Black Belt and Master Black Belt.