Establishing Credibility

Credibility is your reputation for being trustworthy. It is a combination of many small actions, various conversations, deals, and promises made. Credibility is crucial in the business world because most people decide if they want to do business with you based on your personal image and if they can trust you with their money and such responsibility.

There are three main parts to credibility:

Competence: How good are you at your job? Do you have the skills and knowledge to accomplish what needs to be done? What is your track record of success? These things will influence if people want to trust you with difficult and new tasks. Often in work situations tasks are delegated based on specialized skills, if you are an expert in your area you will most likely be trusted with these tasks.

Caring: How much do you think about others, are you able to connect and empathize with different people? This caring mindset can be built by using words like "we" and "our", asking questions, and thinking about the group as a whole. It has been shown that when leaders are caring, the workplace has a better culture, profitability, productivity, and customer service.

Character: What is your grasp and perspective on business ethics? Business ethics are the commonly accepted morals and standards in the business community. Are you transparent about where you got your information and what your actions and motives are? Do you trust others, admit your mistakes, follow the rules, and lead by example? All of this will make people see you as having a strong character and less likely to falter into negative influences.

When making decisions and even while writing business documents that will go out to the public you can evaluate your actions and see if you are building/maintaining your credibility using the FAIR test.

Facts: Are your facts correct and relevant? Are you slanting or exaggerating them, and are they misleading?

Access: Are your decisions clear and are you being transparent about where you got your information?

Impact: are you thinking about what impact your decisions might have on your employees, community, and shareholders?

Respect: Are you being respectful of people's time, and are you prioritizing not only yourself but your community and the people around you?

It is essential in business and in leadership to be credible and trusted, these easy steps can bring you closer to a credible reputation. Think to yourself, would I trust myself with a million-dollar deal? If not, credibility is probably something you have to work on. It is something that impacts us every day, no matter the size of our deals or business.

Tune in on March 27th for our 5th Speaker Series: Lucia Mercado on running a small business and working a 9 to 5 all in her early 20s!