Effective Ways to Build Credibility

In this week’s blog I am exploring the topic of credibility.  This is an often forgotten aspect of your personal and leadership development journey.  Building your credibility which in turn helps you deepen your connections with your community is a key way to improve your personal and professional life.

In order to build and support a strong community of people who are passionate about the things you are, you need to demonstrate that you are a reliable resource and decision maker.  This allows others to have the confidence they can count on you, trust you and do business with you.

Benefits of increasing your credibility

Increasing your credibility supports you in your career and helps you stand out amongst your peers.  Not only that, it will help you develop greater confidence and courage to stand up for what you believe in and attract others with similar values.  It’s important not to downplay your achievements and be comfortable with speaking about your successes in a way that feels authentic.

Establishing credibility helps us strengthen our leadership potential, achieve professional goals that are important to us, and be recognised and compensated for our skills and competence. Together, this leads to upward spirals of success and fulfilment that helps you rise to your highest potential.

Personal attributes to foster credibility

Being credible means fostering a set of very specific qualities--no matter what your role, your organisation, or your industry. If you're serious about establishing yourself as credible here are a few things you need to pay attention to:

1. Build trust and be trustworthy.  Think about how you can build up your ‘trust’ account.  If you are interested in how important trust is then I’d highly recommend reading ‘The Speed of Trust’ by Stephen MR Covey.
2. Be competent.  Where do you have expertise and how can you use that to help others?  Be confident in your skills and make sure you are someone people can count on.
3. Be consistent.  When you are sending out messages you need to be consistent so people start to build trust.  Be aware it’s not just messages but your actions need to be in alignment with these messages.  

Ways to increase your credibility

If you are looking to increase your profile and create yourself a standout reputation in your area then there are some ways you can develop strong connections and credibility.

1. Increase your network by getting to know more people.  Don't just limit your contacts to the company you work for or your professional association, think about where there are complementary areas of interest and start to connect to be people in these areas.
2. Look for speaking opportunities.  There are so many conferences and events which are looking for speakers.  This may seem like a scary idea especially but with practice you can do it.  Search for people who can help you with public speaking or join a local group such as Toastmasters.
3. Have trust in yourself.  Confidence equals credibility.  For a lot of us, a big part of this stress can be traced to something called “imposter syndrome”: The sense that, no matter how much we’ve achieved, we don’t belong in our current position or deserve the success of having gotten there.  You can overcome this by getting out of your comfort zone and changing that internal self-talk to support you rather than holding you back.

The subject of connections and credibility are the final topics we explore in the 'Unleash Your Inner Superpowers' programme.

A good starting point is to look at the number and quality of connections you have on LinkedIn, how often you engage with posts and articles and how often you share your thoughts and posts that interest you. If you'd like to find out more about the next programme which starts in August you can follow me or visit here for more details.