Credibility is in the eye of the beholder
We’ve worked with a lot of individuals and organizations over the years who believed they were credible. Sadly, it’s not what you think that matters. Credibility rests with the other person in the relationship. It’s about how others perceive you.
The hard truth is, no matter how great your personal integrity or competence, it is not you who gets to determine your Credibility. In truth, Credibility can only be given to you by other people. Some people may have had direct experience with you and your credibility. Others may have only expereinced you through media or by reputation. Either way, they have gathered impressions and perceptions that influence how they feel about you.
Acceptance of this reality is often a profound experience for business professionals. They begin by arguing that they are credible and thus should be perceived that way. Doesn’t matter. That’s not how it works.
Once you accept this reality and begin to understand the things that influence perception and begin to manage the perception in a positive way, that’s when you can really make a difference in your life and in your business.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:31 PM
Building on what Pam said –
Credibility is perception. It is based entirely on the subjective perception of the person(s) you want to connect with. In fact, your credibility is even the product of your own subjective perception. It’s what you believe about yourself, right. But, other people don’t care about how much you like yourself. They want to know what you can actually do. The credibility is the package that sets the expectation that you can and will perform brilliantly for them.
Credibility is NOT smoke, mirrors or theatrics. Remember, you eventually have to show up and perform.
What does it take to convince people that you are credible? That’s the topic of our book Axis of Influence. And, we’ll be going deeper into it in our next book on business credibility, which we’re co-authoring with Todd Smart.
– Michael Lovas
michael@aboutpeople.com