How many of you see yourself as a leader?
Some of you may have leader as a title. Some of you may lead people, other may lead process. Some of you may see leadership as a life choice. Whatever your view, then this is for you. Get ready for something that you’ve never heard before. You ready? OK.
Leadership is hard.
Bet some of you are just staring at this now aren’t you. Bet you’re thinking, “Is that it!?” “Are you kidding me!?”
There’s more. It gets better.
Leadership is hard. Now you’re thinking about others, not just yourself. You’re a role model, even if you don’t want to be or don’t know how to. People take you far too seriously, every word or suggestion is taken as an action plan. You’re accountable for everything you do. Or don’t do. Even when it seems really unfair. You didn’t know there was going to be a traffic jam on your usual route to work that made you late to your meeting did you!?
I bet you’re nodding now aren’t you. Few things you recognise?
In the many years that I’ve been working with leaders, one of the key aspects that I talk about is credibility. It’s a great foundation for your leadership, whether that’s of people, process or an ideology of yours. Build your credibility and you get followers, people who trust you, respect you, will challenge and disagree with you, people who will perform at their maximum for you. I know leaders who work tirelessly on building their credibility so that others may benefit.
There are many benefits to this, but the one situation that I have found where it really comes into its own?
Pressure situations.
When the pressure increases in specific situations.
There are many reasons for this, too many to mention here without taking your whole day, but imagine a situation where all was good, now there is friction. There was agreement, now there is discord. There was alignment, now there are silos.
Pressure. People.
Here is where a leaders credibility comes to the fore.
This is about trust. This is about respect. This is about gathering opinions, perceptions, thoughts and feelings.
You have the greatest chance of doing these things if you have credibility. Whether people agree with you or not, they will trust, respect and speak openly if they see you as credible.
It’s a leadership super power.
So, how do you build it?
- Be competent. Become an expert in your field.
- Be consistent. Everything you say and action you take.
- Be genuine. Be you, no one else.
- Be sincere. Mean everything that you say.
- Be loyal. Serve others and look out for their interests.
“It’s not who I am underneath. It’s what I do that defines me.” Batman said that. I told you leaders can have super powers.