Being Believable

There are lots of leadership behaviors that promote perceptions of believability and without it, you are stopped from the first step. Give these six behaviors some thought:

• Being candid and courageously authentic, even when it is uncomfortable or otherwise costly in the short term. 
• Being transparent. Do you reveal your real motives, desired outcomes, thoughts and feelings? Or do you just leave people to guess?
• Owning mistakes. Instead of finger-pointing or excuse-making, own your mistakes out loud. Most people will forgive your mistakes if you own up to them. They WON’T forgive your perceived indifference to those mistakes or consequences if you don’t say something.
• Give credit to others… that one speaks for itself
• Showing a bias to inform others about things that might affect them. There really aren’t too many secrets in a business. Just tell them what they need to know.

What you are looking for is the realization from your staff that you tell the truth. That you say what you mean and that you are open to sharing relevant information.