2.4 Communication Credibility

2.4.1 Communicating With Credibility

by Christine W. Zust, M.A.

Credibility. How do you get it? More importantly, how do you keep it? Gaining

credibility takes years to achieve, and maintaining it is a lifetime goal for any

leader. One wrong move can erase in an instant many years of hard work.

Communicating with credibility is an art form, one which you can master by

using a few simple guidelines.

Align your verbal and nonverbal language. Credibility is enhanced through

consistent verbal and nonverbal language. The key word here is consistent.

Executives who overlook nonverbal language, or body language, are dismissing

one of communication’s most powerful tools. When your verbal and nonverbal

language is out of alignment, you send out a mixed message. The result? The

person receiving that message is confused, wondering what to believe -- your

verbal or nonverbal. Nonverbal communication has many functions, but the two

highlighted here are the functions of reinforcing or contradicting your verbal

message. When nonverbal reinforces the verbal message, you maintain your

credibility. When the nonverbal contradicts, or is inconsistent, with the verbal

message, you run the risk of sending mixed messages, and losing credibility.

For instance, the leader who says, "I am in full support of these salary

negotiations" but looks away or down, sends out a conflicting nonverbal

message that says, "I’m not really in full support of this." When the verbal and

nonverbal messages are conflicting, the nonverbal message will always win,

because it is perceived to be more believable. That is why it’s called the "silent

language." Remember, the foundation of your credibility is your believability.

Be consistent in your verbal and nonverbal language, and you will never have to

worry about sending mixed messages which may jeopardize your credibility.

Lead by Listening. Ask executives across the country what they look for in

their top management teams, and most will say, "Good listeners." The good

news about listening is that it is a learned behavior, which means, even if you

are a poor listener today, you can train yourself to be a better listener tomorrow.

How well do you listen to your key clients and customers? Your employees?

Your stockholders? Your key advisors? The good listener does not merely hear

what is being said but rather observes and uses all the senses to reflect on the

whole picture. Why should listening matter to you as a leader? In today’s

competitive marketplace, silent observation is one of the most influential tools

you can develop to gain a keen sense of awareness and keep you at the front of

your game.

Make realistic promises and keep them. Credibility can fizzle if you don’t

keep your word, whether you have communicated it in writing or verbally. Your

credibility slips when you don’t live up to the standards you have set for

yourself or others have set for you. If promises are made and repeatedly broken,

you begin to lose your credibility. Whether it is a key client , a constituent or

your staff who you make promises to, you will spiral downward ever so quickly

if you don’t deliver on your promises. If you have a bad habit of committing

more than you can deliver, take this advice: Think before you speak, and

realistically promise only what you know you can deliver.

Speak from the heart. Some of the most powerful presenters are people who

speak from the heart. When a message is communicated from the heart, it is

more believable. An audience can quickly tell the difference between a speaker

who is genuine and one who is artificial. Some professionals have their

presentations so over-rehearsed that they are often interpreted by the audience

as phony or insincere. Don’t just talk the talk. Walk the talk.

Be yourself. This is an easy one. Many people who fall into the credibility gap

do so because they misrepresent themselves as someone else. We all know

individuals who have inflated their professional accomplishments to appear

more attractive for a leadership position. They soon discover once they are in

the position, they don’t have the level of expertise others expected of them (and

everyone around them knows it!). People can see through individuals who try to

position themselves as someone they are not. While there are people who spend

time joining the right clubs, travelling in the right circles, and attending high

profile events, the in crowd knows the difference between a wannabe leader and

the real thing.

I recently reviewed an advance copy of an acceptance speech for the recipient

of a prestigious community award. I immediately recommended that he delete

several canned jokes from his speech. His assistant assured me that the corny

joke-telling was part of her boss’s delivery style. I advised against it because it

jeopardized the man’s integrity. This executive had more than 50 years of

outstanding leadership in his professional and voluneer roles, so he did not need

a joke about a farmer’s daughter or a frog to connect with his audience. Surely,

he had more meaningful personal stories to tell. On the night of his presentation,

I was pleased when he deleted the jokes in exchange for a more believable

humorous personal story. It worked, because he did not rely on someone else’s

stale joke to artificially spice up his speech. The audience responded very

favorably to his story, because he was being himself.

Be an expert. You are at the top because you know your business, and you

have an uncanny ability to lead others. Yet, there are leaders who lack

credibility because they only have a superficial knowledge base with no depth.

The more you know, the more believable you are. But it doesn’t stop there. The

credible leader is one who is willing to share that acquired knowledge with

others and encourage open communication and idea sharing. It’s not just how

much you know that positions you as a credible leader, but how willing you are

to share that knowledge with others.

Last year, I attended a professional development program which was presented

by a high-ranking female executive with a national company. While she

delivered a great multi-media presentation and was an articulate speaker, she

fell apart during the question-answer period. Of the five questions asked of her,

she could answer only one, and deferred the other four to her technical support

staff operating the computer in the back of the room. She immediately lost

credibility with the audience. The energy level in the room plummeted. If she

knew her business and had done a better job of preparing for the question-

answer period, she would have retained credibility with the audience.

Be honest. We need to look no further than the political arena to select our best

examples of how to lose credibility by covering up. What do you think of when

you hear the words, "I am not a crook" and "I did not have sex with that

woman." Do you think of honesty? Hardly. Presidents Nixon and Clinton could

have saved face if they had been honest in their statements from the beginning.

If they had admitted wrongdoing, the public would have been more forgiving.

Instead, their statements came back to haunt them. The old saying, "What goes

around comes around" demonstrates this to be true. Leaders are the first to be

scrutinized during tenuous times, because they are in control, whether they

represent government, corporate America or a non-profit organization. Too

many leaders think they are invincible. When you accept a leadership position,

you also accept full responsibility for your words and actions. Be honest from

the beginning, and your credibility will remain intact.

Be proactive. It’s never too late to do a credibility check. To stay on track, ask

yourself questions, like, "What could potentially jeopardize my credibility?"

"What steps can I take to improve my credibility?" "What can I do each day to

ensure that my credibility is maintained?" The more aware you, the better

equipped you are be to keep your credibility elevated.

There is no asset more valuable or powerful than your personal credibility,

because it goes to the very core of who you are as a person and a leader. You

are responsible for building and maintaining it...for life.

Reference: http://www.emergingleader.com/article15.shtml

2.4.2 6 Things You Can Do to Enhance Your Communication Credibility

By: Michael Lovas & Pam Holloway

Most people think Communication occurs when information is sent, like in a

verbal statement or letter. That’s wrong. That’s called a one-way

“transmission.” Communication happens when the other person receives the

information. Why is that important to you?

In the traditional business communication model, you lose

control of your message as soon as it is sent. Our contention is that, in the

traditional model, you never had control of it in the first place because you

didn’t have accurate information about your target market.

Without accurate information, the target isvery likely to misunderstand your

intended message. What if that message is the essence of your business identity,

your offer, your plea for donations?

Having guided many people through exercises to help them improve the

accuracy of their intended messages, Pam and I know (all too well) that human

communication is a sloppy and inexact activity. That’s OK if your message

includes grunts and deals with food or warmth. But, when the message is more

sophisticated, such as your marketing and selling message, it’s nearly always

off-target.

Corporations spend $millions on their branding. Many of those dollars go

toward assuring that the message is “targeted.” Still, any word or phrase that

could be misunderstood definitely will be. Anything that is ambiguous or vague

will give the wrong message. Any image, logo or photo that could possibly be

misinterpreted will be. Additionally, any one-way, out-bound message that fails

to include the perceptions of the intended audience will most likely suffer from

grossinaccuracies in reception.

“At a fundamental level verbal messages convey meanings the speaker has

encoded into the words of an utterance, but a listener who has understood the

utterance has gone beyond the literal meaning of the words and grasped the

particular sense in which the speaker intended them to be understood. In order

to do so, communicators must make their co-participants' perspectives part of

the process of formulating and interpreting messages. Thus any communicative

exchange is implicitly a joint or collective activity in which meaning emerges

from the participants' collaborative efforts.”

In other words, the people who receive the message are the ones who determine

its meaning and value – not the sender. So, you have to collect the target’s

perceptions prior to releasing your out-bound message.

What about you? Now, if what I just said is true, who do your customers think

you are? More important, who do your prospects think you are? What value do

they think you represent to them? For many businesses, all the target market has

to go by are the inaccurate messages you give them. If your marketing message

is anything like most, what you’re saying is NOT what people are receiving.

Huh? Yes, unless you capture the perceptions of your target market before

talking, writing or designing, your message is most likely off-target. Huh? Look

at it this way: because very few professionals and businesses understand this

process, it is highly probable that every person they deal with has the wrong

perception of who they are, what they do, and the value they represent.

There’s no way this short paper could be a comprehensive class in how to fix

that

situation. However, if you’ll follow these simple steps, your outbound messages

will at least be more accurate. If you’d like personal help with your marketing,

please let us know. Pam and I provide a service called “Marketing Therapy.”

Through it, we nip, tuck, tweak and perfect your messages so they are

psychologically on-target and relevant to your target market.

In the meantime, here are six things you can do to become more aware of how

you are perceived by your stakeholders, and correct that perception.

1. Find out how others see you

See yourself as others see you. Get a second, third and fourth outside

perspective. Interview the people who work in your company. Do it privately

and get them to describe how they see the firm and how they think outsiders

looking in see it.

Don’t stop with your employees, ask your customers. Ask your suppliers. Ask

anyone would either is or could become a stakeholder. Pay attention. Listen to

what’s going on around you. Listen not only to those from whom you ask for

feedback – but to those you didn’t.

Try to gather intel on what your competitors are saying aboutyou. How about

potential employees? “Off the record, why do you want to work here? What do

we represent to you?” Talk to former employees and former suppliers. What are

they saying about you?

Finally create a matrix of all the comments. Look for any common themes in

the feedback. Identify the areas that you can address immediately.

2. Get to Know Your Target Market

This is where most “marketing” slams into a brick wall. Very few firms can

describe their target market in realistic terms. Age, zip code, household inco me,

purchase history – those things tell you something about your target market, but

not very much. They describe details of a mass market, but mass marketing has

been ineffective for more than ten years for all but the largest of mega-

corporations. So, who is your target market? And, how do you describe them?

Let’s throw the book out the window and look at target markets in a completely

different way. What would you love to know about a potential customer hidden

out there? Mainly, how they use your type of product. That tells you what they

value about your product. If you know that, you can create compelling, personal

and relevant marketing. And, that includes sales presentations, webinars,

seminars and keynotes.

So, how do you discover that information? Research, analysis and projection.

Research the social media sites that are related to your product. Read the

comments pro and con about how people perceive it. What do they like and

dislike?

What else do they want. We live in an incredible world where you can learn

those things with relative ease. But, even more astounding, you can actually

communicate with them directly and get even more information.

All of the little bits of intel that you collect combine to give you a terrific

picture of what to offer, how to offer it, and who will be attracted to it.

3. Speak the Language of Your Target Market

Once you get to know your target audience, in terms of what they want and how

they use your product, your next step is to learn to speak their “language.”

Those are the two most difficult objectives in modern business.

Speaking the language means using specific words, phrases, structures,

concepts, colors, images and designs that appeal to the mental filters of your

target market. Those elements deliver your message. It means giving the right

people a message that they want to see – one they might even be looking for.

But, you have to know what they want before you create the messages.

Consider what we just said. Traditionally, a firm creates a marketing piece to

promote a product and then sends it out. That’s a one-way transmission. That

type of marketing is still being done, but it is becoming less and less effective.

The smart marketer looks at the landscape and figures out what potential buyers

want that is relevant to his product. Then, he builds the marketing around those

findings. In a real way, your target market actually directs what you say in your

marketing, so it’s a two-way conversation, rather than a one-way transmission.

NOTE:

These next three items deal with a different aspect of communication

credibility. They are activities you can engage in that will communicate your

credibility through behaviors. Remember, behavior is just another way we

communicate.

4. Choose your associations wisely

One of the main mental filtering mechanisms we all unconsciously use is

association, or generalization. This ishow we know how to open just about

every door on the planet, and why we get confused by push-button car ignitions.

“What? No key?” In that same way, we associate (or generalize) an individual

with the people (both professionally and personally) he/she associates with.

And, we associate a company with firms in the same industry, and with the

other companies it does business with.

In other words, you are the sum of your relationships. Every relationship or

association either positively enhances your credibility and reputation, or it

detracts

from it. This dynamic is always moving in one direction or the other. It does not

remain static and it does not hover in the middle. But, the good news is, you can

take control of it.

Make a list of all your business relationships. Analyze each in terms of whether

it

adds value or detracts value fromyour reputation. If the other firm is soiled,

distance yourself or sever the link.

Otherwise, you risk looking like you support a firm or person with questionable

qualities. Develop a profile of a person that represents the polar opposite of you.

List that hypothetical person’s characteristics. Then, list the characteristics and

determine where you score on them.

Finally, ask yourself these questions:

Does this relationship work for me?

Are there common values or a shared purpose?

Is this relationship important to my long-term goals?

Is this the kind of company or individual I want to be associated with?

Does this association add credibility or detract from it?

5. Tell the Truth

When you make a mistake, “fess up.” Admit it. Customers are far more likely to

forgive a mistake than they are a cover-up or a withholding of information.

Many people find this extremely difficult to do. That’s because they attach

emotion to the information. Instead, consider that the information is just that –

data. And, data has no connection to emotion. Think of the data as though it’s

just numbers.

Don’t hide your services inside or behind marketing-eeze or legal-eeze.

Describe distinctly and coherently who you are and what you do. The more

open and honest you are about what you can (and cannot) or will (or won’t) do,

the more your customers and prospects will respond.

6. Walk the Talk

There’s a story among the consulting ranks of a renowned time management

consultant who responded to questions abouthis program by saying “I haven’t

had time to look at it.”

It appears that it is not only time management consultants who are afflicted with

this. Financial consultants with bad personal investment track records,

Insurance guys who don’t use their own products, marriage counselors who

have never been married or who have multiple divorces, and so on.

If you are concerned about your integrity and credibility (and you better be),

never, under any circumstances try to sell something that you’re not. Inevitably

someone will call you on it. Strive to be congruent in everything you do.

As coaches, we’re often contacted by new sales people. They usually have

concerns about their level of expertise and ask us how to deal with that. “How

can I convince someone that I’m an expert when I’m not?” Our answer is

always, “Don’t. Don’t pretend you’re something you’re not. So, what are you?”

Then, together we figure out what it is that the person actually does well.

It could initiate the relationship, establish a network of other experts, approach

service with the big-picture perspective, possess great capacity to deal with

details. The key to being congruent with who you are is to understand who you

are and what natural strengths and talents you have.

In Conclusion...

Why is credibility important here? Simply because it represents movement in a

positive direction. It distinguishes you from everyone who does not understand

how to use Communication Psychology to craft and deliver relevant, accurate

messages to their specific target market segments. Until you can clearly identify

each element in the communication chain, you will experience pops and sputters

as the intended message misfires with the intended target audience. When you

want help with this process, just give us a call.

Reference: http://levelbreaker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/6-Things-You-

Can-Do-to-Enhance-Your-Communication-Credibility.pdf

2.4.3 Credibility in Selling

By Daniel W. Jacob

Everyone agrees that credibility is a scarce and valuable commodity.

But in selling, credibility is indispensable.

You either have it, you get it, or you don’t make the sale.

But where do you find it when it seems like you have to have it before you can

get it? You can’t force anyone to think you are credible. It can’t be bought and

for that matter, it can’t be sold. It’s invisible, intangible, and seemingly

unattainable if you’re not born with it.

Still, it is perceivable to everyone when you do have it. Your credibility seems

to have permeated your entire being. It’s perceptible yet untouchable, abstract

but obvious, visible and invisible at the same time. As is said of some of the

more salacious elements in society, “you know it when you see it.”

Okay, if it’s so important, where can I get some of this stuff?

Here’s the answer.

The key to credibility is trustworthiness, and this made up of a combination

of personal integrity, honesty and your reputation.

If you fail to get people to trust you before you do anything else, you might as

well pack it up. Nothing else you do will work without it.

One of the easiest ways of establishing trust with the customer is something that

you were born with. Be yourself. Customers are not stupid. They know when

they’re only getting a sales pitch. And they can sense when you’re not being

yourself and not being honest.

You can’t rush this point. Establishing the bond of trust with the customer takes

as long as it takes. Occasionally it can happen right off the bat, sometimes not.

Never push it. Be yourself with yourself and the client, it will show.

Sometimes, they want to test you out and see if you actually do deliver what

you promise. They’ll give you a small order and see how you do. If you’re on

time and provide what you promised, confidence and trust will increase and

credibility builds. It is then easier to leverage this into a bigger order next time.

Once you do hold the position in their mind as being reliable and trustworthy,

guard it with your life. It is much easier to gain the position in the first place

than it is to regain it once lost.

Remember that the most important step to close in the selling process happens

before the order is placed. Get them to like you and trust you. Only then will

you become seen as  credible and worthy of trust.

But wait, that’s not all.

Here is something you may not have suspected.

There is only one reliable way to get them to like you and trust you: You must

like and trust yourself first.

And the only way to really trust yourself is to be honest with yourself.

When you do, you become credible to yourself. Then you’ll find that people

magically also see you as trustworthy and credible. It’s the easiest and most

effective way to get the job done.

If you start by being honest with yourself, trusting yourself comes easy and the

rest falls in place

Reference: http://thesalesmaster.me/credibility-ismission-critical/

2.4.4 5 Ways to Increase Your Communication Credibility

by Vault Careers

Credibility counts, especially at the office. This extends not solely to your job

performance, but also the message you communicate, what you talk about, and

how you talk.

According to communication expert Dianna Booher, words have to match

actions, so if you say you’re going to do something, you should do it.  In

addition to meeting your deadlines and hitting all your goals, it’s vital to

establish trust in your communications – both verbal and written, including

social – otherwise you’ll run the risk of lowering your hallway credibility. 

Once you’ve lost it, it’s all but impossible to win back, she says.  Think of the

saying – actions speak louder than words.  However, if your actions match those

words, it gives your communication that much more power. 

Booher is the author of Communicate With Confidence.  The bestselling classic

aimed at improving readers’ communication skills has been recently revised and

expanded by McGraw-Hill.  There are over 1,200 tips for increasing

communication skills in her book.  Booher promises that just following some

the rules mentioned in her book will help readers, of any skill level, establish

hallway credibility in no time.  Here are five quick tips to get you started: 

Show Concern. People will care about you and more importantly trust you,

when you care about them.  People want to know that they have a sympathetic

ear in you. Even companies need to show concern over individuals before

rectifying situations.

Admit What You Don’t Know.  When people smell blood, they start to dig.

It’s human instinct to push when they feel they are being bluffed.  Admitting

ignorance is a simple principle, easy to remember, easy to accomplish, but a

difficult pill to swallow.  Nothing makes people believe what you do know like

admitting what you don’t.

Keep Confidences.  When people know you share personal, confidential

matters about others with them, they fear you’ll do the same to them.  Breaking

confidences speaks volumes about your character. Those who observe your

ability to keep your promises and your confidences will begin to trust you with

their real feelings.

Avoid Exaggeration. Did you wait on the phone for five seconds, or five

minutes? Did the supplier raise the rates by 2% or 10%?  Did the scores dip to

30 or down to 10?  Exaggeration makes for great humor, but it is a credibility

killer.

Accept Responsibility.  If you were involved in the decisions, actions, and

results, or had some control over a situation that didn’t end the way others

wanted it to, own up to it. Shirkers suffer credibility gaps.

Reference: http://www.vault.com/blog/workplace-issues/5-ways-to-increase-

your-communication-credibility