Why Being Credible Trumps Authenticity When You’re a CEO

Jenni Field is a former president of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and for over seven years has been director of business consultancy Redefining Communications.

Based on four years’ of research, her new book Nobody Believes You: Become a Leader Who People Will Follow sets out eight practices for credible leadership, including having integrity, being vulnerable and supportive. 

According to Field’s own survey of nearly 170 business leaders, an overwhelming majority of leaders (99%) felt it was important or very important to be seen as credible. The most important trait was integrity at 45%, followed by being trustworthy at 28%

But what does being a “credible” business leader mean and how does that differ from being “authentic”?

BizChief: In your book, you talk about there being a difference between being ‘authentic’ and ‘credible’ – what do you mean by credible, and what’s the difference?  

Field: “Be more human,” “show more empathy,” and “be more authentic” are common phrases shared with leaders, especially since the global pandemic. But these are big hollow statements, and the last one is completely misguided. 

What does it mean to be more human or show more empathy? How do you actually do that? 

And when it comes to being authentic, my advice is to avoid it. You don’t want to be more authentic when you’re a leader. You want to be seen as credible. You want to be believed, and you want to be someone people follow. 

As a leader, the pressure is on. You’re pulled in multiple directions every day, both inside and outside the organisation. Balancing that and focussing on what is important is challenging, and when you’re leading a team or an organisation, people are looking at you to actually lead them so they can follow you.

BizChief: Why did you want to write this book?

Field: I have always been interested in why we choose to follow some leaders and not others, and recently I conducted research into this topic. Here’s what I learnt. Being credible is much more important than being authentic. In fact, my research into leadership credibility shows us that for your employees, it’s more important to them that you’re credible than you probably believe [about] yourself. 

But credible is another big, hollow word and for you to build your credibility we have to talk about what it means.

BizChief: Tell me about your ‘credibility wheel’ - what is it and how does it work? 

Field: Being credible isn’t one thing, it’s created from demonstrating eight practices that are a combination of behaviours and traits:

1. Empathy: You believe someone else’s lived experience regardless of your own.
2. Trustworthy: You’ve proven your competence, and people act on your words.
3. Visionary: You can clearly articulate where you want people to go with you.
4. Supportive: You create space for your team to learn and grow.
5. Vulnerability: You’re open, real, and able to admit when you’re wrong.
6. Likeable: People like being around you, regardless of whether they like you.
7. Integrity: You do what you say you will do, consistently.
8. Capable: You take action and make decisions based on experience. 

There are different skills and strategies that can be applied to develop each of these qualities. You might have empathy, but your likeability might be a little off. Or you might be capable but lack supportiveness. 

When you’re missing one, you’ll know. You’ll see it in your team and feel it in your culture. In fact, there are clear outcomes that you’ll see. The disrespect you’re seeing is because they don’t see you as capable, the disconnection is because you’re not being vulnerable, and the distrust from your team is because you lack integrity.

BizChief: Give me some instances of how a CEO can build up credibility with his workers

Field: Well, here are some things you can do to start building credibility:

• Do what you say you will - there are no shortcuts you have to do the work. If you can’t do what you said you will, explain why
• Prioritise the right things – if you don’t, your expectation gap will be high and this will impact your relationships. Plan your time so you can deliver what you need to for those who follow you
• Listen - you need to know whether what you’re doing is having the impact or outcome you want. Use internal reviews, behaviour assessments etc., to learn and grow.

Jenni Field’s new book Nobody Believes You - How to Become a Leader People Will Follow is out now

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