How To Develop Credibility With A New Team, Potential Customers, Or Prospective Employers
Whether you're trying to lead a new team, increase your visibility in front of customers, or you're searching for a new career, building effective, genuine relationships is a key component in establishing the credibility you'll need to realize your goal. But this article isn't to teach you how to do that - it's to help you reach out to those you've developed relationships with in order to develop your credibility. The beauty of doing the first step right (developing a network of genuine relationships) is that you've already started building credibility of character!
There are a number of life stories you can look to for models of how building relationships and credibility can be done (and just as many for how it shouldn't be done); political campaigning, setting oneself up for a promotion, building testimonials and case studies, and the list goes on. But one thing they all have in common is how they foster and sustain relationships in order to effectively and genuinely build credibility.
Step One: First, individuals who are successful building credibility - and this may seem like common sense - are aware of what things, attributes, qualifications or otherwise, make them credible. In other words, they've constructed an objective list of projects they've worked on (probono or not), committees they've served, or situations that they've overcome that all speak to the credibility message they are trying to communicate. Example: If you're trying to demonstrate your knowledge of historic building restoration, the successful and high-visibility projects you've worked on and your involvement in associations and groups that advise cities on restoration programs would speak to your professionalism, continuing education, portfolio, and "expert" role in the field. If you were searching for a new job that required specialized skill in lifting team morale, bringing different departments together on projects and lowering costs, your list of things would include leadership skills you employed in the past to do similar things - even if they weren't for a previous employer.
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Step Two: Many of the steps you need to take to obtain credibility we discussed in step one. Volunteer for projects if you are just starting out and you want to demonstrate your specific expertise. Then jot down how things changed for the better after the group used your new widget, took your advice, or implementd a new strategy. Ask a previous employer for comments on your work (or leadership style) and the benefits they realized by having you and bring that to your next informational interview. In anything you do, though, maintain a professional consistency - of message, style and approach. How you present yourself, in person, marketing materials, website, work product -- it should all be consistent. Inconsistency is the norm; simply being consistent in your look and work product will differentiate you from the rest.
Step Three: Finally, why build credibility if you aren't going to capitalize on it? If you're best known for designing systems that are easy to use, quick to deploy and require less resources to maintain, you should be shouting that from the hilltops! Who doesn't want easy, fast and low-cost these days? If you can demonstrate quality too, then BANG! you've got yourself a winning combination. Reach out to your potential buyers (associations, conferences, publishers, companies) and tell them how others have benefitted from your winning combination of "easy, fast, low-cost" way to build their system.
Doing this may require a change in perspective. So think of what you're doing as helping others better understand your value proposition. Doing this with deliberate focus and purpose helps your target audience know what you're really good at and how you can help them better than anyone else.
Tanya Maslach leads the creative and consulting efforts of Elevati, Inc. a company that helps employees develop relationships for improved team performance, customer loyalty, and profitability. For more info and to sign up for the Elevati Community newsletter and periodic briefings, go to www.elevati-inc.com.
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