Credibility

In the last week I've had two interesting conversations on the topic of credibility. My friend Kelvin was lamenting to me having discussions with people who seemed to be promising things it didn't seem they were capable of delivering on. Then my friend Dick was discussing with me how those who have preceded us have almost ruined the consulting business because the over promised and under delivered, and it makes those who may need services hesitant to hire us, even though we try not to over promise, because they've been burned in the past.

It's an interesting topic, credibility, because it means different things to different people, yet it shouldn't. Webster's defines the word as something "that can be believed; reliable." That's pretty straight forward, without a lot of wiggle room, but there's so much out there that either doesn't seem credible or seems to be so credible that it's never even questioned that people get confused all the time.

To me, credible is a microwave that heats food and liquids up, because that's what it's supposed to do. It may have many bells and whistles; it may have a plate that spins the food; it might have a convection oven attached to it; it may be used as an alarm; it may even dry clothes every once in awhile (I've never tried this, but I've heard it can be done). But for a microwave to be credible, at least initially, it has to achieve its main function.

A couple of weeks ago I woke up very early and turned on the TV, where there was this commercial about some educational videos that would help you make money online, and also the opportunity to accumulate a good number of websites that would help you on your way. The testimonials all had people who were making at least $50,000 a month off their websites. I've actually been to a couple of seminars where the same thing has been promised; the first time my wife convinced me to go, and I can't remember why I went the second time. The people running the seminars said they had many clients making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year selling almost anything; one guy supposedly was making $65,000 a year from a website that sold only cat furniture.

I wrote the names of some of these websites down, came home, and did some research. Since one of the businesses associated with mine is a business that builds and optimizes websites, I like to think I know a little bit about how some websites can possibly make money. The one I concentrated on was the one for cat furniture. I looked at the site first, and saw it was an okay site, built with a template that is a standard sales template for people who don't know how to build their own sites. I then went on Google and looked up the sites based on what's known as keywords; it didn't come up on the first 100 listings. I then ran a background search using something called GoogleRankings, just to see where it came up, and it did show up, somewhere in the 300th listing range.

Basically, the initial premise didn't sound credible to me, and further research makes it less credible that this site could be making anywhere close to that much money monthly. It probably makes something, but it would have to be selling to retail markets to make the kind of money these people claimed it could make. Of course, these people don't want you to know that, or to think about that. They're job is to make it all sound really attractive, like everyone in the room (the first seminar had over 200 people) could make that kind of money, and they were "so sure" that they were giving everyone instant credit that day, without a credit check, if they signed their name on a piece of paper to pay them $1,800 at an 18% interest rate. And you wouldn't believe the length of the lines of people who couldn't wait to get their signature on that line. They weren't close to being credible in my eyes, and yet they were going to earn hundreds of thousands that day be selling a dream but within a year they weren't going to have any credibility in a lot of people's eyes.

These days, we're not generally interested in credibility. We're interested in the instant gratification of our needs and wishes. I was recently talking to someone about possibly doing a project for him, and I told him that I could easily provide what he was looking for, but that it wasn't something I did on a regular basis and that there were probably people who could give him what he was looking for, or at least pretty close to it, for a lesser rate than what I'd ask for. He was impressed by that, because it sounded credible to him. I didn't oversell him and promise the moon, and we're still talking about doing business of some kind with each other because he appreciated my honesty.

So, what does should it take to be credible in today's world? Should it involve 12 hour work days? Should it involve taking on more than you can handle because you believe people need to believe in you? Should it involve promising more than you've ever delivered before, then scrambling to provide something that might not be up to your standard on the back end? Some might say yes. I've been to some sales training classes where that very thing was said; make the sale, and worry about the consequences later on. How well does that sit with you when you've had to take a whole day off from work because the cable guy said he'd be at your house between 10:30 and 12:30, and doesn't show up until 6PM, then can't get the equipment working?

I wrote in one of my blog posts that I thought the three strongest traits anyone can have are loyalty, trustworthiness, and honesty. One builds their credibility based on those three things. One starts with themselves first, taking an internal look to see if they believe they're living up to those standards at home and at work. Brian Tracy wrote in The Power Of Clarity that if someone wants to be more productive in their work day that they should wake up earlier, go to the office earlier, not take breaks, not waste time on non-work issues throughout the day, and stay later. The thought is that if one applies themselves in this manner, at some point they'll see that their production is so great that they'll end up with less work or with promotions that will gain them greater power and position, and possibly more free time later on. Truthfully I think this is a bit over the edge, because I tend to believe that, in today's world, once a person starts working in this manner that it becomes expected of them, and unless that person has learned how to talk themselves up, ala Brag by Peggy Klaus, then they're never going to see the true benefits of their work, though their credibility factor will easily be higher.

As a leader, one gets to determine if those working around them are applying the same credible standards to the work they're doing throughout the day. At some point, as one gains comfort with this idea of credibility, they can more readily evaluate the credibility of those who they may not see as often, such as vendors of products and services, or even their own employees. Does someone promise the moon without something to back them up? Does what someone is saying make any real sense? If not, send them out the door. If so, continue to ask some questions, but ask those questions that will give you what you need to make a proper decision. At this point, a leader's credibility is also on the line. Is the leader credible enough to know how to make a decision? Is the leader credible enough to know how to acknowledge good work, while, at the same time, knowing how to handle someone whose productivity isn't up to standard?

Credible products do what they're supposed to do. Credible people do what they say they can do. I do believe that if at least one has achieved success doing something others can do it also. But I also believe that there are limits sometimes, and that a credible person will make sure those limits are known, both to others and themselves. Everyone can't be Bill Gates; but some very credible people are making a pretty nice living anyway.