Simply Lisa

Two things I've got on my mind lately are writing and credibility. I"ll take up writing and the anti-writing demon I'm reading about in a separate post. But I do want to toss out some thoughts about credibility.

When was the last time you were asked to decide a black and white issue? Keep thinking . . . keep thinking . . . got one yet? The last time I was asked to decide a black and white issue I told the group to do an about face and come back to me with the answer, but I digress. Why is it that issues are never black and white?

When was the last time you were advocating for a course of action and the final decision was being made by someone else? And it was anything but black and white? And the decision hinged on your credibility? 

Pick a day, any day, and welcome to my world.

In Leader's Credibility is Golden John Baldoni writes,"credibility is a leader's coin of the realm." And it's up to each individual leader to guard their own credibility. Character matters.  "Leaders are judged by what they do, not what they are. Little good can come from being good; you must do good things. You must be stalwart in the face of crisis. Be the rock for your team to stand upon when times are tough. And be in the shadow when success arrives. "

Being a stalwart in the face of crisis and being a rock for the team . . . here in lies a credibility challenge. When mistakes are made and service is not delivered there is a fine line between a leader supporting her staff and absorbing the hits and in doing so to a fault. There are conversations to be had and expectations to be set (bravery required) and when this is not done it is not done to the fault of the individual, to the team, and to the leader's own credibility with her boss, her staff and her colleagues too. As obvious as this sounds, it's not. And just when you think you've got this leadership thing down, you realize it really is an art and not a science. 

You have credibility currency. You trade in it and on it regularly, whether you are aware of it or not. So, if you regularly own responsibility for missed expectations of members of your team yet shield them (and maybe even yourself) from the discomfort - stop that right now. You are trading in a little bit of leadership credibility each and every time you do so.

How do you know the bank is getting low? It could be a long sigh, an extended silence, a scratch of the forehead or a peer over the reading glasses but make no mistake, it's a credibility assessment in progress. Get it together and pay attention so you can be supported with confidence and not a question.

So, how's your credibility these days?

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Leadership, like life, is a series of continuous course corrections. Looking to the future via a crystal ball based on your situation today is wholly and entirely inaccurate assuming you even had a crystal ball that worked. Bummer. Major bumps ahead.

Leadership has it's bumps. Bumps in workload can be addressed with process improvements, staffing, or revision of services. Bumps in employee morale can be addressed by a refocus on the mission, a conversation or a commitment to action. Bumps in technical expertise or knowledge can be addressed by training, succession planning or redistribution of work.

What if the leader hits a personal bump that is less than a total loss of inspiration yet greater than a funk. What if this bump goes beyond the day to day workings of her team to contribution, committment, or community for the greater good?

Then it's time for the leader to step back and ask herself some questions about people, time and costs. Questions like, what types of interactions with others are energizing to her, where is she willing to spend her personal time and where is she willing to incur personal costs? And to what end? (No, the Magic 8-Ball is not any more reliable or helpful than the ill-fated crystal ball here!)

Leadership is about inspiring people, it's about achieving goals, it's about being present in the moment to correct the course as needed . . . . most of the time. Some of the time, it's not about any of that and all about the leader.

Leadership is only as good as the leader so leaders, you've got to be at your best. You owe it to yourselves to reflect, to wonder, to be selfish, and to chase your dreams. To do anything less is to doing nothing at all.

Hat tip to Mark Stelzner for being spot-on in the "asking the right questions" department!

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You are engaged, tooling along, whistling while you work and then, without warning, psh, it happens. Just like that, you've lost your inspiration.

You begin to wonder. Where did you last see it? What were you doing when you lost it? When did you first notice it was missing? Was it really there one minute and gone the next or was it a long, slow leak?

You've been there before, I've been there before and we will be there again. Not only can self-motivation be a challenge in this frame of mind, so can inspiring others. That's a problem and it's a problem worth solving. I set out to solve it right here in this very space.

I carried my Modo & Modo black Moleskine journal around with me. I wrote, I erased, doodled, I cut, I pasted, I pondered and I wondered, "how do you inspire others when you are uninspired?"

I got nothing.

How about you?

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Photo credit iStockphoto