I always believed that if I am competent, my credibility will be taken care of. After all, when I come through with my deliverables, I am automatically credible right? Not really.
Let’s understand what the two really mean. Alan. M Patterson, in his book Burn Ladders, Build Bridges, defines the two as follows:
- Competence is the depth of knowledge and application of your expertise and experience.
- Credibility is how others experience your capability. It is the extent to which others trust you because you commit and deliver something important to them.
A fulfilling career needs both competence and credibility.
Competence without credibility just means that you are smart not necessarily valued.
Alan M. Patterson in Burn Ladders. Build Bridges.
We often make the mistake of working solely on our competence assuming that credibility will follow. Credibility has to be worked upon consciously just like competence. And here are the factors that fuel your credibility.
- Visibility : You have to be visible before people can know you and trust you. With our focus solely on competence, it’s easy to skip some simple steps that lend us visibility.
- Show up in places where your stakeholders (clients, mentors, team members, senior leadership of your organization or future employers) are present. Building on your interests or domain expertise through professional associations, industry groups, alumni networks and the like are all good examples.
- Find a project outside your area of expertise – Not only does this develop new skills, but enables you to interact with people outside of your immediate work network
- Participate in extracurricular activities –speak up at an industry conference, volunteer to organize a panel to solve an industry issue, build from your interest, not just your expertise.
- Teach, speak, blog on topics that you know something about or about which you want to learn
- Content : Find your voice. It’s not enough to show up and be visible. You need to be visible with a message. You need to create a narrative around what should people know you for. “Lean In” was Sheryl Sandberg’s side project. She went on to carve a niche for herself with it and never before had the issue of women in leadership taken such a spotlight. She combined being visible with a very strong and clear narrative i.e. Women shouldn’t wait to be invited to take a seat at the table. They should lean in and take it.
- Availability – This is about receptivity and presence, being in the moment. When people respond to your message, then be present. It doesn’t matter whether you are spending a few minutes in a spontaneous conversation or making time for an important discussion. Both require giving someone your full undivided attention. When you meet people who don’t think like you, take time to understand what’s important to them. Be curious to understand someone’s perspective and motivations rather than solving a problem. Always remember that being physically available without being mentally present is a credibility killer.
Sources
Bridge to leadership 
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