People have long talked about how credibility is key to running a successful business. During a crisis, this is especially true. And usually, that’s the extent to which managerial trainings teach about the subject. Very few start to dissect what makes a person credible. Many bring up professional knowledge, but that only makes us professional and not necessarily credible. Then, several people define credibility as once we say something, we always adhere to it, but well, that doesn’t perfectly define this quality, either. Credibility goes hand in hand with self-assessment. If someone’s self-assessment isn’t good, they can be a consummate professional, but they won’t be credible!
Self-assessment after the pandemic
Credibility is a consequence of self-assessment, more precisely a manifestation of good self-assessment throughout our lives. It is a huge mistake to try to simplify this concept in any way-way to deep, rock-hard professional knowledge. By no means can a businessperson be credible if, say, they are very strong professionally, if they are an introvert, an Expert type, but they choose to display the behaviour of a dynamic, creative, motivating, Individual-type in a business meeting. The two are simply not in unity; something is wrong with the person, meaning they are starting to doubt their professional knowledge as well, so it won’t be credible. And the opposite may also be true if there is a leader who is excellent in communication and in motivating people around them, dynamizing their work, but stopping there because they are a leader. If they don’t want to sell themself as a great professional, they will therefore be credible to the outside audience as they represent exactly who they are. The issue of credibility is clearly related to self-assessment and, therefore, cannot be learned on its own. This is why it matters so much after such a deep crisis, as people seek and love qualities and features that cannot be mastered but are essential to success. Well, excellent self-assessment is exactly like that.
What is excellent self-assessment?
Self-assessment begins there when we see a clear and sharp picture of ourselves. We are aware of all our qualities that have positive and negative effects on the outside world and our environment. Plus, we need to be able to focus on the negatives, much more than the positive things, as they can push us away from success. If you have this picture, we need to check it out! It’s worth asking the people around us, but with really open questions, and only those we know for sure that they have excellent self-assessment. Anyway, this is the hardest part of the operation. Mainly because, on the one hand, there are societies that build on a “fake” presence from the outset, and on the one hand, there are global trends that reinforce the “fake self-image”. So, it’s easy to get lost in this matter. Most of the time in business, for example, the family environment itself makes it impossible to see ourselves perfectly from the outside. Because that requires ruthless evaluation of everyone around us, and so what happens when our loved ones, our mother, our father, our brothers, our grandmother, are revealed — in an objective evaluation — that they are not the angels we thought they were. In business, many managers don’t want to face this and prefer to keep a piece of “fake” life subconsciously, which has already undermined their credibility. Of course, ruthless self-assessment is not about “throwing out anyone who is not perfect”. But if, say, our mother calls six times a day, even though we’re adults, or conversely, she doesn’t respond to our SMS for three days, let’s not believe that mom lives only to selflessly love us. She is also a person. She may be selfish, but that makes her a mother, and of course, she has to be loved. But by going beyond this statement, let us turn honestly to ourselves, because that is the basis of perfect self-assessment.
All personality types can be authentic. In addition, credibility is not tied to a level of study or intelligence. We are simply being honest with ourselves and acting self-consistently in front of the world. This, of course, includes both our weaknesses and our strengths.
(Next, Number 1: True empathy)
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