Building Credibility

I recently read “The Leadership Challenge” by James Kouzes and Barry Posner. In that book Kouzes and Posner emphasize the principles of honesty, competence, inspiration, and forward-looking as being the foundation of building credibility.

Of those principle I believe I have exhibited most in my professional career are those of Honesty and Forward-looking.

For four years prior to starting the MBA program at SUU I worked for a company where I was responsible for overseeing tens of millions of dollars and all financial transactions flowed through the company at my direction. I was propelled to the position with little financial background. However, in my previous position of managing all the companies equipment assets I exhibited trustworthiness and ability for analysis. Given this the CEO/Owner believed in me and had the utmost confidence I would manage his company’s money ethically. My honesty propelled me to the position but then, the honesty I exhibited to my direct reports created a financial team that had full trust in my decisions. As Kouzes and Posner state, being authentic and showing integrity are qualities Character of Admired Leaders (CAL) respondents admire in leaders. Additionally, as a result of my honesty, my team believed me, thus exhibiting Kouzes-Posners second law of leadership: DWYSYWD – do what you say you will do.

The other characteristic I believe I excelled at was being forward looking. That book emphasizes the importance of leaders having the vision and the ability to get the team to the final destination. I believe I have excelled at visualizing the objective and guiding my team on how to get there. In the operational side, I was able to help guide Project Managers by illustrating the desired vision to them and giving them the direction or instructions on how to get there. Also, I think my ability to see the issues that may arise and being aware of contingencies that would need to be taken if said issues did arise was a valuable skill I was able to implement.

However, I believe my credibility was tarnished due to my lack of formal education in finance. While I had a basic understanding of managerial accounting, and a deep understanding of the company’s operations inflow and outflow of cash and  I lacked a deeper understanding of finances such as tax accounting, or banking. I deferred to others in this regard but still wished I had more knowledge in the are. As stated by Kouzes and Posner, “there’s no expectation that a leader should be super-human, all-seeing wizard.” However, having more of an understanding of these core areas would have increased my direct reports confidence in my competence. This is a major reason as to why I am seeking my MBA. Furthering my education will  help me gain that extra competence that will help me gain that trust of my teams in the future.  

With the continuance of this course, and my MBA in general, coupled with my continuing my career in managerial positions I can increase credibility.