How to Boost Your Credibility in 30 Minutes #33

After all, all art is experience. Hello and welcome to The Company Doctor. Today, Gary and I are taking a look at the characteristics that inspire confidence in others, and the easy steps that you can take to boosting your credibility. From performance, image and exposure to the importance of timekeeping, this episode is an invaluable set of guidelines for anyone looking to make a greater impact. Visit thecompanydoctor.com for previous episodes on topics mentioned today, plus plus various other bits of extra Company Doctor gold. And in the meantime, enjoy the show. Hello, Gary.

Hello, George. How are you?

I'm very well. I'm very well. I'm excited for this episode because I think, as you may agree, if anyone needs to massively boost their credibility, it's me.

No, not at all. You don't need to boost your credibility, but Originally, the title I'd come up with, which wasn't really fit for consumption, was Stop Being Flaky and Do What You Say. But I thought that wasn't very catchy.

Yeah, people might take it personally.

Well, not for you, but generally for people out there, I was thinking, you know, that's not a great way to get someone to listen to your podcast.

So yeah, by sort of insulting them into listening. No, this is good. How to Massively Boost Your Credibility in 30 Minutes. I'm ready.

And also, it's not just the It's not clickbait. This is real, real stuff that works. And it's not that complicated. It's never easy. It's not actually that difficult. That's what I say anyway. What do you say?

I say lay it on me. And also, you do sometimes you need someone just to, just to, even if it's not very complicated or tricky, you need someone to just lay it out for you and map it out. So yeah, let's do it.

Let's do this. It's a sunny day. Beautiful day. We're gonna boost people's credibility.

Yeah, and the moods.

And the moods. I'm feeling great. Me too. I am feeling really good. Just need to notify yourself and then you'll believe it. Yeah. Good. So let's get started. There are 3 parts to today, weirdly. Bizarre. And the first one, which will prompt a question from you I'm sure, is the 3 pieces of pie.

Right.

Yes.

What is this pie?

What is pie?

What is pie?

A pie. You know what a pie is, don't you? It's a thing with a crust. Well, the reason I'm starting with PIE, some people may have heard of it before, but PIE stands for Performance, Image, and Exposure.

Okay. I haven't heard of this.

And the reason I want to cover this first, it does touch on networking and we've done loads of stuff on networking. So I don't want to re-cover that. But in order to talk about boosting your credibility, you need to have something to boost. So later on we'll share the method, of course, leaving it towards the end. Yeah, but there's no point giving you the method for people that are listening unless we kind of give you the set piece beforehand. So start with the pieces of pie. Well, and as you quite rightly asked, what is it? What it could be, something with pastry on, but it's more interesting, it's more tasty than pastry.

No, more tasty than pastry. God, we haven't had a t-shirt for a while. I think that might be I didn't even realize that was so good.

Who knew I could be this good today? Yes, more tasting and pastry. So the first one, oh God. The P of PIE, Tasty PIE, is performance. And interesting enough, if you think, the reason it's called PIE is it's split into little groups. So performance is how you perform your job exceptionally well. But it's the foundation of success. And it's about the day-to-day work and the quality of the results you deliver. Everyone knows about performance, but most people think our performance is the be-all and end-all to being successful. But the truth is, have you ever come across someone that didn't perform very well but got promoted? Yes. Annoying, right?

Very annoying. How do they do it?

Exactly. And they do it because of the rest of the pie. So I think that performance is only really 10% of your success in your career. And most people will be listening to this thinking, 'That doesn't make any sense,' but stay with me, stay tuned because there's more tasty pie coming. And I'm going to get into some of the considerations for performance. I'll come back to it. The second one is image. Yeah. And image is how you cultivate the proper image. Yeah, it's your personal brand, I guess, right? And it's more about what other people think of you. And it's interesting because we're going to talk about exposure in a minute, but exposure with a poor image is negative.

Yeah, well, because you're exposing people to a bad side of yourself.

Exactly. So you're— they are interconnected. And I think image is only 30% of your success rate. So we've only really got done— yeah, we've only got 40%. So the 60% of the tasty pie is exposure.

Okay.

And if you increase your exposure positively, the right people know you, right, in the right way.

And this sort of harkens back, as you say, to the networking side of things and sort of being omnipresent at events and online and sort of making sure that you're always visible to the right people.

Yeah, the way I would put it is who you know, and more importantly, who knows about you and what you do is what counts. So it's like who you know, but who knows you and what you can do is what's important. And but if you go back to the image, if you don't have a good image, then they might not know good stuff. You'll be a nasty pie. You don't want to be a nasty pie, you want to be a tasty pie.

And I suppose the image is also sort of created a little bit by the performance. So they all sort of ladder up to each other, don't they?

They ladder up. Yes, they do ladder up.

Without a good performance, you haven't got a great image.

So let me throw in some considerations for each of those so that people can kind of get the context. And this is all foundational really, because then we're going to Punch you between the eye with your pie. Okay, sorry, I've had too many coffees this morning. So here's some considerations for performance. Bear in mind, it's the foundation of your success, I think, although it's only a small percentage. Do you have a consistent record of performance for every role you've ever played and now playing? So if you're listening, performance is about your consistent record of performance. Do you always give it your all? I mean, everyone says, I work, you know, if you go to an interview, I work 120%, but do you? Don't answer the question. Are you a team player? Do you put others before your own personal ambitions? God, man, I wonder what people would say in politics. Yeah, it's not always an obvious thing, right? Can you influence others? Are you results-driven? Do you consider constructive feedback and act upon it? And are you actively developing the leadership potential of others? There are some of the considerations of performance rather than just saying—

lots to consider there.

Well, a lot of people would think performance is about, you know, if you're in sales, you hit your numbers.

Yeah, right.

Which it could be, but it's not the be-all and end-all. There's more to it. Do you want to hear more about I?

Considerations for the I of the pie.

I in the pie. Yeah. You know, it's about your image. So it's extremely important because you want to have this positive exposure and it's about your personal brand, which we've covered obviously before. What would others say about you? Are you a role model?

Yeah.

Would you want you to follow yourself? Don't ask the question. Do others know your role and what you've got to offer? Do you lead by example? Are you a person of high integrity? Do you always have a, maintain a positive attitude? Are you an agent of change? They're the things that I want you to consider.

Okay, that's the image. Those are the image considerations.

That's the image ones. And here's the E. I want you to embrace the E, George. I'll embrace it. Embracing the E, the exposure. Embrace the exposure. Do you have a mentor? Do you have a sponsor? Does your boss know what you do? Do others inside and outside your organization know anything about you? Do you go out of your way to introduce yourself to others and get them to know you? Do you introduce other people to each other? Do you respect others and do they respect you? They're the kind of key things I would say. Right.

So it is also grounded in— that is grounded in networking as well, isn't it? Because it's this idea of connecting other people as well as trying to connect yourself to important people as well.

Yeah, it's kind of the reason for networking. So networking, you know, if, if 60% of, of your personal brand comes from exposure, it means you've got to get yourself out there. And episode 1, and I can't remember the second episode, we did an advanced version of networking, is the way to do that. But the important thing is that you, if you don't have a strong image, then your exposure is not a good thing because it's just, you're just emanating bad stuff. So it's really important to do that.

And have you got a sort of most important consideration for each of those three? Wow, that's a great question. What a great place to start.

That's a very good question. I would say, yeah. So just very quickly, on the performance, always go the extra mile. What that means is that people don't always know what you're doing. So if you're sitting there thinking, well, they should know how hard I'm working and how brilliant I am, then people don't. So it's up to you to shout from the hills a little bit about what you're doing. So show off. A little bit. If you're a manager, the best way to show off is to tell everyone how great your team are and what they're doing and make sure you look good. From the image point of view, it's all about personal brand. And, you know, I'm not going to go through the details of it because we've done that in other episodes, but the main thing is decide what you stand for. For me personally, it's about being on time, doing what I say, and therefore acting with the right behaviors to reinforce that it's actually true. Reinforcing behaviors on, on your image is more important than the image itself. Yep. And on exposure, yeah, network like crazy internally and externally. Intentionally network every week and make it part of your DNA.

Great, I like that.

So let's go to part 2. Part 2 is, what time is it? Here's my question for you, George. Does it matter if I'm on time or not?

I think if it's important to you and part of your own brand, then yes. I mean, as a general rule, yes.

Are you just saying that to make me happy?

Well, it's what I want to believe, yeah.

But why does it matter?

I suppose it's courtesy.

Okay, cool. I think the answer is definitely yes, because I think it affects your performance, your image, and exposure. But I'm going to sell you on the idea.

Okay.

And here's my example that I want to give you. If you ever go on holiday, have you ever missed a flight? I have not.

I've come close.

I've come close. People listening, I mean, I know there's times where we've all missed a flight. But generally not. It's very unlikely. Why is that?

I see where you're going with this. And I suppose, yeah, it's because it's important that you get on.

It doesn't go down well with the other half, for a start. But also, it's important. You want to get to the other side of it. But there's two sides to airlines, because imagine this. Have you ever been on a plane that was late?

Yes.

And just sitting on the runway? How do you feel about that?

Angry.

Yeah, right? It's really annoying, isn't it? Yeah. So if you're on the receiving end of something that's late, it doesn't feel good, does it? What does it make you think about the airline when that happens?

That they're useless.

They're useless. Okay. Yeah. Or maybe a bit unreliable.

Yeah.

Yeah. There's some airlines you go, they're always going to be late. Here's an example. Two airlines that are not around anymore. I think Sabena was, sorry, the Belgians, the Belgian national airline is not around, but it used to stand for such a bad experience, never again. Right. That's what Sabena used to stand for. Alitalia, always late in arrival, always late out. So, you know, it's, yeah, they created a reputation for being late. Yeah. And some aren't around anymore. So it works both ways. But the important thing is that your credibility, and this is where we're starting to build it up, is starting to be formed on how reliable you are. Right. And the perception of reliability, there's a number of things. One of them is about being on time.

Yeah. It's funny, isn't it? Because it's, It sounds like a small thing, but it's so, you're right, it's so important in terms of that cultivation of your own reliability and brand.

And I think that's the thing. So the question, that's why I asked you the question at the beginning, for people listening, does it matter about being on time? Only you can answer that. I think it does. And then ask yourself why it does. The holiday example, going on a plane makes it important to you personally, but what about work? And what about, how much do you care about the perception of you? With people, because if you do care about it, I promise you that you being late comes across badly and damages your credibility and reputation unintentionally. So, and you know, you may think, ah, well, really? And the answer is absolutely. Yeah. I've told the story before, but I remember I went out with this girl once and I, I, if I said I was coming at 8 o'clock, I'd be there at 8 o'clock and I was always there at 8 o'clock. And she said to me, do you park around the corner? And I said, absolutely not, why would I be so creepy to put around the corner? But absolutely did. Yeah, because I didn't want to be late. And I know, and I'll do that in most situations. And actually, just being— even if I'm early, I don't want to be early. All right, I want to be on time.

Yeah, okay.

And people, it stands out when you go, you know, the pips on the, on the, on the radio when it's, uh, on the hour, I'm there. Like, people like, wow, you're always on time, like clockwork. I'm like a Swiss clock. So yeah, this builds the biggest part of the credibility because it equals reliability. And more importantly, you know you can rely on me. Yeah. So you know me well. If I say I'm coming at a certain time, what are your thoughts about the chances of me being there on time?

It's 99% likely.

Yeah, there's been the odd time. It's funny, I do some training for a lot of companies and I tell people about being on time, and if I'm doing a 2-day training course, I've got to be there on time. Yeah, people are dying for me to be late. I think they try and stop me. They're like trying to run me over or something before I get there, just to prove I was hopeless. But it seems like a silly thing, doesn't it? Just say, well, does time really boost your credibility?

Absolutely.

Yeah, that's one thing. You like?

Yeah, I like.

I agree. You agree? Okay, so yeah, so that's one thing. The second one, and the really big one for me is you're not going to be surprised to hear this, is do what you say.

Yeah.

Probably the biggest way to boost your credibility beyond time, because I think time is really important and linked to anyway, is do what you say. Remember at the beginning I talked about stop being flaky?

Yeah.

Yeah. I just hate flaky, don't you?

I do. It's something which I used to be accused of being, but I think I may have turned that around.

No, I don't think the same way. And basically flaky is the opposite of doing what you say, it's almost predictably unpredictable. And, you know, so for people that know me, and I'm not bigging myself up and say I'm perfect because I'm not, I'm nearly, but I'm not going to do it. If I say I'll do something, I'll absolutely do it because that's my brand.

Yeah.

And I really care about it.

Yeah. And that, you know, it makes, as you say, it sort of boosts your image in front with the people that, you know, you're making plans with or whatever it may be. And Conversely, there are people who you make a plan to see them or whatever it may be, and you just know that there's going to be a last-minute change of plan or there's going to be some sort of delay or it's going to be postponed. And that is frustrating and it sort of helps, it sort of informs your view of that person.

Yeah, no, absolutely. Because I think it's quite rare for people to do what they say. Yeah. Because I think a lot of people are people pleasers. And a good example for me would be in things like projects. A lot of people that are project managers, they don't like, you know, they have these dashboards, which is kind of red, amber, green. Green is good, amber is getting bad, red is bad. No one wants to tell people that it's not working because it makes you look bad, like it was my fault. So they kind of make stuff up. I call it lies and dashboards. They make it up. So because of the way people react, a lot of project people will just make everything look green because they don't want to have any help with the problem. And here's an example. There was a project manager I was working with and he was supposed to deliver something by the Friday, but there was a problem and it didn't happen. So he told the customer it was coming on the Monday, but it wasn't. It wasn't coming on the Monday and he's just delayed the agony so he can have a better weekend. Yeah. Tell the customer the truth. Tell them it's not coming on Monday. It's probably coming the following Friday, but I'll try and improve on the time. That's a much better way to deal with it because you're setting and managing expectations. And managing expectations is what it's all about. So doing what you say is really about managing expectations. That's how I would put it.

Yeah, yeah, nice. Yeah, and it sort of, it makes the problem so much worse, as you say, if you're just kicking a problem into the long grass, you know, that's tomorrow's problem. That's a sort of unhealthy way of looking at things.

Yeah, so if I'll give you some tips at the end, but to manage expectations is a key part of what you've got to do. So if you invite me to a party, which hopefully you will.

Always.

I'm the first one to arrive and the last one to leave.

Always.

Yes, I have seen that. Which annoys my wife considerably. So, ah, can we go? No, we said we're coming, we're staying to the end. I mean, you may not want me to stay to the end, and therefore you might tell me it finishes earlier than it does, so I get Gary Gamp, but I'm there, I'm staying. Yeah, I'm there on time. I'm going to be the first one to arrive and the last one to leave. I don't think it's cool to turn up late. I think it's cool to turn up early so you get better drinks.

And so, yeah, fashionably late isn't part of your vocabulary.

I like it. It makes me twitch when I'm late.

Yeah.

Yeah. When, when I go— it's funny, actually, talking about airlines, and I'll kind of move on from it, but my family call me Airport Gary because when, when we're going to get a plane, I'm like quite twitchy because I want to be on time because the plane goes. Yeah. And they're like, we're going to go shopping. Calm down. Stop being Airport Gary. It's fine. It'll be okay. I know that, you know, the planes don't wait for you to do your shopping. Generally doesn't work. But I want to tell you a little story. Okay. I want to tell you a story about Alex. I bought a fridge recently, which is pretty exciting. Yeah. And it's cold, but ice cold, actually. And when it arrived, it wasn't completely right. I'm going to say the company because they did a great job. There's a company called AO, and I buy from AO because they They're not paying me to say this, but they just, they give really good service. They deliver fast and they solve problems. And I did have a problem. So it turned up, it wasn't right. I won't bore you with the details. And so I called the company and spoke to customer services and spoke to Alex, someone called Alex. Okay. And she was brilliant. And the reason she was brilliant is that she was trying to solve the problem. And I said, look, I appreciate your help. And she said something like, you don't have to thank me. This is what my job. And she wasn't saying in a cheesy way, she genuinely came across, this is my job, this is what I do. Of course, and I'm really genuinely sorry you've had these problems because we're normally better than this and things happen, but I'm going to fix it for you. This is what she said. Wow, this is amazing. She said, but we need to phone the manufacturer. So I said, well, I tried yesterday and I was on the phone for 20 minutes. I don't think I can be bothered to. She said, okay, well, why don't you and I go on the phone together for 5 minutes. If it's more than 5, then I'll deal with it myself. And I went, okay, fine. So, so hanging on the phone for 5 minutes, doesn't get through. So she says these famous things to me, which normally get me to twitch. She said, we can't get through, leave it with me and I'll call you back. Right, leave it with me and I'll call you back. What, what does that conjure up when someone says leave it with me and I'll call you back? What normally happens?

Yeah, you just never hear from them again.

Never again, right? Yeah, yeah. It's like I actually sometimes I say, I didn't say it this time because I thought she was genuine, but I normally go, no, you won't. No, I will. No, you won't. No one ever phones me back. You don't know me. I'm really going to phone you back. And then they don't. Probably I'll put them off phoning me back. But anyway, 20 minutes later, Alex calls me back and she says, I've sorted it all out for you. I've got an engineer coming on Monday.

Wow.

I've given you a refund for the delivery, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Wow. I'm telling you now, everyone who's listening, I want you to know that was a great customer experience. But the most important thing for me was someone did what they said. Yeah. She genuinely believed her job was to help me and make life better because she was called customer services. But she actually called me back. And I used to work in computer operations in my first job. And the biggest and most important thing to customers, users, if you like, was giving them feedback. Imagine this, you've got a problem, your telephone line goes down or something, you call the telephone company and they say, oh look, we're looking into it, we'll call you back.

Yeah.

You know, they're not going to— how would you feel if they called you back and said, oh, hi George, you know, we've looked into it, there's a bit of a problem, we haven't fixed it, but I'm on it. I'll give you a call this afternoon, let you know how we're progressing. How would you feel if they actually did it?

I'd feel reassured.

Stand out, isn't it?

Surprised, but yeah.

Very surprised. And so for anyone listening, if you did two things, and I'll give you some tips in a minute. One, you understood PIE because you've got to have the right framework for impressing people to some extent and boosting your credibility. But once you've got that done as part of your DNA, if you just focus on two things, one is time and one is doing what you say, and I'll give you some tips to make it practical, you'd be amazed in 30, 60 days, your credibility, you'll be like superhero, superpower.

Yeah. And did you, was that a conscious decision that you made or are you sort of innately like that anyway? Or did you say to yourself, I need to concentrate on this? And if so, did you see a marked difference in how people sort of treated you and dealt with you professionally?

I think it's a good question. I can't say I'm a superhero and I know everything, but I think it was because I started my career in operations. Where I lost most of my hair, to be honest. And I worked out what made people— like, when you work in operations, people— it's a bit of a thankless task because no one ever says, 'Thanks so much for keeping everything going, really appreciate it.' They're normally shouting at you because it's gone wrong. But you learn how to bring people with you so that you're not being shouted at all the time, because it can be quite hard. So anyone who's doing that role, I relate. Yeah. And so I learned that the most important thing was to give people feedback And then having been on the receiving end of lots of service, and I'm very tuned into it because I do it for a living, I guess, things like being on time and people doing what they say are standouts.

They have to be.

That's what makes a difference, I think.

Yeah, it's a sad state of affairs that simply being on time and doing the thing that you said you were going to do is a rare occurrence and enough for it to be something which you sort of note down. Do you know what I mean? You remember Alex because she stood out as someone who actually did what she said. And it's sad that—

Yeah, on a previous episode I spoke to you about a lady called Natalie and my car servicing experience is exactly the same. Yeah. So, you know, these, these are the little touch points that provide high levels of customer experience, good customer experience, but also they turn around. If you think about the AO experience, I could have been, I'm never going to buy from them again. But actually I'm now telling people on a podcast that you can buy from here.

Yeah, you're right.

Without being sponsored.

This episode is brought to you by Oh yeah. Yeah, not quite. Right, key takeaway time.

Well, I've got a pre-key takeaway.

Oh, okay.

Pre-takeaway. I'm mixing it up today, Drew. I didn't even tell you this. I'm mixing it up.

Keep me on my toes.

I've done two things which will really annoy you just to mix it up. One is I've got pre-key takeaways, and the other one is my key takeaway is a sentence in one take.

Whoa.

Yeah, no two points. Is that okay?

That's fine, yeah.

Am I allowed to do that?

Yeah, absolutely. You can do what you like.

Do what I like. I like the sound of that. So here we go. So, Here's some practical tips for doing what you say that will build instant credibility. First of all, next week, so if people listening, that if you bought into my idea, hopefully you have, next week when you speak to any customer, either internal or external, so I call customers internal or external, I want you to offer, just think about just for next week, 3 things that you can do and deliver so you can meet expectations. I want you to do this for 30 days. So every week for the next 30 days, just do 3 things for either internal or external customer or both. And I'd like you to write it down. So keep a track of the things that you did. And then at the end of 30 days, just review what you did and how you feel about it. And then if you think it was worthwhile, do it for the next 30 days. And after 90 days, it becomes a habit. And then ask some people that you're close to if they notice any difference in what you're doing, in how you're behaving. If you're vulnerable enough to do that, and you'll be absolutely surprised, it will stand out. Yep. Because in order to do this, you've already done the PIE thing. So you've already hopefully networking a little bit more. You're increasing your exposure and your personal brand, but you're reinforcing it with your actions. Because I think if you don't have behaviors that emanate your personal brand, your personal brand will never go anywhere. Yeah. So you've got to bring it to life, and I think that's a great way to bring it to life.

What do you think? Great. Yeah, I like that. It's inspiring. I always say this, but it's one of those things where I'm like, yeah, I'm actually going to do this, but I won't say that.

You're saying this publicly. Do you really want to be doing it?

No, I know.

Are you sure? There is— it is a bit of a life changer, I must tell you. You know, I, I've reflected back because, you know, over the years when you become a consultant, your reputation is only on you, your person. You know, the brand of the company doesn't matter anymore. It matters less anyway. And when you work for a big brand, you know, I used to work for AT&T and everyone would want to see me because I work for AT&T. But when you work on your own, no one really cares anymore, right? And so you have to stand up on your own. And what I've found over the years is the best way to stand up on your own is on obviously doing performance, image, and exposure, but to focus on being on time and to do what you say. Yeah. And manage those expectations. And that has really made a difference to me. So I thought I'd pass it on. Excellent. Are you ready for the unusual takeaway that is not in 3 points? Yeah. Are you worried? Slightly. Yeah, you should be. Okay, here goes. I'll give it a go. You'll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine, I think. So the difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do and how you do it.

Nice.

That's big, huh? It is.

Would you mind just saying that again? Because I think it's a good one. It's good, but it's— I want to digest it properly. No, it's not too much. No, no, I think it's good. I just want to hear it again.

Hear it again. Okay, you can rewind. But anyway, you'll never change your life until you change something you do daily. So changing the daily activity you do. The secret of your success though is found in your daily routine because the difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do and how you do it.

That's great.

And with that, I'd say don't be flaky. Yeah, not you, anyone. Don't be flaky. Be on time. Do what you say. It's going to be great. And go to those parties early, stay late, eat all the canapés.

Excellent advice.

Yeah, I love that, Gary. Thank you very much.

Ever. That is how to boost your credibility massively in, in half an hour. So yeah, as Gary says, go out there and do as you say and don't be flaky. Don't be flaky. We'll see you all next time.

See you again soon. Be on time.

Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this episode and want to listen back through some of the previous episodes mentioned in the show, visit thecompanydoctor.com.