When Credibility Undermines Performance

Last week, I mentioned that many Black leaders have grown up being told things like, “You have to work twice as hard to get half as far.” And that message often results in attempting to display extreme credibility and invulnerability at all times. 

But this isn’t true only of Black leaders. I’ve worked with people from various backgrounds who display self-protective behaviors, especially in organizational cultures that are aggressive in debating information or that create public “tests” of knowledge (most of these were also male-dominated cultures). 

And leaders of all backgrounds may hold professional relationships at a distance for reasons unique to their personalities or outlook on work. For example, I found this anecdote about WWII-era General of the Army George Marshall highly amusing:  

“‘It was typical of him that no one I know, with the exception of General Stilwell, ever called him by his Christian name or was on terms of even the beginnings of familiarity.‘ (As an interesting side note, President Roosevelt once called Marshall by his first name, George. He got a stand-off look from Marshall and never called him by his Christian name again.)” 

Certainly, there are advantages to “be extra credible” and “keep it professional” approach. When you’ve got that in your mind, it hopefully results in being very well prepared for the big meetings of our careers. We perform. 

Unfortunately, however, it can also result in some less helpful behaviors. Some that I’ve seen:  

• Loading your presentations with reams of information and analysis to prove your point (and losing everyone in the process)

• Laser-focusing on memorizing the “perfect” script for a presentation (and getting thrown off when there’s an interruption)

• Being serious in a way that makes it difficult for others to want to listen (so they don’t really hear us)

In Humor, Seriously, which I wrote about two weeks ago, Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas write about how a mindset of being serious often undermines the levity we need to connect with others.  

“A large portion of our respondents reported believing that humor simply has no place amid serious work. [...] We worry about harming our credibility and not being taken seriously.”

So what can we do if we’re carrying this credibility script and want to communicate effectively? Some ideas:

Centering

There’s nothing wrong with the credibility mindset if it helps with preparation, but it’s not always the best mindset for performance, because it’s ultimately based on fear and insecurity.

Instead, the task is to make the mental switch from preparation mode, in which a focus on what we don’t know is helpful, to performance mode, where focusing on what we do know is more likely to lead to a confident showing. 

Taking your time

To prepare well for a presentation, it often requires stepping back from the deep analysis to see what’s appropriate to communicate. And that takes time—both chronological time to craft the communication and emotional time to step out of the weeds. 

That time allows us to consider questions like:

• What’s the hook? What part of this will grab people’s attention?

• How might I explain this to an eight-year-old (or, at minimum, someone who hasn’t been staring at the content for weeks)? 

• What’s actually interesting about this? Or how could I make it interesting?

Putting yourself in the story

When carrying the “be extra credible” and “keep it professional” mindset, it’s easy to leave ourselves out of our communication. The message is an impersonal third party. 

Oddly enough, the leaders I most often see with that mindset also come from groups that experience situations in which others take credit for their ideas (either in the meeting or afterward). 

My belief is that putting ourselves in the story is a critical part of preventing that situation. When the story includes you, there’s no one else who can tell it.

And whether we feel comfortable with it or not, that may require a level of vulnerability that runs counter to our notions of what it means to be professional. 

A personal example: 

In my last job, I was giving a talk about the kind of enthusiasm for a product that causes someone to actually refer a friend or family member without a monetary incentive. As it turned out, I had the perfect example, having just bought a product solely based on my friend Mark telling me, “It’s the best $60 I’ve ever spent.”  

The only problem: the product was a bidet.

At first, I was hesitant to share that. Is this too much information to share in a professional environment? Do I want to be known as the bidet guy?  

But then I realized that precisely because it would be unexpected, the story would deliver. So in front of a packed auditorium of colleagues, I told them about my bidet purchase. 

Sure, it was a risk, but I can tell you this: Through lots of laughs, everyone remembered the core message, and no one forgot who said it!