5 Essential Skills To Uplift Your Credibility

Credibility is the quality or power of inspiring trust and belief.

Credible leaders are trustworthy and have the ear of their team.

They are able to convey their message and vision because they have been accepted as the true and real leader.

5 Essential Skills To Uplift Your Credibility #credibility #leadership #leadershipdevelopment #leadershipskills #journeytoleadership journeytoleadershipblog.com

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6 Leadership Books To Read Before The Year Ends

Leading others often starts with leading oneself…

Below are the 6 best leadership and self help books that you can read right now to develop your sense of direction, find your most authentic self and achieve your goals!

6 Leadership Books To Read Before The Year Ends #books #bookreviews #reading #leadershipbooks #leadershipdevelopmentbooks #journeytoleadershipbooks #journeytoleadership journeytoleadershipblog.com

Wondering what are the best leadership books to read before this year comes to an end?

1. Grit By Angela Duckworth

Grit is nothing more than a combination of courage, passion and perseverance.

In her book Grit, Angela Duckworth interviews a series of leaders from all walks of life whose grit has helped them succeed and whose stories will surely inspire you.

2. How To Win Friends & Influence People By Dale Carnegie

In How To Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Carnegie gives practical advice on how to successfully attract people, convert their way of thinking towards our ideas, on how to be more confident, achieve more and reach your highest potential in life thanks to your relationships.

3. The Little Book Of Big Lies By Tina Lifford

In The Little Book Of Big Lies, Tina Lifford gives helpful advice for you to build up your inner self and shares fourteen real life stories to help you move on from trauma and your past.

4. Year Of Life By Shonda Rhimes

In her funny memoir Year Of Life, Shonda Rhimes shares her poignant life story and her journey towards personal success.

Throughout her book, she makes you laugh but also reflect on the power of saying yes, of continually staying positive and focused.

5. The Magic Of Thinking Big By David J. Schwartz

David J. Schwartz teaches us throughout The Magic Of Thinking Big to:

  • Think big and set bigger than life goals.
  • Overcome our fear of failure by actually accomplishing our goals.
  • Fail forward and trust the process.

6. The Obstacle Is The Way By Ryan Holiday

In The Obstacle Is The Way, Ryan Holiday employs the lessons of Greek philosophy to help you see past your failures and obstacles.

He encourages you to persevere no matter what and to apply a certain stoicism to most of your life situations.

Last Words Of Advice!

Each one of these books demonstrate ways to achieve long term success, accomplish your dreams and figure out a solution to every single one of your problems.

To top it all off, these books also exhibit great examples of people who have remained optimistic and creative in the face of challenges.

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How to Win Friends & Influence People By Dale Carnegie

For some reason, successful leaders seem to know how to effectively handle people, to win friends and to influence people…

These leaders have built their entire life and professional career around people by following basic principles.

How to Win Friends & Influence People By Dale Carnegie #books #bookreviews #influence #relationships #journeytoleadership journeytoleadershipblog.com

Wining Friends

Leaders understand that relationships can take you to the next level. Therefore, they tend to:

1. Avoid negative reviews

Leaders who are socially skilled avoid making complaints, condemning people, or manufacturing open and public criticism.

They understand that negative criticism generally breeds resentment.

Instead, they try to understand where the people are coming from.

2. Find out what the people really want

Most people care about their health, self-preservation, food, sleep, money, a craving for sincere appreciation and a desire for importance…

Furthermore, appreciation does not consist in giving cheap flattery but in honest appreciation.

If you tell me how you get your feeling of importance, I’ll tell you what you are. - Dale Carnegie Click To Tweet

3. Show people how to get what they want

To show people what they want and how to get it, leaders:

  • Consider the advantages and disadvantages of the situation.
  • Learn to see things from the other person’s point of view.

Influencing People

Influencing people is a basic and important skill in leadership.

That is why leaders who seek to increase their leadership:

1. Genuinely become interested in other people

They understand human nature, truly enjoy the interaction with people and do things for other people without any ulterior motives.

In addition, they remember people’s name, learn to smile and to be cheerful in their presence.

Indeed, smiling is contagious and can change an entire situation.

2. Become versed in the art of conversation

Being a great conversationalist starts by listening to people and encouraging people to talk about themselves.

Therefore, leaders find out the other person’s interest and start from there.

3. Obey the Golden Rule

Leaders observe the rules of human relationships.

As a consequence, they obey the Golden Rule and give unto others what we would have others give unto us.

4. Use diplomacy

To win people over to your way of thinking, they:

  • Are diplomatic.
  • Avoid arguments at all cost.
  • Never tell a person that they are wrong.
  • Consider the other person’s feelings, ideas and point of view.
  • Show respect for another person’s point of view.
  • Admit their wrongs and appeal to nobler motives.
  • Admit their mistakes and talk about them.
  • Don’t give direct orders but suggestions.
  • Give people the opportunity to make decisions for themselves and to correct themselves.
  • Don’t hurt people’s self-esteem and don’t diminish them in their own eyes

Review

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie aims to educate adults into building healthy relationships and climbing up the social ladder.

Dale Carnegie shares contemporaneous and pragmatic principles that serve as guidelines for leaders who wish to network and grow their social capital.

Most of these principles are essential to life as much as the business world and will increase your skill in human relationship.

However, Dale Carnegie promotes the praising or “sucking up” game and uses the term “friend” very loosely.

That is because most of the principles are geared towards the business world and most of his examples are taken from people who have successfully implemented these principles.

Unfortunately, praises don’t work on everybody and is not a solution to all problems.

Let me know below what you think about this book!

Favorite quote(s)

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do.
But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.

Hurting people not only does not change them, it is never called for.

Ratings 3.5/5

Author

Dale Carnegie

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5 Essential Skills For Driving Innovation

Every organization has their own culture, core values and mission statement.

Every leader has their own norms and leadership style.

Therefore, every leader demonstrates the importance of innovation and societal rules within their organisation.

5 Essential Skills For Driving Innovation #skills #leadershipskills #leadershipdevelopment #leadership #journeytoleadership journeytoleadershipblog.com
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15 Reasons Why Leaders Should Adopt A Minimalist Lifestyle

Minimalism is a lifestyle choice that has to be maintained on a regular.

Minimalism consists in living with only what you need, removing excess and owning less.

Leaders who choose a minimalistic lifestyle are intentional about their lives.

Wondering why leaders should adopt a minimalist lifestyle?

15 Reasons Why Leaders Should Adopt A Minimalist Lifestyle #leaders #leadership #minimalistic #lifestyle #journeytoleadership journeytoleadership.com

1. You get to know yourself better

2. You are able to examine and reclaim your life

3. You get to focus on the essentials, on your goals and your purpose

4. You value your possessions and relationships more

5. You rather quality over quantity

6. You dont seek to gain material things but enjoy learning new concepts

7. You release mental load and emotional clutter

8. You are able to avoid distractions

9. You feel free to do what you really want to do

10. You stress less about things and people and don’t get overwhelmed easily

11. You gain more time at work

12. You free up your time, energy, and money and are careful how you use your ressources

13. You get to make sound decisions and evaluate the outcome

14. You lose the need to fill up physical and mental space

15. You live in the moment

Last Words Of Advice

Once you’ve gotten rid of the clutter and adopted a minimalistic lifestyle, you’ll realize how much mental load you’ve been carrying around.


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56 Things Leaders Need To Quit To Simplify Their Lives

It comes a time where we feel overwhelmed by life’s difficulties and desire to simplify our lives but we just don’t know how…

Wondering what are the things that you can stop doing as a leader to simplify your life?

56 Things Leaders Need To Quit To Simplify Their Lives #leaders #leadership #leadershipdevelopment #journeytoleadership journeytoleadershipblog.com

1. Not being self aware

2. Neglecting your unresolved issues

3. Giving too much importance to your professional life over your personal life

4. Saying yes to everything

5. Doing too many things all at once

6. Working until you burn out.

7. Not making time for yourself or your loved ones

8. Disregarding the essentials and what matters most to you

9. Avoiding your emotions

10. Giving too much room to your emotions

11. Mistreating yourself

12. Mistreating others

13. Stressing out

14. Transfering your emotions to other people who could potentially help you

15. Trying to please people

16. Comparing yourself to people

17. Competing with other people

18. Running someone else’s race

19. Moving at someone else’s pace

20. Trusting the wrong people

21. Micromanaging and not letting people do their jobs

22. Making assumptions about people

23. Spreading and believing rumors about others

24. Making up lies

25. Worrying about your image and reputation instead of the work you produce.

26. Faking it until you make it.

27. Shifting blame

28. Creating drama

29. Stepping on other people to feel better about yourself

30. Wanting to be right all the time

31. Thinking that your solution is the best solution

32. Being resistant to change

33. Being too transparent

34. Being fearful about everything

35. Being overbearing

36. Being crowded all the time

37. Spending time around toxic people

38. Doing things that you hate

39. Getting distracted

40. Avoiding exercise

41. Choosing unhealthy foods

42. Allowing and participating in groupthink

43. Seeking control over other people

44. Seeking only power over others

45. Taking too long in the commute

46. Inviting clutter in your home

47. Holding to clutter on your office space

48. Letting emails stack up

49. Letting small tasks stack up

50. Doing all your tasks all at once

51. Setting boundaries with people

52. Managing your time effectively

53. Giving too much importance to deadlines

54. Constantly tracking progress

55. Not being flexible enough with your time

56. Not taking responsibility for your actions

Last Words Of Advice

Just remember, you cannot stop all these things at once.

But once you start simplifying your life, you won’t want to stop.


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No One Understands You and What To Do About It by Heidi Grant Halvorson

We seldom are perceived the way we see ourselves or the way we want to be perceived.

Contrary to popular belief, our facial expressions are not always readable, our emotions are not that obvious and we don’t communicate as much as we think we do.

No One Understands You and What To Do About It by Heidi Grant Halvorson #books #bookreviews #communication #skills #communicationskills #selfimprovement #journeytoleadership journeytoleadershipblog.com

Guided Perceptions

There are many heuristics and assumptions that guide our perceptions and create inaccurate interpretations of people.

Assumption #1: The confirmation bias

Some people look at you and see what they expect to see, taking into account the stereotypes of the groups to which you belong, your culture and their past experiences with you.

Assumption #2: The primary effect

Other people forme their perceptions of you using their initial impression of you.

With this assumption, first impressions are lasting impressions.

Assumption #3: Stereotypes

Stereotypes are the beliefs about categories of people to “better understand” them.

Assumption #4: The halo effect

The halo effect is the belief that someone, with one powerful positive trait, has a lot more positive traits.

Assumption #5: The false-consensus effect

The false-consensus effect is the belief that others think and feel the same way that we do.

The Two Phases of Perception

There are two phases of perception that exist in every interactions: Phase 1 or System 1 and Phase 2 or System 2.

Phase 1 or System 1 is the automatic and effortless ability to recognize strong emotions in someone’s facial expression and voice, to identify, categorize and interpret a given behavior, to attach that given behavior to “some aspect of your personality, character or abilities”.

First impressions are made in Phase 1.

Perception often stops at Phase 1 and people, being busy, tend to rely heavily on heuristics and assumptions.

Phase 2 or System 2 is the ability, through complex and effortful mental operations to get a complete and accurate understanding of someone, by taking into account additional factors about yourself.

This effort has to purposefully be motivated by an attention-grabbing circumstance.

Distortion of The Phases of Perception

The level of trust, the possession of power and the size of the ego tend have an impact on these phases of perception.

However, these distortions can be averted by understanding the circumstances and the wanted results of each interaction.

The level of trust

Most of the time, people are not just trying to make assumptions about you but are trying to find out unconsciously if they can trust you, especially in the workplace: are you a friend or a foe?

The decision to trust is made unconsciously in Phase 1 of perception and depends on the way that you project warmth and competence.

To increase trust to the people around you:

  • Convey warmth indirectly by giving subtle but genuine complements, by providing assistance whenever you can, by showing interest in others feelings and thoughts.
  • Demonstrate empathy by acknowledging someone else’s perspective.
  • Manifest your trust in people first by being cooperative, talking about your vulnerabilities and challenges.
  • Transmit competence by making eye contact while speaking.
  • Show will power by showing self-control.
  • Avoid overconfidence by showing modesty and restraint.
  • Adopt a power pose in order to take up most of the space, to signal your competence.
  • Emphasize your potential for greatness and for success.

The possession of power

Having more or less power changes the impressions that we form about one another.

Powerful people tend to be overwhelmed with responsibilities and have no time to spare, to be focused on their goals, rely heavily on stereotypes to categorize people, stay stuck in Phase 1 of perception.

Furthermore, the sad truth is that powerful people don’t pay much attention to less powerful people.

To get noticed by powerful people and to increase your influence:

  • Be instrumental to their success.
  • Find out how you can align your. objectives with those of the powerful.
  • Ease their burden.
  • Anticipate their needs and challenges.
  • Avoid complementing them because they don’t care.

The size of the ego

Perception is distorted by the size of the ego in such ways that you must come out on top, feeling good about yourself.

Your ego has the purpose of protecting and enhancing your self-esteem.

To control the way people perceive you through their ego, you will need to:

  • Help people enhance their self-esteem.
  • Evaluate the threat that you and your abilities pose to your colleagues.
  • Be humble about your accomplishments, past and current difficulties. Avoid tooting your own horn, playing dumb or acting like someone else.
  • Affirm other people by praising them and their achievements.
  • Avoid stereotyping other people.

The eager reward seekers and the vigilant risk mitigators

The safety and security of our personal situations also poses a threat to our perceptions of people, of our colleagues and of our career.

On one hand, the eager reward seeker looks for opportunities everywhere, are effective, risk takers, rule breakers, adventurers, optimistic, motivated, innovative and often creative.

Unfortunately, eager reward seekers are prone to fail and to underestimate problems.

On the other, the vigilant risk mitigators see danger everywhere they go, are vigilant, risk averse, reliable, thorough and deliberate, prone to analytical thinking and self-doubt.

To get the best of both types of people, simply adapt your language to each of them by making one see a potential for gain and the other a cautionary plan.

The clingy, anxious and the aloof, avoidant

The need for closeness shapes our relationship with others.

The clingy and anxious people tend to have low self-esteem, need validation, constantly seek closeness and are worried that the people that they have built a relationship with will leave them, see injuries and slights where there aren’t, fear rejection.

To accommodate them, practise empathy, don’t take it personally, clarify your speech, stay reliable to this person.

The aloof and avoidant people don’t foster close relationships but instead maintain emotional distance.

To accommodate them, don’t take their behaviour personally, restraint your own warmth, give them time to open up.

Correcting bad impressions and fighting misunderstandings

Finally, to correct bad impressions and start over on the right track, you can exhibit attention-getting evidence of the contrary evidence of you so they can notice and cannot deny reality.

You can also force people to revisit their opinion of you by making them feel that their judgement is unfair or unequal.

Finally, you can make people depend on you and need you to reach their goals.

Review

No One Understands You and What To Do About It by Heidi Grant Halvorson is a great self-development book that explores the prominent reasons why we are often misunderstood and gives useful advice on how to clean up our reputation, to clarify a difficult situation.

Every single conclusion that Halvorson draws is scientifically researched and illustrated with probing examples.

This book is intended for people who have made past mistakes with people and want to correct them.

It was absolutely hard to read because Halvorson revealed hard truths, reminded me of the stereotypes that pursue me on a daily basis and that keep interfering with my goals, forces me to question myself and my behavior.

In addition, this book made me more self-conscious about my presentation to the world and my decisions, more aware that first impressions are critical, that most people don’t think the same way I do, react the same I do, or perceive me the same way I do.

Furthermore, No One Understands You and What To Do About It was also cathartic and purging, helped me become a better judge of others, understand that the way people treated me in the past was not my full responsibility.

In No One Understands You and What To Do About It, Heidi Grant Halvorson explains how perceptions are born, describes a set of stereotypes and assumptions that affect how people perceive you, the different ways for correcting bad impressions and for overcoming misunderstandings.

Favorite quote(s)

Studies show that while very strong, basic emotions—surprise, fear, disgust, and anger—are fairly easy to read, the more subtle emotions we experience on a daily basis are not.
You are never really starting from scratch with another person, even when you are meeting him or her for the first time. The perceiver’s brain is rapidly filling in details about you—many before you have even spoken a word. Knowing this gives you a sense of what you’ve got going for you and what you might be up against. And the more you can know in advance about your perceiver’s likes, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses, the better equipped you will be to anticipate what’s being projected onto you.

The benefits of projecting trustworthiness (and the costs of failing to do so) are Enormous, particularly in the workplace. Studies show, for instance, that the willingness to share knowledge with colleagues—a sticking point in most large organizations—is strongly predicted by feelings of trust among employees.

Ratings 4/5

Author

Heidi Grant Halvorson

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So Smart But…: How Intelligent People Lose Credibility – And How They Can Get It Back by Allen K. Weiner

Credibility, the quality or power to inspire trust and belief, is essential and strategic to career evolution.

Credibility is so difficult to acquire and to maintain but so quick and easy to lose.

So Smart But...: How Intelligent People Lose Credibility - And How They Can Get It Back by Allen K. Weiner #books #bookreviews #success #successmindset #leadership #leadershipdevelopment #selfdevelopment #selfimprovement #journeytoleadership journeytoleadershipblog.com

Credibility is 45% how you look, 45% how you sound and 10% what you say.

credibility2

In agreement with McCroskey, scholar in West Virginia University, there are five factors of credibility:

1. Competence

This quality is acquired when an employee has succeeded to champion the company’s vision, engage in innovation, focus on performance and results, and to build a high performance organization.

With competence, an employee is able to explain concept with the appropriate message and to calibrate a message to a specific listener.

credibilitylost

Credibility is easily lost if someone:

  • Is not understanding or is reacting inappropriately to an issue at hand.
  • Is lacking better judgement in order to make the right decisions.
  • Reflects too long before making a decision.

2. Character

This quality is acquired when an employee has succeeded to foster a climate of innovation, to foster and model the company’s values.

credibilitylost

Credibility is easily lost if someone:

  • Is lacking passion and drive for their work
  • Is arrogant. This character flaw can be corrected by changing your words when addressing your colleagues, expressing interest in them, asking for advice, listening more in conversations and sharing your personal weaknesses.
  • Cannot manage emotions very well.
  • Has it out for some people in their organization.

3. Composure

This quality is acquired when an employee has succeeded to manage workforce performance and delegate appropriately.

credibilitylost

Credibility is easily lost if someone:

  • Is not timely (not punctual with deliveries, appears frantic and rushing,…).
  • Cannot manage emotions very well.
  • Maneuver their body language to manifest their belonging.
  • Decorate and manage their personal space.
  • Does not look the part by not applying the company’s dress code, by not grooming oneself when coming to work or even by not working out.

4. Sociability

This quality is acquired when an employee has succeeded to demonstrate interpersonal skills.

5. Extroversion

Extroversion as defined in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

This quality is acquired when an employee has succeeded to passionately drive the company’s strategy.

Review

So Smart But…: How Intelligent People Lose Credibility – And How They Can Get It Back by Allen K. Weiner is a self-development book is very relatable, accurate and was very difficult to read since I have met up with most of the scenarios and possess some of the corporate personality flaws discussed in this book.

Allen N. Weiner, in So Smart But…, provides tips on how to preserve and enhance your credibility in the workplace.

Furthermore, every argument is properly illustrated with realistic workplace scenario and is not gender biased.

According to Allen N. Weiner, to climb the social ladder, it seems that one needs to :

  • comply to too many non written rules, indicative of a rigid and intolerant society that is the corporate world. Is it possible to apply every single one of these rules to the cost of spreading oneself very thinly?
  • be likeable to succeed when, in my opinion, likeability can only take you so far. Indeed, in my experience, it is preferable and more effective to be respected in corporate culture because being liked puts you on equal footing with your pairs, constitutes additional emotional work and subjects you to fluctuating and random external opinion. Nevertheless, according to Allen N. Weiner, people who are not liked are trying to find excuses instead of trying to be liked.
  • adapt, be accepted by your pairs or fitting in. Fitting in is very hard to do but not impossible to do. Check out the article Signs that You are a good fit for your new job.

Let me know below what you think about this book!

Ratings 4/5

About the author

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