|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tip 14: Accept responsibility for decisions, actions, and results where you have/had some control. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Watch comments such as the following, unless they are absolutely true: "We had no control over that project in our department." "Upper management made those decisions." "Competitors forced us into those arrangements." "Those policies are set by the government." ''If it were my decision, I'd handle it differently. I wasn't given a say in the matter." Shirkers suffer credibility gaps. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tip 15: Keep confidences. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When people know you share personal, confidential matters about others with them, they'll fear you'll do the same thing where they're concerned. Keeping confidences when "nobody would know you told" speaks volumes about character. Those who observe your discretion in deciding to keep quiet about hurtful or personal information involving others bridge to other favorable conclusions about your credibility in times of stress. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tip 16: Avoid lying "Offstage". |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When you lie to a third person in front of a second person and that second person knows you're lyingfor whatever reasonyou lose credibility with the second person. Once observers have recognized your willingness to lie to others, they will doubt your truth-telling to them in a tight spot. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tip 17: Be sincere and genuine. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sincerity is easy to fake and hard to make. That is, people who pretend to be sincere can pitch an earnest plea, look at you with pleading eyes and straight face, and promise plums that dance in your head. But genuineness comes from character and is therefore harder to make. You either are or you aren't. What you experience is what you share. What you value is what you give. What you say is what you believe. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Believing people requires risk on the part of others. If others risk trust, they want to know that you share their risk: the risk of being honest; the risk of exposing your own weaknesses and foibles; the risk of telling things that |
|
|
|
|
|