President Trump’s cabinet picks are currently consuming a lot of media bandwidth. They should. There are questions about how they were selected, their history, their relevant experience and expertise, their character, their ideology, their ability to lead and their ability to work with others. They go through multiple rounds of vetting and screening.

It is all entirely appropriate. Senior leadership should be chosen with care.

One of the most discouraging experiences for a board, an owner or an executive is to bring someone into senior leadership who ends up being unreliable or untrustworthy. Sometimes this feels like a significant disappointment. Sometimes it comes at great cost to the organization. Sometimes it can feel like a betrayal.

In most cases, it is painful. It is often very costly in terms of poor decisions, loss of staff, reputation or business. If poor leadership isn’t dealt with in a timely way, the credibility of the rest of the leadership is called into question.

What Does It Mean to have Integrity & Credibility?

Integrity is an internal trait. It means that there is alignment and consistency between a leader’s character, skills, and behaviors. It is a description of what is true about a person.

Credibility is an external trait. It means that a leader is perceived as “doing what they say they will do.” A credible leader needs to not only have integrity but he or she needs to be experienced by others as being reliable, trustworthy and consistent. It is a description of what others believe to be true about a person.

Your leaders need to have both.

• Credibility without Integrity is either a deception or illusion. (Depending on who is lying to whom. Sometimes we won’t acknowledge character flaws or the lack of ability in others.)
• Integrity without Credibility is insipid. Leaders all have a reputation. If a leader is the most reliable person in the world but is either not known for it or has a poor reputation – their reliability almost doesn’t matter.
• Integrity with Credibility is a force to be reckoned with. The leader has the goods and other people know this. No energy or time is wasted on needing to earn trust, prove or defend oneself. They are able to focus exclusively on priorities.

Four Questions To Ask to Determine Integrity and Credibility:

Do they do what they say they will do? Don’t make excuses for people. Leadership only happens if there is follow through. There are no leaders who accomplished results through intending or meaning well or making good promises or being understandably distracted.

Look for leaders who have demonstrated that they speak with intent and follow through consistently.

What is their track record? Don’t put someone in senior leadership if they don’t have a record of success. Front line leadership or junior leadership are good places to take a risk or give someone a chance. For senior leadership, you need proven performance with the same (or similar) responsibilities in the same (or similar) context.

Are they aligned with or embody organizational values? If “Exceptional Customer Service” is an organizational value, then your senior leaders need to “bleed” customer service. It isn’t enough, for this kind of leader, to value an intellectual assent. It has to be something that they care so much about they can’t help but demonstrate it.

Do their skills and aptitudes match the responsibilities? This is not a character question. It’s a capacity question. It is common to assume that because someone is excellent at X they might also be good at Y. This too often not the case. The world is littered with smart but broke attorneys who can’t grow a business; brilliant doctors who can’t manage a clinic, motivated and caring board members who can’t read a financial statement.

What To Do With Someone Who Lacks Integrity or Credibility?

If they have integrity but lack credibility…

Some people have lost credibility in the past or have behavior habits that don’t inspire confidence. Assuming they now check out on all four questions above, you are primarily dealing with a perception issue.

The best approach to turn this around is to directly engage those people with whom credibility needs to be built. This takes courage. Which is fine. Leadership isn’t for cowards.

I typically recommend coaching this person to take the following actions to restore credibility:

• Acknowledge the past issue, directly, to all involved. (Apologize if necessary – without qualifications or minimizers.)
• Identify, specifically, how they intend to act differently.
• Ask for specific suggestions on what they can start, stop or do differently.
• Create a specific plan for implementing those behaviors. Communicate that plan to those they lead.
• Have them check in periodically to see if others feel like they are following through.

It takes a life time to build a good reputation. It only takes a moment to lose it. Don’t expect restoring one to be easy. But it can be done.

If any part of this is particularly challenging, I’d recommend hiring a coach who is familiar with stakeholder-centered coaching. You can contact me if you’d like to discuss this further.

If there is an integrity issue…

Differentiate if the problem is an alignment/interest issue, character issue or capacity issue.

 If it is an alignment/interest issue, objectively explore if there is another role or place that might better fit this person. If there isn’t, you aren’t doing anyone any favors by keeping or placing them in a position that doesn’t fit them.

If it is a character issue don’t even consider them for placement. Let them go if they are already placed. Unethical people shouldn’t be in your organization.

If it is a capacity issue, determine if they can quickly be brought up to speed. If they cannot, the position isn’t a good fit, they won’t be able to excel and that isn’t fair to set them up for that.

Quickly and decisively address the problem.

The longer you tolerate a leader who lacks integrity and credibility the more you place your own credibility at risk.

I often find that leaders will contact me and ask about team issues. As I explore what they want to accomplish, they often end up talking about character or performance issues of their staff. It’s common that these issues have been going on for a while. In some cases, many years.

That’s a leadership issue. Not a staff issue. You need to do your job. Don’t tolerate a lack of integrity or yours comes into question – for the right reasons.

Take good care,

Christian

This article is part of a series of articles on building a senior leadership team. You can read more here.

How To Build A Team You Can Be Confident In

Would you like to build a unified, high-performing team? Would you like to work with a team that gives you confidence, a sense of peace and courage to move your organization forward?

If your answer is YES, then I have something special for you. But it is limited. I have two slots in February to speak with you 1-on-1 about the best practices to build a strong team that you can absolutely rely on.

On the call, I can answer your specific questions or and provide strategies you can use to improve team effectiveness that will help you attract, retain, and get the most out of your people, strengthening company culture and operational results.

I only have two slots open in February for this complimentary call on a first-come-first-served basis. Email me at Christian@vantageconsulting.org, or call me at 907 522-7200 now.