Building  your  Social  Credibility  in  The  Workplace  

   Key  Points  • Don’t  wait;  start  right  now  • Credibility  is  different  to  everyone,  know  what  that  is  • How  do  you  use  social  credibility  to  your  benefit?      To  start  with,  many  people  argue  that  social  credibility  has  nothing  to  do  with  your  performance  in  the  workplace  or  producing  results.  It’s  just  one  of  those  touchy-­‐feely  things  that  the  ones  with  only  “people  skills”  worry  about  because  they  have  no  acumen  to  produce  results  from  the  work  they  output  day  over  day.  Obviously  there  is  merit  in  results,  there’s  no  question  about  that.  But  then  basically  what  you’re  saying  is  that  your  value/credibility  is  only  based  on  the  performance  of  the  last  project  you  worked  on.  Well,  there  is  no  longevity  in  that  and  your  basically  living  from  success  to  success,  hoping  and  praying  that  you  never  fault.    As  a  Business  Wingman,  you  must  see  that  there  is  more  value  than  just  your  successes  or  the  successes  of  your  team.  You  must  see  the  macro  value  in  workplace  perception.  The  perception  that  you  and  your  team  are  winners,  and  that  is  translated  to  social  credibility.  If  you  live  with  the  perception  that  you  are  a  producer,  a  great  co-­‐worker,  a  great  manager,  and  then  back  that  with  visible  and  tangible  results….  then  you  will  always  have  the  perception  that  you  are  a  valuable  and  credible  asset  to  the  company.  Socially,  you  will  be  talked  about  as  having  that  perception.    And  basically…  perception  is  everything.    

Art  of  the  Wingman  for  Business  is  dedicated  to  the  businesswomen  and  businessmen  who  seek  greatness  beyond  their  own  and  find  their  successes  through  helping  others  succeed.  The  Business  Wingman  follows  the  path  of  the  selfless  person.  

   1) Don’t  wait,  start  right  now  The  first  thing  you  should  do  is  be  real  about  your  perception  in  the  workplace.  What  is  your  team’s  perception  of  you?  What  do  your  co-­‐workers  and  management  think  of  you?  Be  real  about  it  and  give  yourself  a  rating  between  1  and  10.  If  this  is  not  easy  to  do,  then  imagine  that  you  were  new  to  the  team,  and  pretend  that  you  are  trying  to  find  out  about  somebody  on  the  team.  You  start  by  asking  people  about  somebody’s  work  ethic,  and  what  they  do,  and  do  they  produce  results.  And  based  on  that,  give  yourself  a  score.  Then,  identify  someone  else  in  the  office  that  you  feel  has  great  social  credibility  and  give  him  or  her  a  score.  How  do  you  compare?      There’s  always  room  for  improvement.  Meaning  there’s  always  a  need  to  further  build  out  your  social  credibility.  Maybe  your  perception  with  the  team  is  great,  but  does  that  expand  beyond  your  team  into  your  department.  What  about  other  parts  of  the  company,  the  ones  you  work  with  frequently?  How  are  you  perceived  in  other  departments?  How  are  you  perceived  across  the  company?  Think  about  these  things  and  then  give  yourself  another  score  based  on  a  team  level,  a  department  level  and  a  company  level.  If  you  feel  that  you  have  some  room  for  improvement.  Don’t  wait;  start  right  now.    2) Credibility  is  different  to  everyone,  know  what  that  is  Let’s  now  further  define  what  social  credibility  is.  Let’s  be  realistic,  there  is  no  magical  formula  to  building  your  social  credibility  and  there  really  is  no  true  definition  because  your  credibility  is  basically  people’s  social  perception  of  you  and  of  your  team.    

A  common  understanding  is  that  everyone  is  different  and  everyone  perceives  things  differently.  Some  people  perceive  credibility  as:  

-­‐ Having  the  right  title  or  job  -­‐ Graduating  from  a  specific  school  or  having  a  specific  degree  -­‐ Hanging  out  in  right  circle  of  colleagues  -­‐ Getting  assigned  the  popular  accounts  -­‐ Meeting  or  exceeding  goal  month  over  month  -­‐ Having  confidence  in  every  business  decision  and  telling  others  about  their  

decision  and  how  great  it  was    Basically  credibility  is  different  for  everyone,  know  what  that  is.  So  you,  the  Business  Wingman,  are  tasked  with  seeking  out  the  common  perception  of  credibility  and  ensuring  that  you  and  your  team  use  that  as  a  guide  in  how  they  do  business  among  their  peers.        3) How  do  you  use  social  credibility  to  your  benefit?  Now  that  you  have  stopped  procrastinating  on  building  your  team’s  perceived  social  credibility  and  have  started  to  seek  out  what  your  team  needs  to  do  gain  it,  then  you  are  half  way  there.  This  may  take  weeks  or  it  may  take  several  months  to  a  year.  My  own  personal  story  about  building  my  team’s  credibility  took  almost  a  year.  I  listened  to  my  colleagues  and  around  the  company  and  identified  that  a  combination  of  revenue  results  +  team  budget  size  +  confidence  =  social  credibility  for  our  team.  We  made  it  a  point  to  be  sure  that  we  promoted  this  ideology  to  other  departments,  teams  and  management.  We  also  supplemented  the  perception  by  telling  everyone  that  we  had  a  mantra:  kicking  ass.  It  was  just  bold  enough  to  be  catchy.  Our  formula  may  make  you  laugh  a  little  but  that  is  what  worked  for  us  at  our  company,  at  that  period  of  time.  Now  that  we  had  felt  that  we  had  finally  reached  success,  we  had  to  figure  out  how  to  you  use  social  credibility  to  our  benefit.      With  the  understanding  that  using  social  credibility  to  benefit  the  team  translates  differently  for  everyone,  based  on  my  prior  personal  example,  I  will  show  you  how  we  used  our  perceived  social  credibility  to  our  benefit:  

-­‐ Our  teams  head  count  requests  were  prioritized  with  management  and  found  approval  much  easier  than  other  teams  

-­‐ When  we  reached  milestones  or  big  successes,  they  we  easily  syndicated  across  the  company  and  shown  as  an  example  of  business  excellence  

-­‐ When  it  came  time  to  seeking  out  additional  budget  for  our  marketing  activities,  out  team’s  proposals  were  always  received  with  confidence  among  management  and  finance  

   Seeking  social  credibility  for  your  team  is  not  the  solution  for  everyone;  it  depends  on  the  country,  company  culture,  industry,  department,  and  so  on.  But  for  most  of  us,  the  average  person  in  the  workplace  engages  with  co-­‐workers  and  perceives  

their  value  through  the  same  social  protocol  used  in  their  everyday  life.  Be  aware  of  others  perceptions  and  use  this  knowledge  to  building  great  things.        Visit  our  blog  at  http://www.artofthewingman.com.