Credibility- A tough ask?

While discussing the changing face of learning, I happen to stumble upon an interesting concept by Aristotle. This was a rhetorical triangle of persuasion. It talked about Ethos or credibility, Pathos or emotions and Logos meaning logic. The idea was to establish the credibility of the speaker to deliver a logical and rational message which appeals to the emotions of the receiver. I however went a step ahead and added Techos to contextualize the medium as well, in wake of the latest developments.

In this blog, though my focus will be on Ethos or the credibility factor. What makes someone credible. Credibility means the quality that someone has that makes it easier for someone to trust them. However, we often attach credibility to peripherals first and internals later. 

My obvious question was, what makes a person credible? The answers I got were based 

- Expertise- Expertise is a factor of education or experience. In fact, if you go by Malcolm Gladwell theory of 10000 hours rule, if we practice anything for 10000 hours we become an expert. Education institutions especially the few premier institutions rely on packaging the 10000 hours into 4 or 5 years to make a person adept in that subject. Thus seeking the credibility of the expertise. 

- Trustworthiness- Trustworthiness is a principle. A principle that a person develops again as a matter of practice or as a matter of education How one may ask? The process is simple. The principle and definition of trustworthiness may differ from person to person. Institutions or organizations help break it into structural expectation which makes it easy for people to understand and follow. 

However, there is another aspect of credibility. That aspect deals with understanding one's own expectation from themselves and then building credibility in that direction. It may require one to understand one's life purpose, what changes one want to bring and going in that direction. The medium could be any but direction is based on the changes one wants to see. 

The last aspect takes time but is a very powerful tool for convincing and building enough space for acceptance and appreciation. 

The Power of Emotional Camaraderie- My personal journey

If You want to go fast you go alone,

If You want to go far, go Together.

I love this quote especially because I have often seen myself as a lone warrior, not because I thought I wanted to go fast, but more because I believed my speed is too less and considered myself dead weight most of the time. 

Then in a recent training program I learnt I am not my belief, I have beliefs. Now this along with the number of times this quotes just appeared in front of me, made me revisit my belief structure. I wasn't walking alone because I wanted to run faster than others. I  was walking alone because I was sure I will be left behind, so much for my self-confidence. 

With this shift in thought process, a lot of things changed-

1. - I started to see patterns in my behaviour when I was shutting people out.
2. - I became more open to inputs and feedbacks.
3. - Emotionally, I was not as closed and defensive and not on edge all the time, anticipating, trying to read between lines. I let myself go. 

As I let people in, I slowly began to smile. I smile and I shined and when something held me back, I recognised it was my own frustration or inhibition in dealing with the situation. Then as part of the program, it was recommended that I read, The Art of Learning by Joshua Waitzkin. 

The book left me with some amazing lessons on learning but the most important lesson was to identify our 'soft zone'. Identifying my soft zone was important to achieving a calm state of mind. 

Another learning was the presence of a constant source of inspirations within and outside the author's circle who not only helped him learn but kept raising the bar. That is what a champion, support system or camaraderie does. They support you and keep raising the bar for you to catch up and grow together. 

Find your tribe.. and you will be surprised how bright you shine!

Emotional Vocabulary

 Life is made of a series of emotional moments. Moments which make us stronger and weaker in a matter of a few seconds. Emotions have this beautiful capability of taking away our ability to think in just a few seconds. 

Emotions cloud judgment, we have often heard this phrase. But can we really understand what this means? Let us today analyse the impact of words on emotions and thereby judgment. 

Look at this phrase

Big Hairy Audacious Goal - The term was coined by Jim Collins to facilitate an urgent, creative splurge, to focus on the big picture and drives us to full potential. Even though his book came out in 1994, I only heard the term some 27 years later as part of a training program and I kept reading it as bhag (as in the Hindi word for run ) instead of BHAG it is originally supposed to be. Just so you know the impact can be dramatically different. 

On one hand where BHAG is supposed to get you all motivated and geared for action; bhag had the opposite impact on me. 

I studied Neuro Linguistic Programing some 10 years back and realized how spoken words can make or break a deal based on how we connect with them. The interesting aspect to this also is that we do not have any realization as to how this can work for us. So here is a tip

- Talk Constructively- Positivity/negativity is an oversell and I cannot emphasise enough on the role of constructurve feedback and even dialogue, which include areas of learnings and most importantly value gain. 

- Clarity- Every conversation has an objective. Sounds rather  selfish but one needs to have clear expectations from every conversation to maximise time and value and decrease pain of misplaced expectation. 

- Be in Tune- We love expressing, however if your receiver is not in a mode to receive it then your time and effort both are ineffective. 

Be very intune with yourself, and most of the time the rest falls in place.