Skip to main content

Three Pillars of Credibility: Expertise, Trustworthiness, & Goodwill

I’ve always considered myself credible in my professional and personal work. Of course, it might be easier for me to trust myself than it is for someone else to trust me, especially when it comes to the professional world. Whalen (2007) identified “Three Pillars of Credibility: Expertise, Trustworthiness, and goodwill” (p. 123). I currently run my own business that facilitates training and education programs for nonprofits and government organizations. An area where I am still trying to establish myself is in expertise. Eric Hornfeld, the person, has a bachelor’s degree and some experience running training programs for a variety of organizations. HTS, the organization is young with less than one year in operation and just a few contracts in its portfolio. When it comes to credibility, the area where I’d like to develop is in Expertise. The other two pillars of credibility, Trustworthiness, and Goodwill, take time and exposure to develop (Whalen, 2007). I believe that I am able to develop these with the organizations that I work with. With my work being primarily in government and nonprofit work, the goodwill toward my constituents is a prerequisite to working with them, and my trustworthiness is demonstrated in my actual work. The first pillar, expertise, in my mind is assessed in advance and is based on factors that I cannot change or address in an interaction. For these reasons, I see it as an opportunity to develop.


Image from: http://www.clipartpanda.com/categories/credibility-clipart 


Whalen (2007) identifies other professionals’ esteem, educational degrees as keystones of expertise when it comes to credibility. In writing this blog and reflecting deeply on my leadership skills, potential, opportunities, and deficits I am helping to develop my advancement academically. In just a matter of months, I will complete all of the requirements to earn the Master of Science in Leadership with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. In addition to education, the way that other professionals talk about my work also speaks to my level of expertise. From each of my clients and the volunteers and community member trainees, I gather satisfaction survey data. These recommendations, reactions, and reviews help me to build my reputation as someone who provides an excellent service as a trainer and consultant.

Action Plan to Improve Expertise 

In order to enhance my expertise in an effort to be more credible to existing and potential clients I will do the following:

  • Complete the Master of Science in Leadership degree
    • add it MSLD to my Linkedin, resume, and website.
    • Gather additional recommendations and reviews from current, past, and future trainees and clients
      • add these personal recommendations to my website and LinkedIn.

    • Secure additional clients and serve them well to earn positive regard.




      References

      Whalen, D. J. (2007). The professional communications toolkit. SAGE Publications.
      Labels:

      Comments

      1. LLFMSLDMarch 1, 2021 at 1:05 PM

        Congratulations on your business and going to school!

        ReplyDelete

      Post a Comment

      Popular posts from this blog

      How I found the Standards in my Life

      I had standards by which I lived my life before I could explicitly identify them. I found that not every choice I made brought me closer to the person I wanted to be. I make decisions every day that bring me joy, sadness, fulfillment, and yearning for more. In an effort to understand how I make these decisions, and to be more intentional, I recently started a journey to reflect on my own core values. I have made many moves in my life and I wanted to better understand how I can make decisions that align with my core values. To facilitate this introspection I asked myself the questions below. In reflecting on these questions I found patterns. Patterns of behaviors and ways of being that helped me understand how I have lived in and out of alignment with my core values. Now that I am aware of them, and have them written out, these are my standards for decision making. These are the ways of being that help ensure I am living the life I want to live. Questions I asked myself What am I doing ...
      Post a Comment
      Read more

      My Role(s) in a Team

      Teamwork is a common thread throughout life. Growing up with parents and a sibling, working at my first job at McDonald's, and my marriage and current household all provide me with an opportunity to practice teamwork. Most, if not all, of the engagements in my life involve interacting and cooperating with others, so this exploration into how teams form and are led is an interesting practice of reviewing literature and reflecting on how I engage in my day-to-date life. As a part of a team, I tend to take leadership roles quite naturally. Whetten & Cameron (2011) describe several roles of embers within a team: task-facilitating, relationship-building, and blocking roles. I believe that I have played each role at some point. I feel most at home when I play a task-facilitation role, but I also make time and space for relationship-building. Teamwork is all about getting individual contributors to work together toward a common goal, so ensuring that the relationships among team membe...
      Post a Comment
      Read more

      Constraints on Creative Problem Solving

      Creative problem-solving requires a great deal of flexibility, and acceptance of risk which can be difficult for businesses who are generally risk averse to embrace. Many constraints also exist in our individual thinking which limit our capacity to think and problem-solve creatively (Whetten & Cameron, 2016). In my own experience in the nonprofit and social service industries I have seen these constraints hold back otherwise successful individuals.  “Well, this is how we’ve always done it” I’m sure you’ve heard this common refrain from supervisors and teammates in the past. Generally, we hear this when someone questions an existing policy, procedure, or process. The inquiry is not personal, but this knee-jerk response is a clear indicator that the individuals are experiencing some conceptual blocks to creative problem solving. Complacency is a major impediment to thinking differently, in fact, complacency may mean that the people in question are not thinking at all. When we avo...
      Post a Comment
      Read more