1. Credibility
Facilitator Notes:
SPARK is a New York Times best selling book that outlines leadership behaviors which allow us to be more influential and inspirational in our roles.
The authors — Angie Morgan, Courtney Lynch, and Sean Lynch — all served in the US Armed Forces, which is where they all learned that leadership is not about positional authority. Leadership is about behavior. Anyone, at any level, can be a leader. They define leadership as “influencing outcomes and inspiring others.”
The book begins by introducing the SPARK concept. Sparks are the doers and thinkers who envision a better future and work their way towards it. (Facilitator: give some examples of what this looks like in your environment. It could be the sales rep who redefines the sales process, the production manager who rethinks the work flow, or even the receptionist who goes above and beyond to ensure a positive client experience.)
We all can be Sparks. When we begin to see ourselves as part of the solutions we seek, our world changes — we feel more in control, less at the mercy of life’s circumstances, and capable of achieving the “more” we seek in life, whether that’s more responsibility, more opportunity, or even more balance between all the roles we fill.
To be a Spark you need to demonstrate all 7 traits the authors outline. Today we’re going to define one: Credibility.
From the New York Times Best Selling Book, SPARK: How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success

2. Group Discussion How do you define credibility?
What are some behaviors that make people credible?
Facilitator Notes:
Before we discuss credibility, I’d like to ask two questions.
First, how do you define credibility? (Reveal the first bullet, and give your group time to share their thoughts. If people are having a hard time coming up with examples, have your own definition ready. As an example: “I think credibility is similar to being believable.”)
Next, what are some of the behaviors that make people credible? (Share some of your thoughts, such as: They do what they say they’re going to do, or they set an example that others should want to follow.)
If time permits, ask the group to come up with people they believe are credible.

3. Be credible
Credibility is the foundation of our leadership style. It allows people to view you as dependable, trustworthy, and committed.
Facilitator Notes:
Ultimately, if we’re seeking to influence and inspire, we have to be credible. It’s the foundation of our leadership style because it conveys we’re dependable, trustworthy, and committed.
It’s pretty hard to be led by people who lack credibility because we don’t trust them. If trust is absent from a relationship, there really is no relationship.
We always can improve our credibility with others.
Importantly, credibility is in the eye of the beholder. While we can’t directly control whether or not people view us as credible, we can influence our credibility with others. We do that by understanding the four keys to credibility, which is what we’ll explore next, after we watch this short video from Angie and Sean talking about the importance of credibility as a leader.

4. Establish Credibility
Facilitator Notes:
Play video of Sean and Angie discussing credibility
Establish Credibility

5. 4 KEYS TO CREDIBILITY

6. Understand and meet the standards of others.
Facilitator Notes:
While it seems pretty obvious that we need to understand and meet the standards of others, the challenge is that different people have different expectations for us … and they’re not always forthcoming with what those expectations are.
Have you ever worked with someone, only to remain in a constant state of curiosity about what expectations they have for you? Or even to have two different bosses and two different sets of expectations, such as the way they liked information presented in an or the way they like to conduct meetings?
As a leader — someone seeking to influence and inspire — to gain this influence, you have to work hard to get to know people and what they expect so you can hit the mark with them.
Not all the expectations placed on us will be bright lined in either a job description or an open communication. Our role, which requires us to play detective from time to time, is to pay attention and consider what “success” looks like in our relationships and, ultimately, work to make the implicit explicit.
This allows us to be credible with those whose cooperation and trust we need.
Four Keys to Credibility
Understand and meet the standards of others.

7. Have a very narrow “say-do” gap.
Facilitator Notes:
You can also influence your credibility with others by being very mindful about your “say-do gap.”
This expression helps us understand when there’s a space, or rather a “gap,” between our actions and our words, our credibility with others suffers.
As an example, if you commit to your colleague that your portion of the presentation will be done by Friday, and you get it to them by the following Tuesday, they lose faith in your ability to follow through on your commitments. Likewise, if you tell a client that you’re going to get back to them with an answer, and you fail to follow through, your reputation with them is damaged.
Leaders are mindful of their commitments and seek to honor their words in every way/shape/form possible. You lose influence quickly with people if you can’t and this influence is hard to earn back.
What makes the “say-do gap” hard to live by is that many of us like to say “yes” — we like to achieve! Yet, we can find ourselves overcommitting, which inevitably means we under perform.
A more practical approach is to make realistic commitments and keep them, which might mean we have to say “no” from time to time, which can be tough to do — but necessary to “mind the gap.”
You can also engage the group and ask them why it’s hard to say “no” — simple examples could be that we don’t want to let others down, or because we get caught up in the moment that we don’t consider what else we have to do, or we don’t have a clear focus on our priorities.
Four Keys to Credibility
Have a very narrow “say-do” gap.

8. Communicate your intent and expectations to others.
Facilitator Notes:
This next key is important because it allows us to understand how to set others up for success, all while building our credibility with others.
Have you ever worked on a project and either at midpoint or about the time you were finished, the person you were working with was disappointed and said ‘well, that’s not what I wanted at all.’ I wanted this!”” That can be frustrating, right? In your mind, you’re probably thinking, “Well, if that’s what you wanted, why didn’t you say so in the beginning?!” Likely, when situations like this happen, you lose respect for that person because you feel like you were set up to fail.
We don’t like when that happens to us. So, let’s not do this to others.
As leaders, we have to take the time to communicate our intentions and expectations to ensure others know what success looks like. It’s being able to say what we want, and maybe when we want it, while leaving the “how” up to them, which helps ensure we don’t micromanage.
This can be most challenging when we’re at our busiest because we don’t take the time to communicate thoroughly, or share ideas or best practices. It’s even more important at these times to take the time because the risk of a miscommunication/or unclear intentions could cost us a tremendous amount of time.
You can accentuate this point by sharing a time when you may not have done your best on communicating expectations, or when you were on the receiving end of someone’s poor communication and how it felt to get information piece-mealed to you.
Four Keys to Credibility
Communicate your intent and expectations to others.

9. Hold people accountable when they fail to meet standards.
Facilitator Notes:
So far we’ve covered three of the four keys to credibility, which can be summarized as knowing what is expected of you, keeping your say-do gap small, and letting others know what “success” looks like. This final one is a little more difficult to demonstrate because for some of us it makes us uncomfortable — holding others accountable when they fail to meet standards.
Imagine that on Tuesday your colleague told you they’d get their piece of the project to you by Friday morning. It’s now Friday afternoon, and you still haven’t heard from them. Based on your history with this person, you know their say-do gap is wide. You’re concluding that they either forgot or will get it to you by Monday. The problem is, you need their portion in able to advance on your piece of the project and you’ve got a busy week next week. Their tardiness is putting you in a bind. What do you do?
You can sit back, passively, and wait for it to come … even if that is Monday. You can throw up your arms, and just start diving in and doing it yourself. Or, you can call them and say, “Hey, you mentioned you’d have that to me by this morning. It’s now the afternoon. When can I get it?” And, then later, work to discuss how they can avoid these situations in the future.
The last answer is the “right” choice; it’s the only one that guarantees the problem is addressed proactively in a way that satisfies you and deals with the situation. And while these types of conversations might be difficult to do, they — ultimately — allow you to earn trust and respect because people will come to realize that you have high standards.
As an end result, you — and the teams you’re a part of — will be credible because you do what you say …and you say what you do.
High performing teams are the result of leaders who make standards and commitments matter.
Holding others accountable doesn’t have to be an awkward conversation — and it doesn’t require pulling HR into a conversation. It requires leaders who have the courage to bring accountability into teams.
Four Keys to Credibility
Hold people accountable when they fail to meet standards.

10. Exercise Facilitator Notes:
There are three exercises that can go with this module — we recommend using one of the three. The others can be used as optional follow-up exercises.
Understanding the Expectations of Stakeholders: This is an individual exercise where you ask participants to reflect on key stakeholders in their “universe” and seek to understand what expectations they might have on them.
Say-Do Gap Discussion: This is a group discussion exercise where you ask the group questions related to the second key to credibility.
Culture of Accountability: This is a group discussion exercise where you explore the fourth key to credibility, holding people accountable.
Note: All of these exercises may be found in the “Resource Library” on the SPARK Experience, under ”Handouts” for Chapter 3: The Four Keys to Being Credible.

11. Be the Spark www.sparkslead.us Facilitator Notes:
Your credibility is your on-ramp to greater influence with others, and it’s too important to be left to chance. Start purposefully developing it and you’ll soon discover that your performance is stronger and you’re in a better position to be the go-to person sought out by others.
I’d like to thank everyone for coming today to discuss the Four Keys to Credibility.
As a follow up, we’ll connect (date) to discuss (SPARK Topic)
If you’d like to learn more about SPARK, or view additional learning materials, visit