I recently attended a virtual IIBA meeting for the Los Angeles chapter, and the topic was the interesting “The Influencing Formula: Three Steps to Influencing When You Don’t Have the Authority”, given by Elizabeth Larson from Watermark Learning.
What really resonated with me was step one: Build Trust. Being in a consulting role, building trust is something that I must constantly do. Sometimes it is with a new client, sometimes it is with a new stakeholder within an existing client, sometimes it is with a new colleague. But building trust is an ongoing and never ending activity for me.
As part of the discussion about building trust, the “Four Cores of Credibility” by Steven Covey was mentioned. This was taken from Mr. Covey’s book, The Speed of Trust.
Essentially, credibility is made up of Character and Competence. Character is built from Integrity and Intent. Integrity is achieving results in an honest and principled way. This is the basis for of all trust. Communicating your intent is next. No hidden agendas, this is being upfront and honest.
Competence is built from Capabilities and Results. Capabilities is keeping your knowledge, your skills and your abilities current and relevant. Continue to learn and grow. Results is achieving what you set out to do. You have to deliver in order to have trust. You can have the other three cores, but if you don’t have results, then you don’t have trust.
As a Business Analyst, I absolutely need the trust of the people I work with in order to do my job. For without trust, then it does not matter how hard I work, or how fantastic my requirements may be, they will not be regarded as good and effective unless I have the trust of the team with whom I work.
I encourage you to think about what trust you have of your stakeholders. If you do not have their trust, which of these four cores are you missing?
