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[Solocast] Credibility Is Granted, Not Claimed
Episode 83 • 1st September 2026 • Dig Deeper • Digby Scott
00:00:00 00:04:51

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You walk into a room where nobody knows you. No shared history, nobody to vouch for you, and whatever you've built is sitting in a file the person across from you will never open. So what actually earns you credibility in the next ten minutes?

I've been living this question. Over the past few months I've been building a practice in Perth, and almost twenty years of trust earned in New Zealand counts for nothing in a room where I've just met someone. So I've been carrying a mantra with me: credibility is in the eye of the beholder. It's granted, not claimed. Which shifts the question from what you've built to what you're doing to earn it right now.

In this solocast I share what 25 senior leaders came up with when I asked them what makes someone credible, why our brains judge warmth before they judge anything else, and the three things that have to show up together.

You'll get:

  • Why the person across from you is the one deciding whether you're credible
  • What 25 senior leaders put on the flip chart, and the one word that only turned up once
  • Why a primal part of your brain asks "friend or foe" before it asks anything else
  • The Amy Cuddy and Susan Fiske research on warmth and competence
  • How competence, care and character add up to credibility
  • What you look like to others when one of the three is missing
  • Why leading with care first is what opens the door to a second conversation

Timestamps:

(00:00) - Introduction

(00:40) - The mantra: credibility is in the eye of the beholder

(01:21) - Credibility is granted, not claimed

(01:44) - What 25 senior leaders said makes someone credible

(02:30) - Care: friend or foe, and why warmth comes first

(03:09) - Character: showing who you are

(03:30) - Competence, care and character together

(03:56) - Leading with care first in a new city

(04:19) - Three questions to leave you with

Referenced in this episode:

Susan Fiske, Amy Cuddy and Peter Glick, "Universal Dimensions of Social Cognition: Warmth and Competence", Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2007

Amy Cuddy, Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges

Check out my services and offerings https://www.digbyscott.com/

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trailer Welcome to Dig Deeper with Digby Scott
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