What makes leaders believable? That was the question at the center of my first Believability Roundtable, where 17 senior leaders from banking, consulting, energy, and other industries gathered for a candid discussion about trust, credibility, and leadership communication. I asked them four questions: What makes you believe someone? What makes you disbelieve someone? What’s at stake when people don’t believe you? And what can you do about it? Their responses reinforced a lesson I’ve seen repeatedly throughout my work with executives: believability isn’t determined by what you say alone. It’s shaped by whether your words, actions, and presence align in a way that inspires trust.
Last Friday, I held my first Believability Roundtable: an hour-long conversation with 17 senior leaders from banking, consulting, energy, and beyond.
I asked them four questions: What makes you believe someone? What makes you disbelieve someone? What’s at stake when people don’t believe you? And what can you do about it?
Every single person actively participated, and nobody left early (which shows me that they valued their time in this discussion, which I discussed in last week’s newsletter). Their comments reinforced what I’ve been studying for years.
What makes leaders believable?
The room agreed on one word: congruence.
Unprompted, many leaders made the same comment: when what you say matches how you say it, people believe you. When it doesn’t, they believe the how and they mistrust the what. The gap between words and delivery, between message and action, is where you lose credibility.
The script problem is bigger than we think.
The most debated topic was about reading versus internalizing a speech. One leader said the moment you start to read from a script, he doesn’t believe a word you say. Someone else pushed back to challenge that assumption, and we had a robust debate about how to do it effectively (for more ways to use notes effectively, see my previous article on the topic).
Many leaders either memorize their words or just wing it. I want you to find a middle ground: know your material so well that you take ownership of your words.
The long tail of DIS-believability.
Multiple leaders described what happens after a leader loses believability. The disbelief leaves a bad taste that lingers, and it causes compounding problems for an organization. As a result, your employees disengage or quit. We know that trust takes much longer to rebuild than it does to earn. As one person put it: “You lose time, because now you have to go back and convince people you’re telling the truth.”
Courage is a prerequisite.
One leader stopped his team meeting to address the question everyone was thinking but no one wanted to raise: how many jobs are going away because of AI? He didn’t have all the answers. He said so. One courageous moment (naming what was on people’s minds) did more for his credibility than any prepared message could have.
Believability isn’t always fair.
The group acknowledged what the research shows: we evaluate believability through our own filters. Our biases, our in-group assumptions, and our gut reactions all shape whether we trust someone, regardless of whether they’re telling the truth. Understanding this doesn’t make it easier, but it’s essential context for leaders to understand, especially new leaders who are entering a room and facing a mistrustful audience.
What’s Next: Five Lessons on Leadership Believability
Over the next several weeks, I’ll go deeper on each of these themes because each one contains practical takeaways for the way you lead and communicate.
Until next week,
~Allison
P.S. If you’d like to be notified when new articles in this series, What Makes Leaders Believable are published, I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter. You’ll receive each article directly in your inbox, along with actionable insights to help you lead with greater clarity, credibility, and confidence.
Good Speaker vs. Great Public Speaker
One of the most debated topics during our Believability Roundtable was the difference between reading a script and truly owning your message. In this short video, I share what separates good speakers from great public speakers—and why preparation, presence, and authenticity matter more than memorizing every word.
Watch the video →
