Review: Nobody Believes You

Nobody Believes You: Become a Leader People Will Follow
Jenni Field
Youpreneur Press, 2024, 119 pages

This is a little book that tackles a big topic.

Leadership is an incredibly well-researched subject and the literature on it is vast. And yet, despite this, leadership is fiendishly difficult to define and, more importantly, to master in order for organisations to be successful.

So, it is welcome to see a publication written on leadership from a consultant with a strong internal communication background. After all, it can be argued that much of effective leadership is communication.

The book starts from the viewpoint that the focus on leaders being authentic is both wrong and dangerous. Wrong as it is not what motivates people to follow a leader and dangerous as it can be used as an excuse for unacceptable behaviour (such as shouting at someone).

Instead, Field argues that credibility is more important than authenticity. She describes this as “what happens when effective communication meets true accountability”. This has echoes of the “say-do” model. Field goes further and argues that credibility is a mix of four traits (empathetic, trustworthy, visionary and likeable) and four behaviours (supportive, has integrity, capable, and vulnerable).

These “practices” as they are described in the book, will be very familiar. Some of them remind me of MacLeod and Clarke’s enablers of employee engagement (visionary and has integrity). Others, such as empathetic, supportive and vulnerable often feature strongly in the research on listening to employees.

Although the practices themselves are not new, they form a compelling mix and have a lot to offer, both for aspiring leaders and internal communication managers coaching senior leaders on aspects of communication that are inherent in what Field calls a “Credibility Wheel”.

The book is structured into dedicated chapters for each practice which are then framed with interesting vignettes from Field’s personal experience of working with leaders. Each chapter also includes more detailed analysis of the practice with a list of the skills required and strategies for mastering them.

From this perspective, it’s a highly accessible and practical book. The Credibility Wheel intuitively makes sense and the eight practices are complementary in many ways. The skills and guidance on developing them provide a handy reference tool for personal leadership development.

Field is right to challenge the recent focus on leadership authenticity and this critique is supported by a range of leading academic leadership researchers. The eight practices that she outlines provide a robust model for effective leadership that are individually associated with organisational success and high levels of employee engagement.

However, it is surprising not to see communication and listening featured in the Credibility Wheel. Although it is true to say it is not talked about nearly enough in the leadership literature, there is a solid body of knowledge that does highlight the importance of communication, including listening, for good leadership.

On a broader conceptual note, whether all the eight practices constitute credible leadership is open to question. For example, how strongly is “Likable” (one of the eight practices), defined in the book as “Agreeable, light-hearted and charismatic” associated with credibility? Indeed, “charismatic” leadership has, like authenticity, been misused by some leaders to influence employees to follow them in ways that are not in their interest.

Some of the answers to these questions lie in the research conducted for the book, which is available separately as a report (see details below). What is clear from the findings in the report is that credible leadership is understood in many ways, including; walking the talk, trustworthiness, expertise, knowledge and accreditation (using academic theory to back up knowledge).

Indeed, in his summary of extensive academic research into credibility, Richard Perloff(1) concludes that a credible communicator is “One who is seen as an expert, is regarded as trustworthy, and displays goodwill toward audience members”. These three foundational qualities resonate and they are, to some degree, reflected in Field’s Credibility Wheel.

Ultimately, although we can debate the complexities of trying to define credibility this is not to deny that Field’s eight practices have merit.

The book is, after all, not intended to be a weighty academic tome. It reflects her experiences and personal perspective and it will provide a useful source of information for many.

The book is available here and is priced at £10.99 for the paperback version.
The research report is available here and is priced at £39 for a digital download.

1) Perloff, R. M. (2017). The Dynamics of Persuasion: Communication and Attitudes in the Twenty-First Century: Vol. Sixth edition. Routledge.