You can think of this whole piece as one sticky note above your desk:
Credibility → Role Model → Vision → Challenge
held together by Communication and Disciplina
(being the student, not the master).
That’s the tiny but powerful framework. Memoizing and deeply understanding it can make the difference for you as an aspiring leader.
This article is about making it usable in the real world; in that moment where you sit in a meeting and think: “If I now invite people to join this change, do they actually see a person worth following – or just my job title?” We’ll look at each pillar in two directions at once: leadership toward others and self-leadership. Because if those two don’t match, people feel the gap immediately. They might still obey, but they won’t truly follow.
📍 I recommend implementing this framework together with the Mirror Book, which I explained in the last mentoring session. You will need time and space to process the feedback you receive from this framework; the book is my way of doing that.
I. Credibility
– Your Hidden “Credit Account” (FREE)
Credibility is not “people like me” or “I’m senior”; credibility is the sum of all small proofs that you are who you claim to be. Your team holds a silent credit account in their heads where every kept promise, every missed deadline, every calm escalation, and every avoided conversation is recorded.
Especially in tech, people can sense inauthenticity very quickly, so any mismatch between your words and actions erodes that balance. At the same time, credibility is not perfection; it’s about being reliable, honest, and willing to repair when you mess up. You can be imperfect and still be highly credible if people experience you as consistent and accountable.
Leadership toward others
From the outside, credibility answers one question: “If I bet my effort, reputation, and weekend on this person’s plan, will they still be there tomorrow?” Your team pays attention far more to what you do than to what you announce. If you talk about quality and then cut corners under pressure, or preach ownership and then grab control when it matters, they update your credibility score downward.
Conversely, when you stay engaged with their reality, take responsibility in public, and admit uncertainty without collapsing, that score goes up. The important part is that this is not a conscious voting process; it happens quietly in the background and shows up in whether people lean in or switch off when you speak.
Very practical, that looks like:
You say “quality matters” – and you still protect refactoring and test time when deadlines get tight.
You say “we work sustainably” – and you say no to hero deployments that compromise health or stability.
You say “ownership” – and you support people taking the lead instead of rescuing them and taking the credit.
You say “we learn from mistakes” – and you are the first to share your own and how you improved.
Self-leadership
Internal credibility comes first; if you don’t trust yourself, your leadership posture becomes fragile and defensive. Every time you promise yourself to journal, go to bed earlier, stop doomscrolling at night, or protect a focus block and then break that promise, your nervous system learns that your own word is negotiable.
Over time, you stop believing in your own decisions and start compensating with over-control or over-talking. Discipline, in the original sense of disciplina / discipulus, means you see yourself as a student of your own purpose and practice; you show up even when it’s boring, and nobody claps. When you begin to keep small promises to yourself consistently, you rebuild an inner sense of “when I say something, it happens” – and that radiates outward.
In concrete terms, this might mean:
If you write “1:1 with three people” into your calendar, you treat it as sacred, not optional.
If you decide “No phone after 22:00”, you enforce it on yourself like a production safeguard.
If you commit to a daily reflection practice, you protect that block even when the day is chaotic.
If you slip, you don’t rationalize; you acknowledge it and decide how to make the next repetition easier, not harder.
Situation check – Using The Credibility Pillar as a mini-framework
Before you announce any meaningful change, it’s worth pausing to assess your credibility through both lenses. You are about to ask people for energy, trust, and often sacrifice; they will subconsciously weigh that against your track record. At the same time, you also have to check if you are asking for a level of commitment you are not willing to uphold yourself.
The goal of this little framework is not to judge you, but to avoid the trap of motivational theatre that collapses after two weeks. If you treat credibility as something you can actively repair and increase, every change gets a better foundation.
So, next time you initiate a change, ask:
Toward others
“If I make this invitation today, do people look at my track record and think: ‘Yes, this person finishes things’, or ‘We’ll see, like last time’?”
“Where did I recently damage credibility – missed commitments, broken promises, disappearing – and can I repair it openly before I ask for something new?”
Toward yourself
“Am I asking the team to commit in a way I’m not willing to commit myself?”
“Which one small promise to myself will I keep this week to increase my own credibility?”
If you can’t answer those honestly, the right move is not a bigger speech; the right move is a smaller, concrete promise – and then actually fulfilling it.
From here on, we go deeper into how you embody the other three pillars in your daily behaviour.
II. Role Model – You Are the Standard (Not the Exception)
Whether you like it or not, you are the cultural standard.
If credibility is the account, being a role model is how you keep funding it every day. Many leaders unconsciously treat themselves as exceptions to the rules they set: they demand punctuality but show up late, ask for focus while constantly interrupting, or talk about learning while never investing in their own. Teams are extremely sensitive to these micro-contradictions and will always follow behaviour over slogans. The uncomfortable truth is: you are not just setting expectations; you are demonstrating what’s actually allowed and tolerated. Whether you like it or not, you are the cultural standard.
