Many factors are involved in making a business successful, and many factors contribute to business failure. Two contributing factors to business stagnation or, even worse, business failure are lack of integrity and credibility. This is true for any type of business, any size, or any location.
Integrity
Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. Many times, we associate integrity with individuals rather than businesses. Certainly, individuals lead and operate businesses and work is accomplished through individual employees, but the business itself also has integrity that is derived from its workforce.
Think about these questions. Does the business have deep values? Is it honest in its dealings with customers, clients, employees, lenders, investors, and suppliers? Does the business do what it says it will do? Does it pride itself on never betraying those who have placed their trust in the business? Does it generate trust and respect within the marketplace where it conducts business?
Business integrity might seem as though it is behind the scenes, but business integrity is very noticeable to stakeholders who recognize trust, quality of products or services, customer service, and follow-up, flexibility, or other similar attributes. When a business has integrity, it enjoys a great reputation having satisfied employees and loyal customers.
Credibility
Credibility, closely associated with integrity, is the quality of being trusted and believed in. Although the business might have integrity as one of its core principles, it must also have the credibility to go along with it. Do stakeholders think the business is trustworthy? Is it reliable? Can stakeholders depend on the business when the need arises? Does it have a good reputation?
Businesses might have integrity a majority of the time but just “stepping over the line once and getting caught” can have a long-lasting detrimental effect on the reputation of the business. And, unfortunately, stepping over the line once makes it easier to step over the line a second, third, and fourth time. Before the business realizes what it has done, its credibility…along with sales…can be damaged forever.
Businesses need credibility to retain customers and sustain sales. Customers must believe in the business and trust it and the products or services sold. When a business has credibility, it naturally more easily attracts quality employees, customers, lenders, and investors. So, building business credibility is important to the success of any business by being trustworthy all the time, being consistent with all stakeholders, showcasing notable achievements, and promoting genuine testimonials.
Integrity and Credibility
Accordingly, integrity and credibility should go hand-in-hand. If a business has integrity, most likely it also has credibility; however, this is not always the case and credibility must be worked on. On the flip side, it is extremely difficult for a business to project an image and have reputation for being credible when integrity is not truly a pillar of its foundation.
Therefore, regardless of the type, size, or location of a business, it must strive to have integrity and be credible. Any business can have these two very important factors that are so necessary for long-term success and sustainability. Whatever your business is, look inward and analyze your business. Does it have a reputation for integrity and is it considered credible? If not, then what can be done to enhance its reputation? The time to start working on business integrity and credibility is now because each day forward contributes to either a positive or negative reputation in this area. Beat the competition by always operating your business with integrity and striving to achieve a credible reputation.
