Credibility

If you’ve been playing along with the home version of our game you know that I’ve been on a jury in a civil trial for the past couple of weeks.  The trial is over, the jury dismissed and so I’m able to write all about it, which I’m not going to do in great detail.  However, the basis upon which we rendered our verdict got me thinking and, of course, it became a decent business lesson.Basically, the case, which was a dog injury suit, came down to the plaintiff‘s eyewitness identification of the dog that attacked him and the defendant‘s statement that the dog in question was with him at the time of the attack.  We believed each man was telling the truth – the plaintiff really did believe it to be that dog (but he was mistaken) and the dog really was with the defendant.  What it really came down to was each man’s credibility.

In this case, the defendant had been very consistent in his version and there were lots of facts to support him.  In the plaintiff’s version, the “facts” changed a bit depending on when he told the tale (at the scene to EMS, to the police later, or in court to us).  Although he believed he identified the dog, when his version of the facts was tested, some things didn’t add up and that probably led him to misidentify the dog.  There was also an incident during the trial, his rendition of which changed literally within the 15 minutes he was on the stand.

All of that led the members of the jury to question his credibility and, after a full day of deliberation, reviewing exhibits, and rehearing testimony, to return a defendant’s verdict.

The business lesson is this:  it doesn’t matter about what you say if your credibility is an issue.  That seems pretty obvious but how many of us take the time to do reality checks on how believable we are to others?  If you put a sloppy PowerPoint up on a wall, full of spelling and grammar issues, your credibility is undermined and what you’re selling is unimportant – no one is buying YOU!  If you lie to subordinates or peers or bosses, whatever you say later, no matter how brilliant, is cheapened because your credibility is gone.

In this case, a man was very badly hurt in an accident.  Because six of us found his credibility to be an issue, his version of the facts resonated less heavily with us on critical issues and he lost his suit.

When was the last time you checked your credibility?  Ask around – hopefully you’re pleasantly surprised!