Credible Activist-Building Credibility Part 2
In our last entry we discussed some of the elements of creating credibility. Credibility is gained by working in the interests of the client; helping them create long term success rather than in your own interests or the interests of some vague notion of best practice in HR.
But there is another element to credibility building, and I learnt this the hard way. That is timing. Let me tell you a brief story of a lesson in my career. I had been working for an American investment bank and their culture was to challenge and to ensure you had an opinion.
 After some years I moved to a British Merchant bank. My naive assumption was that the same criteria applied. Have an opinion and be prepared to challenge the client on their proposals for the business. Wrong so wrong!

 As my mentor pointed out in a British Merchant Bank HR was seen as ‘below stairs staff' i.e.  There to serve and apart from the odd person who was seen as a trusted retainer preferably not to be seen or heard except to say ‘yes sir' (I exaggerate a little to make the point.) So my US style had completely offended most of my senior clients. My mentor's advice was to climb the stairs, to move from ‘below stairs' I had to be more subtle.
Step one was to listen and agree and to execute well. (Sounds familiar too many HR people I am sure)
Step two was to anticipate problems and to assure the client they too had noticed them.  To point out the black holes in their thinking but in such a way they thought they had told you.
Step three was to proactively raise the issues before they had mentioned them but in such a way that it was obvious they were about too. But only to raise issues in the context of the client's goals and objectives and preferably their credibility. Here we link back to the last entry on building credibility.
This is the step before the reaching the top of the stairs to the first floor so to speak. When you are here you are on the cusp of becoming an above stairs advisor rather than a below stairs executor.
Making that crucial last step my mentor told me sometimes never happened. Some clients would never accept their ‘below stairs' staff being an advisor. However for those who had moved into the 20th century (let alone the 21st   ) the trick was to save them from some dire mistake.
My opportunity came with the planned hire of a very high profile candidate. I was asked to see him and something just did not fit with his motivation to join us. I knew the client was dead set on hiring him and my interview was just a formality in his eyes. However I have always trusted my intuition so I called in a few favours with head hunters and had the candidate checked out quietly, sure enough there was a skeleton in the cupboard. One that would have eventually come out and have been a source of embarrassment to my client and the company.
 I told the client privately and we agreed to quietly drop the recruitment.
After that I made it to the above stairs advisor role. The client asked my advice before deciding on a course of action and suffered my ideas and challenges with humour and occasional thanks. A shift some of his colleagues found intriguing and started to replicate.
The lesson from this story? If you work for an old British institution where the staff are ‘below stairs', and even if you don't,  you need to use timing to be successful and to gain credibility, look for opportunities, don't rush but equally don't let an opportunity pass you by.