September 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 87

NRPA Update
The " Credible You! "
By Bill Beckner

or well over two decades, American society has campaigned to raise
self-esteem and self-respect for children and youth. This child-development movement has perhaps been personified by the media formats entitled " Incredible You! 10 Ways to Let Your Greatness Shine Through " by Dr.
Wayne W. Dyer. Dr. Dyer is certainly joined by hundreds if not thousands of
child-development specialists in looking for ways to encourage our youth to
think well of themselves and receive supportive feedback.
There has also been debate as to
whether or not the " Incredible You "
makes the transition into adulthood
and more particularly the job situation.
At work, the self-esteem and self-respect must be internalized, and specific
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs)
become your tools for doing your job.
But why do some excel and get promotions while others do not? The answer
is most often the " Credible You! "
Credibility is placed in context by
the historically well-known broadcaster Edward R. Murrow who said about
his role as network news anchor, " To
be persuasive, we must be believable;
to be believable, we must be credible;
to be credible, we must be truthful. "
Unlike the " Incredible You, "
which is formed in an environment
created by others and granted by you,
the " credible you " is created by you
and recognized by others as a result
of repeated success.
The characteristics that make you
credible in the workplace include:
Knowledge about your job, duties
and customers
Understanding of related influences including the needs of those you
supervise and those above you in
the hierarchy
Awareness of past, current and future trends

The ability to state your goals, strategies and objectives in a clear manner
Creating clear performance measures for monitoring progress and
measuring success.
If you develop these characteristics, you will generally find that you
are given the ability to perform your
duties on your own terms. That
might mean:
You can establish your own programs because you have done the
market research to know what your
customers are seeking, and you
know what is or will be successful.

You can justify your budget because
your requests are supported by detailed and relevant information.
You will be allowed to buy the
maintenance equipment needed
because you can show they will be
cost-effective over time.
Unfortunately, it may also be the
difference between sustaining your
department and losing it. Although
in today's politics, logic and reason
do not guarantee success.
In short, it puts you in control of your
own work environment. Depending on
your career goals, it places you in position for promotions to be responsible
for more of the operations. In most
cases, credibility is a major characteristic appreciated by those who appoint
the top official in the organization.
I once had a volunteer naturalist
who would lead wildflower walks. He
often said that knowing the names of
the various flowers made you knowledgeable, but knowing why the specific plant grew where it grew (sun/
shade, acidic/neutral soil, etc.) gave
you credibility as a naturalist.
The same is true in the workplace.
You can create numbers that appear to
measure performance but in actuality
don't measure anything important.
For example, let's assume you
count the number of participants who
attend programs or register for classes (visitors). You now have data that
you can present to show an increase
of participants for the season or year.
However, in terms of your program
operation, you still don't know what
that means for space utilization, staffing needs or your revenue picture.

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