Joel Whalen has identified three pillars
of credibility: expertise, trustworthiness, and goodwill. Expertise is the form
of credibility where people rely on one’s title, education or other
professionals’ esteem. Trustworthiness is simply the confidence level between
people, whereas goodwill focuses on the overall relationship (Whalen, 2007). As
an academic adviser, maintaining a strong relationship with students is
critical since they will be relying on my help to successfully graduate. While
I hardly come across professional issues, one challenge I struggle with is to
be seen as a trustworthy adviser.
Though it’s hard to determine, I
believe one reason why I struggle on gaining trust is because of the lack of
experience with my current position. I was hired as an adviser only last year
and because of this, a few students enrolled before my arrival refer straight to
my boss. Though the situation appears more relevant towards the expertise pillar,
I believe trustworthiness is the primary issue. According to Whalen, it takes time
to build up trust (Whalen, 2007). A year may seem enough time to gain some
trust, however the challenge at my workplace is that most students rarely
contact us. My university primarily offers online courses, and many students
rely on them to balance work schedules, as well as having the opportunity to
get a degree without constant travelling.
While work experience at my
university might be one thing, perhaps the biggest struggle that applies to
anyone is my age. I am 24, graduated last year with my first bachelor’s degree,
and is new to the working world. Though it is uncommon for students to judge me,
I’ve been told by my boss several times where students admitted that they
trusted a “grown man” than “some kid”. Whether
the person is a current, new, or a potential student, the pattern is usually
the same. First, I usually receive an email or phone call requesting an office
visit. When the student arrives, they either ask if I was the same person who
they initially spoke to, or they will ask or go straight to the director’s
office (without saying anything). When my boss wasn’t in the office, in rare
cases, they simply say “oh” and leave the office.
While working
for a year and being young are two different issues, I believe the solution to
both are overall the same: and that is to simply engage in more conversations.
The root problem to both situations are that people are judging based on “the
cover”. The situation is similar to Chimamanda Adichie’s TED talk The Danger of a Single Story. According
to Adichie, a single story or stereotype might be true, but are inaccurate
information (Adichie, 2009). For my situation, I am sometimes seen as
untrustworthy because I’m young and just got hired. The judgments are true, but
not entirely. To overcome the issue, I often talk about my past and current
experience as a student.
According
to Joshua Gowin, personal experiences and storytelling allows the audience to make
a connection to their thoughts and emotions (Gowin, 2011). For my case, sharing
my experiences is efficient because going to school is a common interest. While
true experiences are credible, implementing emotions through body language and
tone can make a conversation more efficient since emotions allows ones to
respond the same way (McDonald & Messinger, n.d.). To supplement my storytelling
and overall knowledge for advisement, I am also currently working on my master’s
degree: which follows into the expertise pillar of credibility. Whenever I come
across a student who talks about a master’s degree, I worry that I lack
experience. To avoid this, I am continuing and learning more as I complete my degree.
References:
Adichie, C.
(2009). The danger of a single story [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story
Gowin, J. (2011).
Why Sharing Stories Brings People Together. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/you-illuminated/201106/why-sharing-stories-brings-people-together
McDonald, N.,
& Messinger, D., (n.d.), The Development of Empathy: How, When, and Why. Retrieved
from http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/dmessinger/c_c/rsrcs/rdgs/emot/McDonald-Messinger_Empathy%20Development.pdf
Whalen, J.
(2007). The Professional Communications Toolkit (1st ed.). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
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