STOP! as you find yourself about to say "I am the kind of guy...", or "On my team I will never let such and so happen", or the common "Let me be honest with you.", or the ubiquitous "Frankly speaking." If you get to the point of needing to explain yourself in this way, you are already in trouble. You are saying these things precisely to combat your feeling that you lack credibility. The sad fact is that by doing this you are actually making yourself weaker. You become less credible or trustworthy, or honest. It helps you to replace action with blah blah blah, a very very poor substitute. What have you done to show you are the kind of person that ...? Are you saying that you are going to be honest now but you were not being honest before?
Catch yourself before you say these things, which serve in little steps to reduce your value. Replace them with calls to action: "After this conversation, I am going to do such and so to make sure that..." Go make it happen. Remind them later that you made it happen. Erase from your phrase book "Let me be honest", "Frankly speakıng".
It is not easy to unlearn such sticky habits. Do so and you will feel much better about yourself as a leader. As a consequence, so too will others.
Don't say who you are, do who you are.
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