How TPMs Lose Credibility and What to Avoid

2025.02 - Credibility is the currency through which you buy Trust. Overtime, I have picked up on a few mistakes that hurts that currency and thus trust.

Summary: Credibility is key for a TPM's success and for building TRUST.

• It's not just about avoiding major mistakes, but consistently delivering on promises, following processes, being proactive, and communicating clearly.

• Small missteps like ignoring team consensus, over-escalating, or missing details can quickly erode your trust with leadership and partners.

• Focus on the basics—being dependable, clear, and proactive—and you’ll build lasting credibility.

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Credibility is the currency upon which trust is built. As a Technical Program Manager (TPM), your ability to foster confidence from leadership, engineering teams, and product partners depends on how credible you are in your role. Trust is not easily regained once it’s lost, so it’s crucial to understand the behaviors that can hurt your credibility and cause the breakdown of relationships with your teams and leadership.

Losing credibility doesn’t happen overnight. It’s often the result of a series of small missteps or inconsistent behaviors that chip away at your professional reputation. Unlike trust, which is often fragile and difficult to rebuild, credibility is something you actively maintain every day through your actions, communication, and decision-making. Below are some common ways TPMs lose credibility and hurt their trust account:

1. Going Against Group Consensus Without Proper Reasoning

As a TPM, your role is to bring teams together and facilitate consensus. When you repeatedly go against the grain without providing solid reasoning, you risk alienating your partners. It's important to challenge ideas when necessary, but make sure your rationale is clear, data-driven, and focused on the project’s success. If you're often seen as out of touch with the group’s consensus, it will be hard to maintain credibility with key stakeholders.

2. Making Frequent Mistakes

Mistakes happen, but when they are frequent and avoidable, they erode your credibility. Consistently overlooking details, failing to double-check information, or making errors that are easily preventable sends the message that you're not fully invested in your responsibilities. To safeguard your credibility, focus on minimizing mistakes, learning from them, and improving your process for accuracy.

3. Not Following or Circumventing Your Own Process

Every TPM should have a process that helps manage projects effectively. Whether it's timelines, dependencies, or communication protocols, your process is your framework for ensuring things run smoothly. Circumventing it too often, or not adhering to your own guidelines, creates confusion and undermines your credibility. If your team or leadership can’t rely on your process, they’ll start to question your ability to manage projects effectively.

4. Being Too Rigid or Too Flexible with the Process

On the flip side, being too rigid or “by the book” can also be detrimental. While structure is important, flexibility is equally essential. The ability to adapt the process to the needs of the project, team, and timeline is critical. If you stick too rigidly to your process without considering context, you’ll be seen as inflexible. But if you're too loose with it, you’ll risk undermining the order and consistency that projects need.

5. Escalating Too Frequently

Escalating issues to higher management is sometimes necessary, but it shouldn't be your go-to strategy. Constantly escalating problems without trying to resolve them at your level makes it seem like you lack control or the ability to manage conflicts effectively. Before escalating, ask yourself if there’s a way to resolve the issue within the team, or if there are any alternative solutions you can propose.

6. Not Following Through on Commitments

Nothing undermines your credibility more than not delivering on what you promised. When you make commitments—whether big or small—it’s vital to follow through. If circumstances change, communicate early and clearly about any delays, but don’t make excuses. People rely on TPMs to be dependable, and breaking that trust can have long-lasting effects.

7. Missing the Details

In program management, it’s often the small details that make or break a project. If you consistently overlook or miss critical details, it will quickly reflect poorly on your credibility. Ensure you're tracking key metrics, milestones, and dependencies, and double-check your work before sharing it with others.

8. Lack of Proactiveness

A reactive approach to project management won’t build your credibility. Instead of waiting for problems to arise, take proactive steps to identify potential issues before they become bigger challenges. If you always respond to problems rather than anticipating them, you give the impression that you're unprepared or disengaged. Anticipation is key to leading projects with confidence and credibility.

9. Over-Communicating or Under-Communicating

Finding the right balance in communication is crucial. Speaking too often in meetings without adding value can be just as damaging as saying too little. If you frequently speak just for the sake of contributing, it can cause frustration and undermine your influence. On the other hand, if you’re not vocal enough, people might perceive you as disengaged or lacking leadership. It's about being concise, meaningful, and to the point.

10. Incessantly Calling Meetings

Not every issue requires a meeting. Scheduling too many meetings—especially without a clear agenda or actionable outcomes—can quickly erode your credibility. It wastes time and sends the message that you don’t understand your team's time constraints. Only schedule meetings when absolutely necessary, and make sure they are purposeful, focused, and efficient.

11. Running Around with Inadequate Information

If you’re constantly chasing down information or running from meeting to meeting without fully understanding the situation, your credibility will take a hit. It's essential to be well-prepared before presenting or making decisions. If you consistently appear unprepared or uninformed, it will become difficult for others to trust your judgment or value your input.

12. Not Understanding the Why Before Asking Engineering

Before asking your engineering team to do something, make sure you understand the rationale behind it. If you don’t, it will appear as if you're asking them to do things without a clear purpose. Engineering teams respect TPMs who understand the technical landscape and can provide context for their asks. This helps foster a sense of alignment and shared purpose.

13. Being Nudged to Take Ownership

As a TPM, you’re expected to be a leader who takes ownership of projects. If you’re constantly being nudged or prompted by others to take the initiative, you may be perceived as passive or lacking the confidence to drive projects forward. Show leadership by taking ownership proactively, ensuring that the team knows you're in control and steering the ship.

14. Failing to Set Up a Proper Program Structure

A clear program structure is essential for any successful project. Without it, chaos can ensue. This includes defining timelines, milestones, responsibilities, and communication channels early on. If you fail to establish a proper program structure, your credibility will suffer as your teams struggle to understand their roles and expectations.

15. Burying the Lede in Communication

When communicating in writing, be clear, concise, and prioritize the most important information. If you bury critical details in long paragraphs or excessive explanation, it will be difficult for the recipient to grasp the message. People rely on TPMs to provide clarity and direction, and your communication style is a reflection of that.

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Final Words

Building credibility is a constant effort, and yes, this may seem obvious. But as with most obvious things, it’s often the simple, foundational aspects that get overlooked.

Every action, every interaction, and every decision you make impacts how others perceive your ability to lead. It’s easy to get caught up in the complexity of projects, but at the end of the day, it’s the basics—being clear, dependable, and proactive—that truly build your credibility.

While the big wins are important, don’t forget that consistency in the small things is what truly earns trust. The obvious is often what makes the most significant difference.

Until next time.

-Aadil