20 Helpful Principles To Confidently Speak Up

Design your personal credo.

Key Takeaways

• A credo is a set of principles that reflect founding values and beliefs.
• Design your own credo to be more courageous, confident, and assertive.
• Consider including identity, speaking up, ownership, mindset, and action principles.

Johnson & Johnson's Powerful Credo

When I worked at Johnson & Johnson, I learned how powerful a credo is.

A credo is a set of principles that reflect your values and beliefs. Your principles give you strength, confidence, and clarity. 

For example, in their credo, J&J prioritizes people over profits. They also made their credo public which facilitates interactions with others outside of the organization because it shows others what is important to them.

Leaders at J&J consulted their credo to deal with difficult situations. For example:

• When the strategy plan was unclear
• During crisis management
• When making difficult decisions
• When solving diverging views

Here are some of the critical moments in their history that was guided by their founding values shared in their credo.

• When they went public, they communicated their credo to shareholders saying their commitment to consumers, employees, and community came before shareholders.
• During the great depression, not only did they not lay off their employees, they also advocated on behalf of all American workers by writing to the president at the time to request for higher wages and lower working hours.
• When 7 people died while consuming their Tylenol medication, they recalled 31 million bottles of that medication worldwide and offered replacement free of charge, costing them more than $100 million dollars. Then they focused on R&D to create a the first tamper-evident packaging.

Ray Dalio's Principles

Ray Dalio, the founder of the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, also created and published the set of principles that guide his company and his own life. He even wrote a book about it.

Design your own CREDO

Do you have your own credo? Are you clear on what your principles are? Do you have a list of principles that can help you boost your courage to speak up for what’s important to you?

If not, let me help you create one. 

Here are 20 principles that can guide you to become more courageous, confident, and assertive. Choose what you like the most and change it to suit your own principles and beliefs.

1. I am thoughtful, kind, and respectful but without omission.
2. I seek respect not liking.
3. I am exclusive, not generic.
4. I value myself so I commit to “me” moments every day.
5. I make myself understood.
6. I speak my mind, heart, and soul when it matters.
7. I agree to disagree.
8. I cultivate courage every day to express my personal freedom.
9. I champion my dreams even if others don’t like it.
10. I protect my energy and time like there’s no tomorrow.
11. I own my power, decisions, and happiness; I don’t seek permission.
12. I don’t react; I give myself the time I need to respond.
13. I get excited with uncomfortable conversations because of what lies on the other side.
14. I crush my relationship dramas with curiosity.
15. I lead my decisions and actions with purpose, leadership, and integrity.
16. I lead with vision not fear.
17. I bias towards action.
18. I show up fully, show my talent, and play big unapologetically.
19. I seek cordial conflict.
20. I celebrate my progress.