Credibility Is the Foundation Of Leadership

For the third part of this month-long series celebrating the release of my first leadership book (which will be available in bookstores and through online retailers), “Leadership Vertigo”, I’m delighted and honoured to welcome James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, authors of the international best-seller and groundbreaking leadership book, “The Leadership Challenge”, to my blog. In this special guest piece, Jim and Barry discuss the 3rd leadership principle from the book, “Earn Credibility”, by sharing findings from several of their studies as to why credibility is so critical to our ability to effectively lead our employees and organization.

Jim and Barry, it is truly a pleasure and an honour to have you both sharing your research, knowledge, and insights with my readers. I’m grateful to you both for being so supportive and encouraging of my writings on leadership over these past couple of years. You inspire me to recognize that this book is just the beginning, and that there’s not only another book waiting for me to write, but that there’s more that I can share and give back to the leadership community to help leaders to “love ’em and lead ’em”.

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“I did not readily admit to my friends where I worked,” Lisa Kelley (not her real name) told us. “I just used to say, ‘A big company.’” The reason, she said, “predominantly had to do with the fact that I did not believe that our leaders were acting with the integrity and honesty that I hold so dear to my heart. I did not feel management set the kind of example that I wanted to abide by.”

Lisa’s sentiment is one that we hear time and time again. People want to believe in their leaders and in the organizations in which they work. When they don’t, they are unlikely to want to follow or do their best work.

For over thirty years we’ve been asking people to tell us what they look for and admire in a leader, someone whose direction they would willingly follow (the key word here is willingly.) The results of our studies over these three decades have been strikingly consistent around the world, and across categories of age, gender, ethnicity, functional discipline, and organizational level.

People are exceedingly clear about the qualities they expect leaders to demonstrate before they will enlist in a common cause and freely commit to action.

What are these crucial attributes? According to our research, people most want their leaders to be honest, forward-looking, competent, and inspiring. These four characteristics rank well above any others, and they are the only four that have been selected consistently by over sixty percent of respondents.

Honest. Honesty is selected more often than any other leadership characteristic. For people to willingly follow someone, they first want to assure themselves that the individual has integrity and is worthy of their trust.

Forward-Looking. Leaders are expected to have future orientation. Whether it’s called a vision, mission, or a personal agenda, the message is clear: leaders must know where they’re going if they expect others to willingly join them on the journey.

Competent. If people are going to enlist in a cause, they need to believe that the individual leading the effort is capable. The type of competence that constituents look for may vary somewhat with the context, but whatever a leader’s role people need to believe in the leader’s ability to get the job done.

Inspiring. People want to work with leaders who are dynamic, uplifting, energetic, positive, and optimistic. The enthusiasm of leaders is contagious; it lifts people up and spreads the belief that they can make extraordinary things happen.

Taken singularly, the characteristics of honest, forward-looking, competent, and inspiring provide a highly useful guide for leadership selection, action, and development. Taken together, however, they communicate an even more powerful message, one that offers a deeper understanding of people’s expectations of leaders. That’s because three of the four characteristics—honest, competent, and inspiring— correspond to how social scientists define personal “credibility.”

Credibility is the foundation of leadership. If people don’t believe in the messenger, they won’t believe the message. If you want people to follow you, they must believe that your words can be trusted, that you have the knowledge and skill necessary to lead, and that you are personally excited and enthusiastic about the future direction in which you are headed. Without a firm foundation of personal credibility, leaders have no hope of enlisting others in a common vision.

Credibility Makes a Difference
Now you might say, “So what? I know someone who is in a position of power, or I know people who are enormously wealthy, and I don’t find them credible. Does credibility really make a difference?”

To answer this question we asked people to think about the extent to which their immediate managers engaged in credibility-enhancing behaviors, and then we correlated their responses with how they felt about their work environment.

We found that the more people say their immediate managers exhibit credibility, the prouder they are to tell others they’re part of the organization, the stronger their sense of team spirit, the more they see their own personal values as consistent with those of the organization, the more committed they are to the organization, and the greater their sense of ownership of the organization.

People who report that their managers have low credibility indicate that they are motivated primarily by money, may say good things about the organization publicly but criticize it privately, and feel unsupported and unappreciated.

The loyalty, commitment, energy, and productivity of your constituents depend on their assessments of your credibility. Credibility will determine whether others want to follow you or not. And the effect of personal integrity of leaders goes far beyond employee attitudes. It also influences customer and investor loyalty.

People are just more likely to stick with you when they know they are dealing with a credible person and a credible institution. In business, and in life, if people don’t believe in you, they won’t stand by you.

Earning and Sustaining Credibility
The data confirm that credibility is the foundation of leadership. But what is credibility behaviorally? How do you know it when you see it?

The answer we hear, regardless of how it’s phrased from one organization to another, or from one country to another, is some version of “Do what you say you will do.” Leaders are considered credible when their actions are clearly and visibly aligned with their words.

So what do you have to do to earn and sustain credibility with your constituents? From our analysis of the case studies and empirical data, we identified Six Disciplines of Credibility. Here’s a brief description of each:

1. Discover Your Self
You begin building your credibility by exploring your inner territory. You must answer such questions as: Who are you? What do you believe in? What do you stand for?

To be credible as a leader you must first clarify the values that guide your decisions and actions and the standards by which you choose to live your life. Values guide how you feel, what you say, what you think, how you make choices, and how you act.

2. Appreciate Constituents
Understanding your own leadership philosophy, and your capacity to act on it, is only the beginning. Leadership is a dialogue, not a monologue. It’s a relationship, and strong relationships are built on mutual understanding.

To be a leader, you must develop a deep understanding of the collective values and desires of your constituents.

3. Affirm Shared Values
While credible leaders honor the diversity of their many constituencies, they must also find a common ground on which everyone can stand. You need to bring people together and unite them into a common cause. Shared values make a difference, and they give everyone a common language for collaboration.

Get people together in forums to talk about their beliefs and build consensus around a core of shared values.

4. Develop Capacity
People cannot contribute to the aims and aspirations of an organization if they do not know what to do, and they cannot contribute if they do not know how to do it. Therefore, it is essential that you continuously develop the capacity of your constituents to keep their commitments.

5. Serve a Purpose
Credible leaders know that it is through their visible actions that their true commitment is demonstrated. When you affirm the shared values of your team, you are also vowing that you will consistently keep those promises.

Set the example by going first. Spend your time, the truest indicator of priorities, on core values. Hold yourself accountable to the same standards you hold everyone else.

6. Sustain Hope
People with high hope have higher aspirations and higher levels of performance. An upbeat attitude is always essential, and it’s even more important in adverse times.

Remember that people want leaders who are inspiring, uplifting, and energetic. Be proactive and foster the expectation that by working together people can accomplish the extraordinary.

The truth is that credibility is the foundation of leadership. If you are going to lead, you must demonstrate to others that you are someone they can believe in. Earning and sustaining personal credibility is a continuous human struggle and the ultimate leadership struggle.

Constituents do not owe leaders allegiance. Leaders earn it. The gift of another’s trust and confidence is well worth the struggle and essential to meeting the challenges of leading people to places they have never been.

Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner are the coauthors of the award-winning and bestselling book, “The Leadership Challenge“, now in its fifth edition with over two million copies sold. They are also the authors of over thirty other books and workbooks on leadership. Jim is the Dean’s Executive Fellow of Leadership and Barry is the Accolti Endowed Professor of Leadership and former Dean, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University. You can read more about their research and writing by visiting their website, www.leadershipchallenge.com.