Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It

The authors define credibility as a leader's ability to earn the trust and confidence of their followers. And, we can't lead well without it. Without credibility, we'll never get the best from our team. If you suspect that your own team lacks this kind of trust in you, then this is the book for you.

In "Credibility," the authors teach us what team members look for in a credible leader. We learn the principles and disciplines that strengthen credibility, and what we need to do to make our own leadership initiatives more credible.

"Credibility" was first written over twenty years ago. The authors have completely updated and revised this new version, making it much more useful for today's current and future leaders.

What's distinctive about this book is that it's based on statistical data the authors have been compiling for over three decades. They've sent out well over 100,000 surveys over the years, asking executives and employees about the qualities they look for in a leader they'd be willing to follow. This book is based on the results of those surveys, along with further research by the authors.

James Kouzes is the Dean's Executive Fellow of Leadership at Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business. Barry Posner is a professor of leadership at the same university. Together, the two have written over a dozen books on leadership. They also developed the highly-acclaimed Leadership Practices Inventory assessment tool.

"Credibility" is the kind of book we can all learn something from. However, it will be especially useful to anyone currently in a leadership position and to aspiring leaders. But don't think this just applies to your work life. If you volunteer or serve on a committee, this book can help you become a more effective leader there too.

So, keep listening to find out how to start gaining the trust of your team bit by bit, why your team probably wants to talk about values with you, and how building capacity within your team can bolster your credibility.

The book is broken into nine chapters. There are six principles in becoming a credible leader, and each gets their own chapter.

Chapter one begins with an insightful point. Put simply, leadership is a relationship between the person choosing to lead, and the people who are choosing to follow. Leaders have to earn the right to lead every day, simply because people choose every day whether or not they're going to follow them.

The authors give us an exhaustive list of the attributes that, according to their research, followers want to see in their leaders. And, you might not be surprised that pretty much across the globe, honesty comes in as the most important attribute a leader can have.

The authors also use this first chapter to explain how they accumulated the data on which this book is built. We liked that they provided this information, because it shows their theories and strategies in the book are based on research, not pie-in-the-sky conjecture.

Chapter two dives deeper into the importance of credibility, and the authors relay several inspiring stories from workers who talk about credible leaders they've worked under in the past. They also share an important lesson here.

Earning credibility with your team takes place on the floor. It's a person-to-person activity, and there's really no other way to truly gain the trust of your team. You have to show up, be personal, and be visible to the people you lead. You have to share your own stories, and listen to theirs. Otherwise, you'll never be a person to your team. You'll just be a position.

When the authors asked people how they judge a leader to be credible, most people gave a similar answer. They said they know a leader is credible when they do what they say they'll do. Keeping your word, and walking the walk, is a vital part of being trusted by those around you. While this isn't a new concept, it's always good advice.

Next, the authors go over the six disciplines for earning and sustaining credibility. These six disciplines make up most of the rest of the book, and they each get their own chapter. The six disciplines are: discover your self, appreciate constituents, affirm shared values, develop capacity, serve a purpose, and sustain a hope.

Let's look at a few of these in greater detail, starting with the first one, discover your self.

Before we can lead anyone, the authors say, we first have to know ourselves inside and out. Without self knowledge, we don't know our values. And if we don't know our values, we can't lead with integrity.

If we want to genuinely know our self, there are three aspects we have to develop. These are our credo, our competencies, and our confidence.

According to the authors, the leaders people are most willing to follow have a steadfast belief in what is right and just, and they're willing to stand by their own values. When we know our values inside and out, we always know the right thing to do and the direction we should take. We don't have to rely on others. And, this inspires respect in our team.

Once you've gotten the sense of what your values are, take the conversation public. Talk to your colleagues and team members about your own values, and theirs. Now, this might seem a little personal or irrelevant, but the authors quote a statistic from their research to back up this idea. 65 percent of people surveyed say they want to have more conversations about values at work. So, this may be missing from your organization. An added benefit is that these conversations may also strengthen relationships among your team.

Another one of the six disciplines is to "appreciate constituents." And let's start with a question. How well do you know the people on your team? Do you know their values?

This links to what the authors covered in the previous chapter. Here, we get an in-depth look at why leaders need to spend time getting to know their team. And, this includes knowing their values and needs.

Why is this so important? Well, when you take the time to know your team members, they begin to believe you have their best interests at heart. And, this is essential to building trust and loyalty.

There are several inspiring stories in this chapter that show why getting to know your team can improve trust and productivity, especially in demanding or high-stress work situations. And, aligning values is a big part of this.

Although it's hardly a new concept, the authors state that truly listening to your team members is the most important first step you can take. Listening in person is, of course, the best way, but all of us know we can't be around our team the entire day. We can use social media tools like chat, Twitter, and Facebook to stay in touch and listen.

Another way you can show you appreciate your team is to acknowledge that they might know more about some things than you do. Acknowledging when you make a mistake, and conceding that your team is more knowledgeable in certain areas shows you're not only honest, but willing to be vulnerable.

Chapter six focuses on developing capacity, which means pushing your team to develop their skills and competencies during their time with you.

The more you encourage your people to grow, the more they're going to believe in you. After all, when you help others become stronger, it shows you trust them and believe in their ability to succeed.

The authors give us an enlightening bit of wisdom from the Hay Group, a research firm that helps Fortune Magazine compile its list of the World's Most Admired Companies. The champions in this list differ from average companies in one very important way. They truly believe their people are their most important asset. And they invest heavily in people development.

This is mirrored by the twenty-ten Global Survey of Business Executives produced by the consulting firm McKinsey. Building capabilities was found to be one of the top priorities for the companies surveyed. This study also gives us some useful insight.

According to McKinsey, in companies where senior executives set the training agenda, the training and development program is seen as more successful. So, more people take part and the training is felt to be more effective.

The authors do a good job explaining the many benefits education and training provides. One of these benefits is that your team will feel successful in what they do. And, this success will not only increase their loyalty to you and the organization, but it will also increase their understanding of the company's vision and shared values.

Chapter seven focuses on "serving with purpose." Here, the authors say credible leaders understand they serve a purpose outside themselves. They know they're working for their team members, their customers, and the organization as a whole. All of these things have to come first if you want to gain the trust of those you're leading. After all, would you want to work under a leader who always puts themselves, and their own agenda, first?

The authors describe this as "servant leadership" and we feel this isn't a helpful term. While it's important for leaders to show humility when appropriate, subservience has no place in an effective work team, particularly when it's the leader who's subservient to the very people he or she is charged to lead.

The authors offer another term for this kind of leadership here, and we feel it's more accurate: they call it open leadership. This term was coined by Charlene Li, the founder of the Altimeter Group and an expert on social media, who defines open leadership as "having the confidence and humility to give up the need to be in control while inspiring commitment from people to accomplish goals." Charlene Li was a guest on our Expert Interview podcast series, and you can find that interview on the Mind Tools site.

According to the authors, one of the best ways to demonstrate this kind of leadership is to "go first."

There's a great story in this chapter that illustrates how powerful this can be. A middle manager for a large tire company writes that upper management had asked everyone in the company to be more focused on customer service. And, they demonstrated their commitment first hand. Once every two weeks, the director and the deputy lieutenants at the district office would come to work at a different retail location, changing tires and performing other car service tasks, in addition to working the front desk with customers.

This had a powerful impact on everyone in the company. They realized that upper management really believed in the power of great customer service, and its importance to the company's success. They believed it so much that they gave up a whole day, every two weeks, to do the same work as their hourly employees.

So, what's our last word on "Credibility?" We think it's a practical book that contains many insightful and inspiring messages for current and future leaders. Although there's nothing particularly new or groundbreaking in the book, it's still a useful teaching tool, especially if you need to be reminded why credibility and trust is so important. If you're an aspiring leader or a new manager, you'll likely find the book to be especially eye-opening.

Softer concepts, such as establishing trust, being open, and being honest, are constant themes throughout the book. So for some readers, this might get a bit repetitive. But since these attributes are so important to being a credible leader, the authors' regular reinforcement of the ideas seems justified.

We could only cover a small portion of the in-depth information contained in this book. Each chapter offers a wealth of information that's almost overwhelming, and it's obvious the authors spent a great deal of time deeply exploring the six disciplines. This is definitely a book you'll want to read with a highlighter close by.

One criticism of the book is its lack of information on applying the six disciplines. There is some guidance in each chapter, but for the most part, readers are left on their own to decide how to use this information to learn and grow. If you do want help, then you'll need to purchase the companion workbook, titled "Strengthening Credibility, A Leader's Workbook."

We took a look at the workbook online, and it does look like there are useful exercises to help you dive deeper into these concepts, and learn how to apply them in your life. So, keep this in mind before you order the book. You might want to buy both, to get the most value from these lessons.

"Credibility," by James Kouzes and Barry Posner, is published by Jossey-Bass.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Click here to buy the book from Amazon. Thanks for listening.