James M. Kouzes - Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It (J-B Leadership Challenge: Kouzes/Posner)

JAMES M. KOUZES

BARRY Z.POSNER

The Jossey-Bass Business 6 Management Series

Consulting Editors Organizations and Management

WARREN BENNIS

University of Southern California

RICHARD O. MASON

Southern Methodist University

IAN I. MITROFF

University of Southern California

For Donna, Jackie, and Amanda - whose humor and hope uplift our spirits

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Credibility is about how leaders earn the trust and confidence of their constituents. It's about what people demand of their leaders as a prerequisite to willingly contributing their hearts, minds, bodies, and souls. It's about the actions leaders must take in order to intensify their constituents' commitment to a common cause.

Our intense interest in managerial values and leadership motivated us to write Credibility ten years ago. In fact, many years before we wrote this book, our first joint article was entitled "Shared Values Make a Difference." That research clearly showed that commitment, satisfaction, productivity, and other positive workplace outcomes were significantly higher when people shared the values of their organizations.

As our research evolved we discovered that unless personal values were clear it really didn't matter how clear the organization's values were. People don't get more committed to a company or to a cause because the organization nails its credo to the door. They get more committed because it matters to them.

During the past two decades, we continued to ask another question: "What do you look for and admire in a leader, someone whose direction you would willingly follow?" You might expect we'd get a different set of responses over this period of time. After all, people keep telling us that the world is radically different today than it was in 1983.

But we didn't get different answers. We've asked the question in large and small businesses, professional service firms and manufacturing companies, public and private sector organizations, educational, healthcare, and governmental institutions. We've asked it of men and women, young and old, and individual contributors and executives. We've asked around the world-on six continents, in fact. What's been most striking to us is that people keep on sending the same message. They want leaders who are honest, forward-looking, competent, and inspiring. What this adds up to, as we explain in depth in this book, is personal credibility. No matter whom we've asked and no matter where we've asked it, what we first reported in 1983 is just as valid today as it was then. Credibility is still the foundation of leadership. In fact, given what we're going through at the start of this century, this lesson is even more relevant today.

Let's put these two things together-personal credibility and personal values-and think about the implications for leaders. There are many important lessons, but the meta-message is this: leadership is personal. It's not about the corporation, the community, or the country. It's about you. If people don't believe in the messenger, they won't believe the message. If people don't believe in you, they won't believe in what you say. And if it's about you, then it's about your beliefs, your values, your principles. It's also about how true you are to your values and beliefs.