Credibility and Effective Leadership

Gaining and maintaining leadership-related credibility is an essential element in the process of getting others to hear and understand how the leader’s influence will affect them. It is not an overstatement to suggest that credibility is the first cousin of believability. Credibility includes such attributes as knowledge, skill, trustworthiness, dynamism, and expertise. In many respects, leadership credibility is in the eyes of the beholders; that is, those stakeholders and constituencies who are willing and able to be led toward completing a task perceive the leader’s ability to lead in various ways.

The leader must earn leadership credibility by showing that they have both the background and the vision to lead the group toward the common goal. If credibility or believability cannot be perceived in the leader’s presence and actions, the message to constituents will not be both received and followed. Being a foundational element to leadership, credibility must be guarded, because it is often both hard to earn and easy to lose. If credibility wants, it can be difficult to buttress it. For example, if a leader carelessly utters a half-truth or provides a professional opinion that exceeds how they have been systematically trained, credibility could be in jeopardy.

In most cases, the ability to function effectively as a leader substantially depends upon achieving high credibility with those who are to be lead. Followers must be wiling and able to believe the leader, especially when the leader is articulating a position about the future of the group. Forward-looking statements that do not seem true or that do not unfold to be true can dilute hard-earned credibility; there is a tenuous give and take between the leaders being accurate on one hand but positive and visionary on the other hand.

Reference

Kouzes, J.M., & Posner, B.Z. (2002). The leadership challenge (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass