Truth About Leadership: Post #3

Truth Two—Credibility is the Foundation of Leadership. Unless people follow you (willingly), you’re a leader in name only—a positional leadership. To be an authentic leader, you must have a relationship with followers. And what followers want according to the authors’ research, are in order of preference: Honesty, Vision (forward thinking), Inspiration, and Competence (for others see p. 18). These four characteristics hold true over many years of research in varying cultures, genders, hierarchies, etc. And, these four make up what researchers (buttressed by Aristotle’s thinking) call source credibility. Leader credibility and employee engagement go hand in glove. When leaders do what they say they will, watch engagement, productivity, and loyalty soar.