Credibility and Leadership

Within leadership, credibility turns out to be a big word. A resource book entitled "Credibility" by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner is the best on this tool for experienced and novel leaders alike.

First the basics, there is a distinctive difference between a manager and a leader. A manager manages processes, while a leader inspires others to action.

In the aforementioned book referenced, credibility goes a long way in the essential leadership tool kit. Kouzes and Posner translate it into six disciplines, ranging from "discovering yourself" to "sustaining hope" Their discussion of the latter is particularity impressive. Often times, it is much easier to get trapped into the mundane day to day activity of managing, however hope is an important attribute to add to your leadership development. "Leadership is a reciprocal relationship between those who choose to lead and those who decide to follow (Kouzes, Posner, 1993"Credibility" page 1).

Oftentimes leaders get into the role of just leading and not noticing who is following. This important distinction adds a much dynamic attribute to leadership since the leader is collaborative and as a result adds to their credibility. Leadership is paramount to organizational development and without essential, grass roots leadership principles, organizations will falter and will not rise to the occasion to meet their competition in a dynamic way.

Credibility is one way to add to this organizational development to achieve the best in the leaders leading the way and the followers charging ahead. Good collaborative relationships are not only essential in any organization but are helpful in leading a team and bringing out the best of others talents. Good leadership begets credibility. Think of someone who isn't credible, are you apt to follow?

All rights reserved (2010) and my not be duplicated or refernced without written permission of author: John Errigo, M.S., by corporate authorization, HODT, Inc. (synergy@hodtinc.com)