Why should anyone follow you? While there may be any number of desirable traits or skills that potentially make you a good leader, you only become a leader when people choose to follow you. And whether people see you as a leader depends on your CREDIBILITY.
It’s easy to see why it is important for leaders to be seen as credible by the people they lead. It is also intuitive to relate a leader’s credibility to their trustworthiness and their competence. However, what specific behaviors make people perceive you as trustworthy? What makes your followers decide you are competent to lead them? Can credibility be rebuilt once it is lost? These are some of the important questions that Daniel Hang Min Chng and his co-authors cover in Why People Believe In Their Leaders – Or Not.
Some of my key takeaways from this article include:
A leader’s credibility is perception (eye of the beholder), but the perception is shaped by the leader’s behaviour. In other words, a leader’s credibility can be enhanced or diminished by his or her behaviours
For a leader to be perceived as trustworthy, s/he needs to demonstrate behaviors such as
- Acting and communicating congruently
- Looking out for their organization and their people
- Embodying the vision and values of the organization
For a leader to be perceived as competent, the key behavioral markers include
- Strong future orientation
- Putting organizational goals first
- Focusing on people
Behaviors that destroy a leader’s perceived trustworthiness
- Promoting an unethical climate
- Being dishonest
- Acting in own interest
Behaviors that contribute to a leader being seen as incompetent
- Displaying lack of relevant expertise
- Not taking appropriate action
- Letting their ego drive their actions
When judging a leader’s trustworthiness, people give more importance to trust diminishing behaviors than trust building behaviors. While a single instance of trust destroying behavior can significantly impact a leader’s credibility, building trustworthiness requires repeated and consistent demonstration of the desirable behaviors.
For a more complete list of the positive and negative behaviors that impact a leader’s credibility, do read the article.
Here’s the link again: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/why-people-believe-in-their-leaders-or-not/
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