Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It, 2nd Edition

July 28, 2011

Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It

“My first suggestion on how to build your credibility: read this book and apply what you learn!”

---Marshall Goldsmith, author of MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

 

San Francisco, CA—August 2011—Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner are award-winning leadership development author-experts with more than 30 years of experience researching the relationship between leaders and constituents. Their seminal book, the international bestseller, The Leadership Challenge, has spawned a thriving franchise with workshops, seminars, books, online tools and resources to help people become better leaders, whether they work for Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, universities, nonprofits, volunteer organizations, the military, or a professional service firm. Their extensive research has led them to an inescapable truth: credibility is the foundation of leadership, which they explore in CREDIBILITY: How Leaders Gain and Lose It Why People Demand It [Jossey-Bass; August 2011; $27.95; ISBN: 9780470651711] fullyrevised for the first time since 1993.

Nearly 20 years ago, when CREDIBILITY was first published almost half of America’s workforce was cynical, and while things improved in the 1990’s, the authors explain that by 2007 trust, the key ingredient of credibility, again took a major nosedive. More recently, the great recession, scandals within organized religion, questionable practices on Wall Street, and hypocrisy among politicians were big factors in the decision to revisit the topic. The book arrives at a time when “many wonder if there are leaders left who have the strength of character to sustain their trust.” CREDIBILITY is a research-based book that offers highly practical advice and real-life examples of what exemplary leaders do to become more influential and trustworthy.

In CREDIBILITY, Kouzes and Posner write, “we wanted to remind leaders how important it was to attend to the fundamentals...” Readers learn that leadership is a relationship, that there are three qualities people most look for and admire in leaders they would willingly follow, and that there are Six Disciplines essential to building and sustaining credibility over time. With The Six A’s of Leadership Accountability—Accept, Admit, Apologize, Act, Amend and Attend—the authors also show how credibility is restored once it is tarnished or lost. Kouzes and Posner, in example after example, illustrate “how values clarification and culture creation [must be] at the tops of a leader’s agenda.

This all-new edition of CREDIBILITY is broader in reach, it reflects what the authors describe as “the changing nature of the context in which people now work.” They show how credibility is important regardless of position, role or responsibility, and clearly document how it is a global concern, while blending international research with new case studies that reflect the realities of a global marketplace.

CREDIBILITY: How Leaders Gain and Lose It Why People Demand It

By James Kouzes and Barry Posner; Jossey-Bass; August 2011; $27.95

9780470651711; Available in Cloth and all e-Reader Formats

www.credibility-book.com

 

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