Achieving Credibility: The Key To Effective Leadershipcassette

by James M. Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner

Describes the practices that strengthen credibility in a business environment, using case histories to illustrate their application.

Audio Cassette

First published December 1, 1995

About the author

Jim Kouzes has been thinking about leadership ever since he was one of only a dozen Eagle Scouts to be selected to serve in John F. Kennedy's honor guard when Kennedy was inaugurated President of the United States. Kennedy's inaugural call to action -- "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." -- inspired Jim to join the Peace Corps, and he taught school in Turkey for two years. That experience made Jim realize that he wanted a career that offered two things: the chance to teach and the opportunity to serve. It was in his first job back in the U.S. training community action agency managers that Jim found his calling, and he has devoted his life to leadership development ever since.
Jim Kouzes is the coauthor with Barry Z. Posner of the award-winning and best-selling book, The Leadership Challenge, with over 3.0 million copies in print. He's a Fellow of the Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University and also served as the Dean's Executive Fellow of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University. Jim and Barry have coauthored many bestselling leadership books including A Leader's Legacy, Encouraging the Heart, The Truth About Leadership, and Credibility. They are also the developers of The Leadership Practices Inventory—the bestselling off-the-shelf leadership assessment in the world. Their books are extensively researched-based, and over 500 doctoral dissertations and academic studies have been based on their original work.
Not only is Jim a highly regarded leadership scholar, The Wall Street Journal cited Jim as one of the twelve best executive educators in the U.S. He is the 2010 recipient of the Thought Leadership Award from the Instructional Systems Association, listed as one of HR Magazine’s Most Influential International Thinkers, named one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior by Trust Across America, and ranked by Leadership Excellence magazine as one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders. Jim was presented with the Golden Gavel, the highest honor awarded by Toastmasters International, and he and Barry are also the recipients of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning and Performance Award, presented in recognition of their extensive body of work and the significant impact they have had on learning and performance in the workplace.

Reviews

[Kimball · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This was a decent book. I had been holding onto it for a while and just kept putting it off. I finally got around to it. This was good to read especially at this time when I hate my boss because he's being an idiot and a roadblock for me getting FMLA, I was able to identify many reasons why he isn't a credible boss. Let's dive into the notes.


Notes:

"Passion at its root means suffering."

"Much likes banks getting a credit report from us before obtaining a loan, we need to ask our political leaders of their "credit history" before voting." Great in theory but no one really cares.

"Managers handle things and leaders go places. Both are essential in a business."

"Bad leaders are apart from those they work with. Good leaders are apart of them."

"People think when they get promoted to management positions that they have the credibility, but it is just a title. Credibility is earned daily over years."

"You don't love someone for who they are, you love them for how they make you feel." I liked this one a lot. Makes me think.

"The most controlling leaders have the lowest credibility. They're telling you they don't trust you." Sounds like a few managers at Plano.

"Leaders need to make an approachable office. Accessibility is a good measure of credibility." I like that last part.

"life is like a slideshow. We only know what people are willing to reveal to us. The slideshow are only things that make us special or unique."

"No great idea entered the mind through an open mouth."

"The truest measure of commitment to common vision and values is the amount of freedom one is willing to risk.

"Love contributes to people feeling hope in the future."

"You can never pay people enough to care."

"Newness and the challenge of newness makes something intrinsically motivating."

[Steven · Rating 1 out of 5]

Quit after 2:20:00 or so. Morally reprehensible comments about self interest and a shell game around the term "diversity" kinda ruins the credibility of the author... which is funny given the goal of the book.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very relevant to stuff I was dealing with at work at the time. A very straightforward, common-sense definition of integrity in the workplace.