Leadership behaviour has remained under constant scrutiny since the pandemic, where leaders were encouraged to show more compassion, empathy and to be more human. However, my research challenges the idea that possessing these traits automatically makes someone a better leader. These attributes are open to interpretation and can lead to different expectations in different individuals. Authenticity can be easily weaponized and permit bad behaviour. I believe what we truly want in a leader is credibility.
My exploration of leadership and the different traits, skills and behaviours that contribute to credibility led to the creation and testing of nine essential traits for credible leadership. These traits include creating psychological safety, decisive, empathy, flexibility, integrity, likeability, taking action, trustworthiness and vulnerability. I conducted two surveys with more than 350 participants globally across a wide range of demographic backgrounds, including 166 leaders and 171 followers. Both groups ranked the nine traits in order of importance and answered a series of open questions.
Results from leaders’ perspectives
The survey results revealed that an overwhelming majority of leaders (99%) felt it was important or very important to be seen as credible. The most important trait was integrity at 45.1%, followed by being trustworthy at 27.7%.
The data also showed that men and women leaders ranked traits similarly. However, 35% of women who lead placed more importance on trustworthiness compared to 18% of men. Additionally, the data also suggested that the older cohort values integrity more than the under-50. Leaders were also asked about the biggest challenges to credibility, with common themes emerging around time management, relationships, navigating change and uncertainty, and communication.
Results from followers’ perspectives
Thirty-nine per cent of followers identified integrity as the most important leadership trait, while only 4% said taking action was. Interestingly, there was little difference between genders, with both men and women ranking the traits similarly.
There was also a difference in the ranking of genders between leaders and followers. For leaders, men rank integrity, flexibility and being liked higher than women. For followers, women rank empathy, psychological safety and vulnerability as higher than men.
Two key takeaways from this research is that our perception of what men and women believe about leadership isn’t quite right and that there are clear reasons why building leadership credibility is hard. Understanding the root causes of credibility challenges means we can address them with focussed action.
Eight practices of credible leadership
The research revealed that qualities such as decisiveness and taking action can be absorbed into other traits, while psychological safety is part of a broader need to feel supported by the person leading the team. This insight led to the creation of eight practices of credible leadership, which is a blend of complementary behaviours and traits. It’s the consistency of these practices that enable people to follow
and believe those who lead.
https://redefiningcomms.com/research-and-reports/how-to-be-a-credible-leader/
