Credible leaders: How do you, Obama and McCain stack up?

Leaders need credibility to shepherd their organizations through good times and bad. When others believe, trust, and have confidence in them, they receive their respect -- they are someone with personal credibility.

But personal credibility is hard to fake. You are either credible or you aren't, and a leader's actions inform our opinions, relationships and decisions of whether to trust and respect a leader. Basically, it all comes down to trust and believability.

The current U.S. Presidential election is the perfect opportunity to examine credibility. While candidates' words are often penned by speechwriters and their every move is choreographed by a campaign team, actions tell us a lot. And what a candidate does throughout his or her political career, and what he or she says during those rare unscripted moments in the campaign, shines a spotlight on the presence or absence of credibility.

Here are three key "credibility secrets" for leaders, and how to cultivate this important quality using Senators Obama and McCain as cases-in-point. These are excerpted from my book The Personal Credibility Factor: How to Get It, Keep It, and Get It Back (If You've Lost It).

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world

• Email
• Print
• Share
  • Slashdot
  • Digg
  • Stumble
  • Reddit
  • Newsvine