THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE 1
Week One:
The Leadership/ Reflection Challenge
MGMT 5800
THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE 2
Week One: The Leadership Challenge Leadership Questions
• The authors, Kouzes & Posner, identified five
...
THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE 1
Week One:
The Leadership/ Reflection Challenge
MGMT 5800
THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE 2
Week One: The Leadership Challenge Leadership Questions
• The authors, Kouzes & Posner, identified five leadership practices (consistent behaviors) through years of extensive research with thousands of participants. Discuss the section “Credibility is the Foundation of Leadership” addressing the following questions:
a. Do leaders really need to be honest – isn’t it OK to lie a little, cover-up facts, break
promises because of circumstances?
• Leaders do need to be honest. In the section titled “Credibility is the Foundation of Leadership” of the article, the authors stated that 60% of their 75,000 respondents rank honesty as the top characteristic they look for in the leader they would follow. Honesty is viewed as the most important characteristic people are looking for in a leader. If a leader was covering up facts, breaking promises, or lying they would not be viewed as being truthful, ethical or principled and therefore being dishonest. Since most of the people in the survey
viewed honesty as being the most important quality, a leader does need to be honest.
a. What are the social consequences of dishonest behavior? What are the “natural” consequences (impact on self-concept, trust, confidence, etc.)?
• Trust is the most important quality for a leader and is also the foundation of relationships.
Trust is also very hard to repair once it is broken. Lack of trust among leaders can effect performance of a team in a negative way. It can also lead to lack of transparency and communication from a leader and the constituents or vice versa. Dishonesty can also lead toward a false persona of the leader, making followers believe you are something that you’re not or having to lie constantly to validate the original lie, causing a snowball effect.
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