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

Let Your Values Be Your Guide

What does it mean to have values and beliefs? According to the late Milton Rokeach, one of the leading researchers and scholars in the field of human values, “A value is an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence.”7 Values inform individuals about what to do and what not to do. They are the guiding principles in people's lives with respect to the personal and social ends they desire—such as salvation or peace—and with respect to moral conduct and personal competence—such as honesty and imagination.

Values are directly relevant to credibility. To reiterate: to do what you say ...