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

From Appreciation to Fragmentation

There is ample evidence that diversity is good for business. It increases innovation. It increases the probability that decisions will reflect the broadest constituency. It increases the chances of success in a multinational marketplace with a multicultural workforce. But in the process of coming to appreciate and prize the diverse values of others, leaders must guard against vacillation and fragmentation. There may be so many constituent groups and their points of view so divergent that leaders may oscillate between one significant need and another. Or they may overpromise every group.

Credible leaders promote choice and do not dictate values, yet coming to a decision that motivates the largest possible constituency ...