Chapter Five

Establishing Competence and Building Trustworthiness

Any leader-inspired message for change must attend to three fundamental relationships—the relationship between the leader and the message, that between the leader and the constituents, and that between the constituents and the message. I have been addressing all three, emphasizing that the message has to be congruent with you as a person—the value represented by the change must be important to you.

The relationship you are trying to inspire is between other people and the message, so that people become committed to a cause voiced by you, the leader. Yet this commitment will happen only when the primary relationship, the one between you and those you hope to inspire, is based on ...

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