When Nelson Mandela spoke people listened. When Winston Churchill spoke people listened. When Warren Buffet speaks people listen. When Jeff Bezos speaks people listen. When leaders speak people listen. When you speak do people listen? 

Do you have the character and credibility to persuade others with your message? Ethos refers to an audience’s perception of the character, authority and credibility of the speaker. Ethos concerns itself with answering the questions of “What do you know about this topic?” and “Why should I trust you?” as asked by the audience.

Strong character and credibility is necessary to get the attention and respect of an audience. If you have low ethos an audience will not be persuaded by your message. Character is based on the audience perception of who you are and how you come across.

• Who you are? This aspect of ethos relates to the your goodwill, trustworthiness and credibility.
• How you come across? The extrinsic characteristics of ethos relates to the speaker’s similarity, practical wisdom, language and style.

Before we explore each of these elements let’s discuss the role and importance of character in persuading others.

What Do We Mean by Character?

Character answers the question why should anyone believe what you’re saying?”

Character is central to persuading using ethos. Good moral character provides the foundation on which a speaker gains the right to communicate and share their message. 

Character is the authentic expression of who you are as a human. To be an authentic expression it needs to include your strengths, weakness and flaws. It shows you as a real person, a person of integrity and good morals, subject to the same problems and pressures as others. Character also means that you are a person who lives by a set of values. Authenticity, integrity and a good moral character provides the basis for trust.

What an Audience Looks for to Establish Character

An audience makes many judgements about a speaker based on assumptions as to who you are and if you can be trusted. To establish a strong ethos and show character you need to answer the following five questions:

1. Does the audience believe you are of good character?
2. Does the audience believe you can be trusted?
3. Does the audience believe you're an authority on the topic?
4. Does the audience see you as similar to them?
5. Does your language and communication style resonate with your audience?

Most of the above questions about a speaker are answered by the audience even before the speaker gets to share their message. Your message may have the best ideas, facts, evidence and a compelling story. But if your audience doesn’t think you’re credible you’ll fail to persuade them with your message. Let’s explore each of these elements of ethos and how they can be strengthened.

1. Goodwill

One of the elements of ethos identified by Aristotle is the goodwill of the speaker towards the audience. This concerns the speaker’s intent and motivation. You need to show your audience that your intention and motivation is to be useful, to help educate, to inspire, to inform and to entertain. These motivations are positive and demonstrates your goodwill towards the audience. Goodwill is strengthened when you’re able to demonstrate your motivation, intention and a commitment to a set of values:

• One of the most powerful ways of demonstrating goodwill is through empathy. Your ability to empathise with the audience, their challenges, frustrations and difficulties creates goodwill. The act of empathy demonstrates that you understand the audience, their state of mind and emotional reactions. This opens the way for your message to be positively received.
• State your values and tell stories of how you use them to guide your behaviour. Give practical example of how you live your values. This helps to show that you are of good character.
• Show how your interests are align with their interests. If you’re able to help the audience feel that their interest are aligned with yours they will be more open and accepting of your message.

2. Trustworthiness

A trustworthy person is someone in whom you can place your trust. An audience is more likely to be persuaded by someone they trust. Speakers are considered trustworthy when the audience believes the speaker is presenting accurate information in an objective manner. Expertise is not trust! Just because you are considered an expert it does not mean people will trust you. You can have great expertise, but if you’re not perceived as trustworthy you’ll find difficulty in persuading your audience. Some of the ways that you can go about improving your trustworthiness are as follows:

• Trust is improved when your words and actions are for the benefit of others. Speak and act for the greater good.
• People trust when there is mutual respect for one another. Alway be respectful of others.
• Honesty is central to being trustworthy. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Honesty is important to building trust with an audience.
• Admit what you don’t know. If you don’t know the answer to a question say so.
• Do what you say you will do. Keep your commitments and promises. If you show you’re reliable people will learn to trust you.
• People who are trustworthy do not only have the expertise, they also have the skills and experience necessary to get results.
• Be fair and unbiased presenting multiple perspectives on the topic. Trustworthiness is enhanced when you present information from multiple perspectives, in an objective and balanced way.
• Always cite credible sources when providing data and information.

3. Credibility

We are more open to persuasion by people we view as credible. Credibility consists of two core components trustworthiness and expertise. We discussed trustworthiness above. Expertise is about what you know about your topic. The audience perception of your expertise is shaped by many factors:

• Your education, certification and knowledge relating to the topic.
• Your track record, skills and achievements relating to the topic.
• Your years of experience and reputation relating to the topic.
• Recognition received from institutions and peers relating to the topic.

Your credibility depends on your expertise and how this is communicated to the audience. These factors only contribute to improving your ethos if they’re communicated to the audience. So you must take charge of communicate your expertise, experience and knowledge to your audience. Some of the ways you can improve how the audience perceives your credibility are as follows:

• Ensure your audience knows about your expertise and experience. You many need to remind the audience of your knowledge, skills, expertise and experience.
• Speak with confidence, making eye contact. If you want people to believe you, you must show that you believe yourself. Speak confidently as though you cannot be challenged.
• Prepare well and know what you’re talking about.
• Share your biography before you present to a new audience.
• Show practical wisdom. Practical wisdom refers to your ability to determine what’s worth doing together with the ability to get it done. It’s about showing that you’re sensible as well as knowledgeable. Show how your practical experience has benefited others.

4. Similarity

We are more easily persuaded by those who are like us. If you’re perceived similar to your audience they will be more open and receptive to your ideas. If you share some of the same characteristics as your audience you’re off to a good start! If you don’t there are a number of things that you can do to adapt and thereby increase your influence. The idea is to identify common traits that you share with your audience. By identifying and communicating traits that show you similar to your audience you increase the audience’s openness to your message. There are a number of traits you can use to show that you’re similar to your audience to boost your ethos. You can use any of the following traits to show how you’re similarity to your audience:

• Demographic Similarities. Age, culture, ethnicity, race, gender, country of birth. For example a female audience will be more receptive to and more easily identify with a female speaker and their experiences.
• Professional Similarities Profession, organisations, industry, career history or common challenges. For example an audience within a specific industry would be more open to someone who has had experience working in the same industry.
• Personal Similarities Personality, extrovert, introvert, personal motivations, challenges and difficulties. An audience will be more open to someone who has experienced similar challenges and difficulties.

These are some of the traits you can use to show how you’re similar to your audience. You can also adapt your language, presentation style and your dress to match the audience. With careful observation of your audience you’ll be able to identify other areas where you can show how you’re similar to your audience. The key message is that you need to adapt to your audience in ways that make you seem similar to them.

5. Language and Style

The ethos of a speaker is improved by adopting a language and style appropriate to the audience. This means using language, words and jargon that resonates with your audience. Where possible seek to use the same language that your audience would use to describe the concepts you’re presenting.

• Use an appropriate level of vocabulary.
• Use definitions to add clarity.
• Use facts, data and statistics to support your argument.
• Avoid jargon and acronyms not familiar to your audience.
• Use vivid and concrete language.
• Use stories and example to illustrate your points.
• Show enthusiasm and passion for your topic.

Last week the CEO of Telstra David Thodey defined Leadership. David said that the things that make a good leader are the ability to execute and get things done, able to understand and feel the ebbs and flows of a business, understand the needs of the customer, have strategic insight and able to spot opportunities  ability to manage in ambiguity (not everything is black and white), have a understanding of emotional intelligence and lastly passion.

This got me thinking, what is your definition of leadership? Over the years I have read many books and attending seminars on leadership. I have found that only few people have a solid answer to this question. Few have a clear definition of what leadership means for them personally.

The definition of leadership has been a thorny issue for many years with each author approaching the topic from a different perspective. This is not to say that any of the definitions are right or wrong, rather each attempt exposes a different and valuable facet on what leadership means and how it’s expressed. Therefore it’s useful to explore the different definitions, perspective and viewpoints on leadership.

Leadership as Influence

These definitions describe leadership as a process of influencing others. It’s the ability of the leader to build relationships and influence people’s behaviour as required to execute the vision. The outcome of leadership is about changing the behaviour of people. This perspective of leadership is focused on inspiring and motivating others, with an emphasising the relationship between leaders and followers.

• “Leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less.” – John Maxwell, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
• “Leadership is the incremental influence that a person has beyond his or her formal authority” – Vecchio
• “Leadership requires using power to influence the thoughts and actions of other people.” – Zalenik, A., Managers and Leaders: are they different?
• “Influencing people – by providing purpose, direction, and motivation – while operating to accomplish the mission and improving the organization.”  - US Army Manual
• “Leadership is the capacity to influence others through inspiration motivated by passion, generated by vision, produced by a conviction, ignited by a purpose.” – Dr. Myles Munroe, The Spirit of Leadership
• “Leadership is the art of influencing others to their maximum performance to accomplish any task, objective or project.” – William Alan Cohen, The Art of a Leader
• “Leadership is an influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes that reflect their mutual purposes.” – Joseph Rost, Leadership in the 21st Century
• “Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of an individual or a group in efforts toward goal achievement in a given situation.” – Hersey, P., Blanchard, K., Dewey, E.J., Management of Organizational Behavior

Leadership as Change

These definitions describe leadership primarily as a process of change supported by social influence and persuasion. Change is central to effective leadership. The greater the change the greater the need for leadership. More change demands more leadership. Therefore leadership requires leaders develop vision and future direction, to influence people to move towards the vision to achieve a shared goal.

• “Leadership is the ability to step outside the culture to start evolutionary change processes that are more adaptive.”  - Edgar Schein
• “Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles.” – John Kotter, Leading Change
• “Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.” – Northouse, P. G., Leadership: Theory and Practice
• “Leadership is the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations.” –  Kouzes, J.M. and Posner, B.Z., The Leadership Challenge
• “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” – Warren G. Bennis
• “Leadership is the process of persuasion or example by which an individual (or leadership team) induces a group to pursue objectives held by the leader or shared by the leader and his or her followers” – John W. Gardner, On Leadership
• “Leadership is the capacity of individuals to spark the capacity of a human community – people living and working together – to bring forth new realities.” – Peter Sense

Leadership as Service

Then there the definitions of leadership as being about service to others usually referred to as “servant leadership”. This perspective of leadership speaks to the motives and intentions of the leader, proposing that effective leaders act from the desire to be of service to others.

• “Leadership is about service to others and a commitment to developing more servants as leaders. It involves co-creation of a commitment to a mission.” – Robert Greenleaf
• “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor. That sums up the progress of an artful leader.” – Max DePree
• “All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.” – John Kenneth Galbraith

Leadership as Character

There are definitions leadership that refer to the importance of the leader’s character for effective leadership. These recognise the important of integrity, trust and the character of the leader. This is the recognition that without character and integrity, people will not trust the leader and without trust leaders cannot influence others to follow them on a journey of change.

• “Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. If you must be without one, be without the strategy.” – General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
• “Leadership: The capacity and will to rally people to a common purpose together with the character that inspires confidence and trust” – Field Marshal Montgomery
• “Leadership is not a person or a position. It is a complex moral relationship between people, based on trust, obligation, commitment, emotion, and a shared vision of the good.” – Joanne Ciulla

Leadership as Development

There a a number of definitions of leadership that focus on the responsibility of the leader to grow and develop others into leaders. They highlight the importance of knowing and expressing who you are as a leader. These definitions recognise the need for the personal development of the leader and their constituents so they are able to effectively deal with the challenges of change brought about by a challenging vision.

• “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nadar
• “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” – Jack Welch
• “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” — John Quincy Adams, American 6th US President (1825-29)
• “Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential.” – Warren Bennis

The above definitions provide an overview of some of the most widely reference definitions of leadership.

What’s Your Personal Definition of Leadership?

As you would have noticed from the collection of leadership definitions above that there is no one single definition of leadership. There are as many definitions of leadership as there are leaders. This is a good thing. It recognises that leadership is deeply personal and a topic to be wrestled with by each of us as we prepare to lead. Leaders are unique and each leader needs a personal definition of leadership that guides and inspires them. Unless we understand what we mean by leadership it becomes difficult to select, develop and grow leaders.

As leadership is personal and unique to the individual, having your own personal definition provides an anchor for your role as leader. Your definition of leadership affects how you think about your role, how you act, your relationship with others and ultimately your results.

If you don’t as yet have a personal definition of leadership take some time over the next week to develop one that’s your own. I would suggest the following process to create your own personal definition of leadership:

1. Review the definitions listed previously as a source of inspiration. Highlight those that resonate with you personally.
2. Start a conversation with your peers and others on how they define leadership. Use these conversations to stimulate and challenge your own thinking.
3. Work on and revise your personal definition as you go.
4. Your personal definition should create awareness for you concerning to your role as leader and help you answer the question, “How do I know when I’m leading?”.

I look forward to reading in the comments people's own definition of leadership.

How a leader deals with the circumstances of life tells you a lot about their character. Crisis doesn't necessarily make character, but it certainly does reveal it. Adversity is a crossroads which makes a person choose one of two paths: character or compromise. Every time leaders choose character, they become stronger, even if that choice brings negative consequences. 

As Nobel Prize winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, "The meaning of earthly existence lies, not as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but in the development of the soul." The development of character is at the heart of our development, not just as leaders, but as human beings.

What must every person know about character?

• Character is more than talk.
• Talent is a gift, but character is a choice.
• Character brings lasting success with people.

Leaders cannot rise above the limitations of their character.

Ego drives many managers. They all desperately lack character. Many managers lack of character provides many examples of what not to do as a leader:

1. Mistreated their own people
2. Make decisions based on popularity.
3. Act irrationally in difficult times.
4. Harbored anger toward others.
5. Sought power out of insecurity.
6. Project an infallible image.
7. Blinded by his ego.

To improve your character and build a solid foundation of your own leadership,
you must:

1. Identify where you're weak or have taken shortcuts.
2. Look for patterns.
3. Apologize to those you've wronged.
4. Stay teachable and rebuild.

How a leader deals with the circumstances of life tells you a lot about their character. Crisis doesn't necessarily make character, but it certainly does reveal it.

Adversity is a crossroads which makes a person choose one of two paths: character or compromise. Every time leaders choose character, they become stronger, even if that choice brings negative consequences. As Nobel Prize winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, "The meaning of earthly existence lies, not as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but in the development of the soul." The development of character is at the heart of our development, not just as leaders, but as human beings.

What must every person know about character?

Character is more than talk.
Talent is a gift, but character is a choice.
Character brings lasting success with people.
Leaders cannot rise above the limitations of their character.