Leadership and Commitment

A central premise of our teaching about leadership at the Yale School of Management is that true leadership – leadership that helps to address a significant problem in a new way, leadership that inspires others to act in support of an important goal or cause – is necessarily personal. Only a leader who is motivated by deeply held values and beliefs will sustain the sincerity and consistency needed to draw forth the continued efforts of others.

Although personal leadership begins with a focus on values and beliefs, it cannot end there. Everyone has things which they value and believe, but they are not necessarily leaders. In order for a value to become a foundation for leadership, the value must become a commitment, which we define as a salient obligation that an individual consciously embraces. Commitments, in turn, serve as a fundamental basis for personal and organizational choices. In this document, we are going to elaborate on this notion of commitment.