Leaders cannot expect from others what they do not themselves model. People in positions of authority risk a special type of “crying wolf” when using disingenuous arguments to persuade others to behave in ways that they themselves are not willing to behave.

On a recent cross-country flight, the “fasten seatbelt” sign was lit for over an hour, after a long takeoff delay that kept our plane on the runway for more than an hour. Although it had been more than two hours since we boarded, the flight attendants repeatedly told passengers not to use the restroom, citing safety concerns due to turbulence.

However, there was hardly any turbulence, and more importantly, the flight attendants didn’t sit down. They continued to attend to the first-class customers, sold beer to coach passengers, and even carried an ice cream sundae for a first-class passenger from the front galley to the back to put sprinkles on it (I wish I was making this up, but I’m not).

Clearly, the safety issue was not a legitimate concern; the turbulence was minimal and brief, and if the flight attendants believed the safety concerns to be valid, they would not have continued to walk about the cabin for discretionary reasons. Surely a child or elderly person’s need to use the restroom outweighs the need of the person in front of me to buy a beer. If the former is a safety issue, surely the latter is as well.

School leaders are often tempted to make “safety issue” arguments as well, or to otherwise use inauthentic arguments to get people to agree with a decision. While there certainly are situations in which such arguments are legitimate, when we use them in other situations, we’re like the boy who cried “Wolf!” – we condition our audience to stop taking us seriously.

Disingenuous arguments undermine leaders’ moral authority and credibility. When we want people to do things for which they cannot see an immediate and compelling reason – which is certainly necessary at times – a key element of persuasion is modeling. People in positions of authority may be tempted to rely on their role-based power to influence others, but sacrificing moral authority to obtain compliance is never a good trade.

The consequence of the flight attendants’ hypocritical behavior – insisting that children refrain from using the restroom, while walking about the plane to sell beer and prepare ice cream sundaes – was a loss of credibility. Soon, people stopped listening to the flight attendants altogether, using the restroom whenever they needed to.

Fortunately, the plane did not encounter any danger, but if we had encountered a serious situation – especially one that would be less than obvious to passengers, such as an approaching storm – the flight attendants would have no moral authority to rely on to obtain passengers’ cooperation.

Leaders must recognize the tremendous importance of personal credibility and moral authority, and must never sacrifice them by the thoughtless exercise of positional authority.