"Charisma is the result of
effective leadership, not the other way around." - Warren Bennis and Burt
Nanus
When you look at leaders like Alexander the Great,
Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, John F. Kennedy, Vladimir Lenin and Barrack
Obama they all have one common style of leadership - charismatic
leadership. They stand out from the pack
of leaders because of their extraordinary qualities that are rarely found among
leaders. For instance, the solders of
Alexander blindly followed him because of his charismatic leadership. The soldiers marched towards victory during
Second World War under the charismatic leadership of Winston Churchill. Similarly the Germans were inspired with the
vision of Adolf Hitler. The Americans
were influenced with the charismatic leadership of John F. Kennedy who gave a
clarion call ‘don’t ask what the nation gave you; rather ask yourself what you
will give back to your nation’. Although
Barrack Obama is relatively young, people trusted and voted him as the
President of America because of his charismatic leadership.
What is Charismatic Leadership?
In 1947 Max Weber came out with three leadership
styles such as bureaucratic, traditional and charismatic leadership. Weber defines charismatic authority as:
"resting on devotion to the exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary
character of an individual person, and of the normative patterns or order
revealed or ordained by him." (Reference) Charisma is something related to
extraordinary powers bestowed through divine means. It is rarest of the rare qualities which are usually
acquired through birth. However the
research reveals that charisma is a skill that can be honed by training,
experience and practice.
Charismatic leaders are treated
having supernatural powers and abilities by their followers. They are good at body language and
communication skills as well. They impress people through usage of eye contact
and hand shake.
Robert J. House contributed for the
theory of charismatic leadership. Charisma
is a Greek word meaning “divinely inspired gift.” Charismatic personalities are charming and
colorful. They have magnetic personality and appeal their people. They know the pulse of their people. It is basically a trait supported by certain
skills that can be honed. For instance,
communication skills and the knowledge of the domain they can acquire.
Both charismatic and transformational
leadership appears to be similar. However
they are different although charisma helps to transform average individuals as
extraordinary individuals.
Categories of Charisma:
Charismatic leaders are categorized
into five types. They are briefly
socialized, personalized, office-holder, personal and divine charismatic
leaders. The socialized charismatic leaders utilize their powers for the
benefit of others. The personalized
charismatic leaders unitize their powers for the personal benefits. The office-holder charismatic leaders are
powerful as along as they occupy the office.
Once they resign, they lose their charisma. In contrast, the personal charismatic leaders
are powerful forever whether they are in office or out of office because of
their extraordinary qualities. Finally
the divine charismatic leaders are the ones where people think that they are
god sent.
Jane A. Halpert based charisma into
referent power, expert power and job involvement. Referent power is the ability to influence
others because of one’s desirable traits and characteristics. Expert power is the ability to influence
others because of one’s specialized knowledge, competencies, skills or
abilities. Therefore to excel as a
charismatic leader, the leader must have expert and referent power and involve
in job briskly.
Charismatic leaders help tackle
crises effectively. Once the crisis is blown
these leaders may not be required.
These leaders energize their followers and excite them through their rhetoric
and bring them close to organizational goals and objectives.
Characteristics of Charismatic Leaders:
"Charisma is a sparkle in people
that money can't buy. It's an invisible energy with visible effects." - Marianne Williamson
They
are change agents and status quo ante. They are visionaries.
They
are magnetic personalities with lot of energy and enthusiasm.
They
project an exciting and colorful picture to their followers.
They
are great communicators and good at emotional intelligence.
They
love to live on edge and they are risk takers and thrive in risk.
They
are self-promoters. They boost and
boast about themselves without which they don’t get excitement.
They don’t
bother for fear of failure and fear of death.
They
are highly emotional but balance themselves.
They
are good at storytelling and believe in the concept of management by
anecdote. They start their speeches with anecdotes to connect with their
audience quickly and effectively.
They follow
their heart.
They
develop vision for others and are highly confident and optimist.
They
network with people and build bridges.
They
are honest and help others.
Finally
they never give up.
How to Become a Charismatic Leader?
"Throw away those books and
cassettes on inspirational leadership. Send those consultants packing. Know
your job, set a good example for the people under you and put results over
politics. That's all the charisma you'll really need to succeed." - Dyan Machan
Smile
cheerfully from your heart.
Praise
liberally and criticize sparingly.
Maintain
eye contact and shake hand firmly.
Demonstrate
positive body language.
Treat
others with respect.
Remember
the names.
Improve
your communication skills and acquire domain competency. That means master both soft and hard
skills.
Criticism:
Although charismatic leaders drive
others with their energy and enthusiasm, they believe more in themselves rather
than others. They treat themselves as
puppeteers and followers as puppets. Once
the charismatic leaders depart the work comes to a grinding halt leading to
leadership vacuum. They make their
absence felt more.
The charismatic leaders could not
deliver the goods properly when viewed from historical leaders. They come, conquer and leave the world
without any takeaways except showing colorful and magical world to their
followers.
There are few charismatic leaders who
let down their followers and hit the rock bottom. They were forced to oblivion. They were thrown into the dustbins of
history. For instance, Garry Winnick,
the former chairman of Global Crossing Ltd is an example who let down his
followers.
Both Obama and Osama are charismatic leaders while the
former is using for a great cause the latter is using for evil activities. Churchill was a charismatic leader with
complex personality. His leadership traits are blend of intuition, invention,
and emotion, hedonism, nationalism, humor, reformist with strong internal locus
of control.
Charismatic leaders like Stalin and Hitler elevated
themselves above criticism. It proved
counter productive for them as well as for their people. Therefore, there is danger involved in
charismatic leadership. However it all depends
on the mindset of the leader.
Conclusion:
"How can you have charisma? Be
more concerned about making others feel good about themselves than you are
making them feel good about you." - Dan Reiland
Charisma needs substance than style. Have knowledge and content to speak and
connect with others. Charismatic leaders
are known for walking the talk. They go
to any extent to please their followers.
They have passion to serve their people.
Therefore, the world needs charismatic leaders to address several
leadership challenges globally.
