Leadership
The concept of the charismatic leader captivates those who study leadership. In part, the appeal of the charismatic leader is that charisma is inherently difficult to identify, quantify and measure. We simply know it when we see it. Each leader has his or her own personal charisma, which affects his or her ability to guide and motivate the actions of others. Those with strong personalities may perhaps be better at motivating, and the result is stronger action. The charismatic leader, as noted, is also someone who can move the organization beyond the status quo. This hints that part of charisma is having vision, at least when combined with the ability to execute that vision. This paper will explore the idea of the charismatic leader.
Defining charismatic leadership
As Yukl notes, the idea of leadership itself is inherently lacking in precise definition, which creates problems for the study of leadership, since there is a gap between the desire for a scientific understanding and the inherent ambiguity of the concept. Ultimately, a leader must exert "intentional influence over other people to guide, structure, and facilitate activities and relationships in a group or organization" (Yukl, 2010). Charismatic leadership therefore can reasonably be assumed to be a leadership style that emphasizes the use of personal charisma in order to achieve these actions and results. A charismatic leader will typically emphasize an emotional reaction in the followers. There might be a compelling intellectual case for action, but the followers are driven more by the personality of the leader, and loyalty or reverence for that personality. Charisma is one of the least formal methods by which a leader can achieve the desired objectives.
A common definition of charismatic leadership is identified by Conger and Kanungo (1987) as being leadership "by the force of personal abilities capable of having profound and extraordinary effects on followers." The charismatic leader, therefore, is able to have an incremental positive effect on the organization simply by force of personality. Whether such a leader also develops excellent systems for implementing his or her ideas is not necessarily relevant -- there are charismatic leaders who have left the systems to others within the organization, and there are charismatic leaders whose organizational ineptitude ultimately led to failure despite the fervent support of followers.
Understanding what charisma is has been a challenge both for the management and social sciences branches of leadership study. There have been some attempts in the social sciences to distill charismatic leadership to the presence of particular traits. These include strong communication skills, ability to be a positive role model, ability to motivate, intellectual stimulation and responsiveness to others (Riggio, 2012). Strong communication skills can be further broken down, since most good leaders of any type will be able to communicate their ideas. The key to the charismatic leader lies with the combination of communication skills and the last two elements -- the ability to create intellectual stimulation and the ability to get response from others. The charismatic leader understands what the emotional motivators of his or her audience is, and communicates to those triggers, rather than simply communicating plans in a rational manner. Further, the charismatic leader works in a transformative way when using a structure that allows for the followers to think more freely. Such structures would tap into the intellectual abilities of the followers, putting their minds as well as their muscle to work for the cause.
Yukl (1999) notes that there remain some weaknesses with our understanding of the charismatic leader. He notes that there is a still a struggle with ambiguity as a natural part of the definition of a charismatic leader. This is only a valid concern from the lens of an observer who struggles with ambiguity. In reality, ambiguity is a natural part of human existence, and should not be classified as a problem or issue. In the real world, no human has the same level of charismatic power at all times -- the charismatic leader could be more compelling one day, less the next, and all of that could be contingent on audience, message and a whole host of other variables. This is not necessarily a problem, unless one actually wants to quantify charisma. Perhaps it is best to simply accept the inherent ambiguity of both charisma and leadership, and move forward.
Another fault that Yukl (1999) identifies in the bias towards a heroic vision of the charismatic leader. This seems to hold true because of observer bias, but ultimately charisma is something...
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