Business
Charismatic Leaders
Charismatic leaders are individuals who possess a magnetic personality and are able to inspire and motivate others through their strong communication skills and vision. They often exude confidence, enthusiasm, and charm, and are capable of building strong emotional connections with their followers. Charismatic leaders are known for their ability to rally people around a common goal and create a sense of unity and purpose within an organization.
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11 Key excerpts on "Charismatic Leaders"
eBook - PDFLeadership
Research Findings, Practice, and Skills
- Andrew DuBrin(Author)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
Characteristics of Charismatic Leaders The outstanding characteristic of Charismatic Leaders is that they can attract, motivate, or lead others. They also have other distinguishing characteristics. Because cha- risma is a key component of transformational leadership, many of these characteristics also apply to transforma- tional leaders. A transformational leader is one who brings about positive, major changes in an organization. Many Charismatic Leaders, however, are not transforma- tional. Although they inspire people, they may not bring about major organizational changes. As we look at the characteristics of Charismatic Leaders, 16 you will note that many of these characteristics apply to leaders in general. First, Charismatic Leaders are visionary because they offer an exciting image of where the organization is headed and how to get there. Charismatic Leaders also possess masterful communication skills. To inspire people, the charismatic leader uses colorful language and exciting metaphors and analogies. (More about the communication skills of Charismatic Leaders is pre- sented later in this chapter.) Another key characteris- tic is the ability to inspire trust. Constituents believe so strongly in the integrity of Charismatic Leaders that they will risk their careers to pursue the chief’s vision. Charismatic Leaders are also able to make group mem- bers feel capable. Sometimes they do this by enabling group members to achieve success on relatively easy projects. They then praise the group members and give them more demanding assignments. Charismatic people are typically tactful in social sit- uations based partly on their ability to read other peo- ple’s emotions (part of emotional intelligence). Related to reading emotions is the ability to connect with peo- ple, as in the now overdone phrase, “I feel your pain.” For example, during a severe business downturn, a company leader might say, “I know a lot of you are worried about losing your jobs.
eBook - PDF- George R. Goethals, Georgia J. Sorenson, James MacGregor Burns, George R. Goethals, Georgia J. Sorenson, James MacGregor Burns(Authors)
- 2004(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
The attribution of charisma is dependent not on the outcome of change but sim-ply on the fact that the leader demands that action be taken to bring about that change. Stage Two: The Future Vision After assessing the environment, a leader will for-mulate goals for achieving the organization’s objec-tives. Charismatic Leaders can be distinguished from others by the nature of these goals and by the manner in which they articulate them. For example, charis-matic leaders tend to aim for an idealized future. In stage two, it is their formulation of that idealized future vision, their ability to evoke it in the imagina-tion of their followers, that sets them apart from other leaders. Steven Jobs, founder of Apple Com-puter, and Fred Smith, founder of Federal Express, are two examples of Charismatic Leaders who articu-lated compelling visions of a future filled with opportunity. The more idealized or utopian the future goal advocated by the leader, the greater the discrepancy with the status quo, and the greater the discrepancy between the goal and the status quo, the more likely followers are to attribute the leader with extraordi-nary vision. Moreover, by presenting a very dis-crepant and idealized goal to followers, a leader pro-vides a sense of challenge and a motivating force for change. Psychologists have suggested that within a certain latitude of acceptance, the greater the dis-crepancy between reality and the goal, the greater the pressure on followers to shed their resistance and accept the advocated change. Since the idealized goal promises to meet followers’ hopes and aspira-tions, it tends to be within this latitude of acceptance in spite of its extreme discrepancy. Leaders become charismatic as they succeed in winning followers’ support for the advocated vision. They are charis-matic when their vision is an idealized embodiment of a perspective shared by followers.
eBook - ePubThe Bass Handbook of Leadership
Theory, Research, and Managerial Applications
- Bernard M. Bass, Ruth Bass(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Free Press(Publisher)
Self-Sacrificial Disposition. Sacrifices may involve voluntary giving up of power, privileges, or personal resources; or going into harm’s way for the benefit of other individuals or the group, organization, or society. House and Shamir (1993) expected that Charismatic Leaders might make sacrifices to build trust and show loyalty. Javidan (1992) suggested that Charismatic Leaders might make sacrifices to encourage followers to do the same to reduce followers’ fears of an uncertain future, and to gain followers’ acceptance of the leader’s vision. Yorges, Weiss, and Strickland (1999) demonstrated that if leaders were willing to endure hardships for the expression of their beliefs, they would be more likely to be perceived as charismatic and more influential than if they personally benefited from their actions. In two experiments with 157 industrial participants and 457 students, Choi and Mai-Dalton (1998) found that followers were more likely to attribute charisma to a self-sacrificial leader described in different scenarios, especially if the leader was described as competent rather than incompetent. Unexpectedly, the outcomes were unaffected by whether or not the organization’s future was uncertain.Envisioning and Charismatic Leadership
The vision Charismatic Leaders articulate contains an idealized perspective shared with their followers. It calls for radical change yet is within the latitude of acceptance. To achieve the vision, charismatics express a willingness to go beyond their self-interests, to make personal sacrifices, and to take high risks. Charismatic Leaders search for and envision opportunities and threats to their organization or movement. They use the vision to frame the alignment of the members and to implement actions to try to make the vision come true (Conger & Kanungo, 1998). Transformational leaders are motivated to accomplish the vision and to persuade others to agree with it. They act according to a vision specifying a better future state; communicate with references to the vision; articulate the vision and the accomplishments needed to attain the vision. They influence followers to make decisions in line with the vision and role model the values implied by the vision. However, unlike the ideologue, the authentic transformational leader will change the vision to better fit with the needs of followers (Mumford & Strange, 2002). The charismatic’s vision and effects differ from the ideologue’s in other ways. According to a biographical analysis of 60 notable leaders by Mumford and Mowry (undated), the charismatic’s or transformational’s vision is broad; the ideologue’s is narrow. Ideologues are more likely than charismatics to direct punitive influence tactics toward followers who diverge from their vision.
eBook - PDFDemocracy at Risk
How Terrorist Threats Affect the Public
- Jennifer L. Merolla, Elizabeth J. Zechmeister(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- University of Chicago Press(Publisher)
The first stems from Weber’s defini- 125 Enabling Charismatic Leadership tion of charisma as “a certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional qualities” (quoted in Eisenstadt 1968, xviii). In this conception, leaders are, or are not, inherently charismatic. If we look at charisma in this way, it is an elu-sive or at least ambiguous concept. How exactly does a researcher deter-mine whether a leader is “superhuman”? We adhere to a second, more concrete definition of charisma charac-terized by three principal features. First, charisma is an underlying con-struct derived from a bundle of specific traits and, as such, something that an individual can possess to a greater or lesser degree. This treatment of charisma is nearly ubiquitous in the study of organizational leadership and is increasingly used in political science (e.g., Bligh, Kohles, and Pillai 2005; Emrich et al. 2001; Pillai and Williams 1998; Pillai et al. 2003; Shamir 1994). Among scholars working in this tradition, a great deal of agreement exists with respect to the bundle of traits that make a leader more char-ismatic. Specifically, those who are more confident, caring, enthusiastic, goal-oriented, optimistic, and inspiring are considered to be more char-ismatic (e.g., Behling and McFillen 1996; Bryman 1992; Conger and Ka-nungo 1988; House and Howell 1992; Madsen and Snow 1991). Second, the degree to which someone is perceived as charismatic is linked to evaluations made by other people (Conger, Kanungo, and Menon 2000). Thus, individuals might have different evaluations of the degree to which a particular leader is charismatic. For example, some people think Bill Clinton lights up a room, usually Democrats and some Independents, while Republicans perceive him through a less attractive lens.
No longer available |Learn moreLeadership
Research Findings, Practice, and Skills
- Andrew DuBrin(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
45 Charismatic, transformational leaders create a vision. By communicating a vision, they convey a set of values that guide and motivate employees. The vision describes an opti-mistic picture of what the organization will become after the transformation is complete, such as a division being threatened with being shut down becoming the leading division in a conglomerate. Although transformational leaders are often greatly concerned with organizational survival, they also take the time to encourage the personal development of their staff. As group members develop, their performance is likely to increase. Transformational leaders also give supportive leadership, such as by giving positive feedback to group members and recognizing individual achievements. Supportive leadership also contributes to the development of group members. Transformational leaders frequently use empowerment to help develop group members. Innovative thinking, another important characteristic, helps transformational leaders achieve their goals; for example, they might develop innovative ways to raise cash and cut Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP 75 costs quickly. Transformational leaders encourage their staff to think innovatively as well and give them challenging assignments. Not every leader classified as transformational will have the eight characteristics just described. For example, some transformational leaders are brusque with people rather than agreeable.
No longer available |Learn more- Tudor Rickards(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
CM 4.3: Beyond Charisma: The Fifth-Level Leader The charismatic business leader continues to hold considerable sway in the beliefs and assumptions of many people. The charismatic story, briefly, holds that great changes are achieved by exceptional people. More careful studies are beginning to reveal that the story is at best partial. At the very least, our image of the exceptional leader has been shown to ignore the contributions of people with characteristics of style and behaviour that are in many ways the mirror image of the larger-than-life charismatic. This particular dilemma seems to be on the way to being resolved, at least in respect of the founders and leaders of the great American companies, thanks to research conducted by Jim Collins. Collins was a respected academic who subsequently turned thought-leader and guru, publicizing his ideas around the world. His work is a nice combination of well- grounded research and well-rounded stories easily communicated to a wider audience. His earlier work with Jerry Porras had revealed the secrets of exceptional companies, ones that survived and prospered. Collins and Porras called these companies ones that were built to last. 24 Now, with teams of experienced researchers, he went more deeply into the features of such companies. Although he wished to avoid the risks of over-celebrating the great leader, the results were unavoidable. From over fourteen hundred companies studied, eleven achieved the kind of sustained excellence he was looking for. In these eleven companies, the strongest differentiating factor was what Collins called level five leadership. The various levels were summarized as follows: Level 1 leadership is that of individual talent individually applied. In teams and groups, the individual may be an isolated but valued technical or professional expert. Level 2 leadership is leadership in the sense of collaborative team efforts, and may include specialized professional or personal talents.
eBook - PDF- Alan Bryman, David Collinson, Keith Grint, Brad Jackson, Mary Uhl-Bien, Alan Bryman, David Collinson, Keith Grint, Brad Jackson, Mary Uhl-Bien(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
Finally, a Charismatic Leadership model pro-posed by Sashkin (1988) under the label of ‘Visionary Leadership’ was presented in our book on Charismatic Leadership in 1988. Although his model has received little research attention, it does highlight the importance of visioning behavior, a core element in charismatic leader-ship. Besides visioning behavior, Sashkin identified five other behaviors: causing attention of others on key issues through unconventional and creative actions; effective interpersonal communication; demonstrating trustworthiness; showing self-respect and respect toward others; and taking personal risk. Follower dynamics Earlier research on Charismatic Leaders by political scientists and psychoanalysts (e.g. Downton, 1973; Kets de Vries, 1988; see Gabriel, Chapter 29, this volume) proposed that the followers of Charismatic Leaders were more likely to be those who were easily molded and persuaded by such dynamic leaders because of an essentially depend-ent character. Followers were drawn to a charis-matic leader who exudes what they lack: self-confidence and conviction. For example, in a study of the charismatic, religious leader Reverend Sun Moon, Lodahl (1982) found that followers had greater feelings of helplessness, cynicism, distrust of political action, and less confidence in their sexual identity than a sample of college stu-dents. Other studies (e.g. Freemesser & Kaplan, 1976; Galanter, 1982) found followers of charis-matic political and religious leaders to have lower self-esteem, a higher intolerance for indecision and crisis, and more experiences of psychological distress than others (see Tourish, Chapter 16, this volume). But these studies were almost entirely conducted on populations of individuals disaffected by soci-ety or in contexts of crisis where individuals are needy by definition. In the corporate world, the situation is likely to be quite different.
eBook - PDFCharismatic Leadership and Social Movements
The Revolutionary Power of Ordinary Men and Women
- Jan Willem Stutje(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Berghahn Books(Publisher)
30 The Nature of Charismatic Leadership In this volume the main case studies concentrate on examining the role of leaders in emerging social movements – not least because these types of leaders belonged to the major examples Weber himself referred to in theo-rizing charisma as an explanation for the major support these movements received. In these movements Charismatic Leaders sustained a strong symbi-otic relationship with their followers, a symbiosis which stimulated devotion to the leader and which created a real group identity. Here, the charismatic leader was not just a professional politician or administrator, but became a people’s or working-class hero, capable of arousing the masses. Introduction 7 Here, the charismatic leader also manifests his revolutionary power. Charisma does not mean mere behavioural change. It involves a transfor-mation of followers’ values and beliefs. This distinguishes the charismatic person from a merely populist leader who may affect attitudes towards specific objects, but who is not prepared or capable, as the charismatic leader is, to transform the underlying normative orientation that struc-tures particular attitudes. 31 Populists may be involved in antielitist mo-bilizations, but they leave the social system unchallenged. To put it in another way, populists claim that they speak for ‘the people’. 32 But in sub-stituting the will of the people for their own, they are not really interested in adjusting their own activity to overcome social or political conserva-tism. At the most they only bother to adjust their ideas and convictions to the shifting moods and perceptions of the public. If we study the main leaders of social movements in the late nine-teenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, when Weber introduced the concept of charisma, what common features can we find? Examining the existing literature, it seems justified to isolate four main leadership traits.
eBook - PDFLeading within Digital Worlds
Strategic Management for Data Science
- Peter Grindrod(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Emerald Publishing Limited(Publisher)
2 TRAITS OF LEADERSHIP Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. (Jack Welch) The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born -that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That ’ s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born. (Warren G. Bennis) Charismatic LeadersHIP Richard P. Rumelt, described by McKinsey Quarterly as a giant in the fi eld of strategy , wrote a brilliant book on strategy, pub-lished in 2011. 15 It is a life-changing book. Please get hold of it and read it. 15 Richard Rumelt, Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters, Pro fi le Books Ltd; 2012. 31 Within his book Rumelt discusses leadership, and Charismatic Leadership (oft called transformational leadership), in particular. He distinguished between Charismatic Leaders and formal leaders (oft called transactional ), with the latter drawing authority from their rank and working within the organizational structures. Charismatic Leaders develop a vision and inspire others to will-ingly make sacri fi ces (for change) for the common good; and then they empower people to accomplish. However, Rumelt also points to some extremely effective transactional leaders who possessed zero charisma. He also points to examples where Charismatic Leadership has failed. Thus, charisma itself is neither necessary nor suf fi cient for effectiveness. Rumelt suggests that charisma must be joined with very careful attention to obstacles, actions, and potential outcomes. More recent research led by Vergauwe, a Ghent University psychologist, compared charisma scores of business leaders as (measured by a 56-question personality test focusing on how bold, mischievous, colorful, and imaginative each individual rated themselves) with their observed effectiveness within their role.
eBook - PDFScholarship and Partisanship
Essays on Max Weber
- Reinhard Bendix, Guenther Roth(Authors)
- 2023(Publication Date)
- University of California Press(Publisher)
M Clark Kerr et al., Industrialism and Industrial Man (New York: Oxford, 1964), 3, 221. IX Charismatic LeadersHIP "The term 'charismatic leader' has recently attained wide- spread and almost debased currency. In the past, it was occasionally applied to Gandhi, Lenin, Hitler, and Roosevelt. Now nearly every leader with marked popular appeal, especially those of new states, is indiscriminately tagged as charismatic." 1 Difficulties in the use of this term arise not only from indiscriminate labeling but also from conflicting theories of societies. Two recent discussions are especially instructive in this respect. In an assessment of Max Weber's political writings Karl Loewen- stein has raised the question of whether or not the term "charisma" can properly be applied in contemporary politics. Charismatic Leadership depends upon a widespread belief in the existence of extraordinary or supernatural capacities, but such beliefs are at a discount in secular contexts. Though democratization has increased the plebiscitarían component of modem politics, the qualities of 1 Ann Ruth and Dorothy Willner, "The Rise and Role of Charismatic Lead- ers," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Studies, 358, March 1965, 78. Reinhard Bendix, "Reflections on Charismatic Leadership," from Bendix et al., eds., State and Society (Boston: Little, Brown, 1968), 616-629. This essay originated in a symposium organized by the Association of Asian Studies, which met in New York, 1966, under the chairmanship of Professor Rupert Emerson. Subsequently the editors of Asian Survey arranged for publication of papers on four Asian leaders, with this essay serving as an introduction (Asian Survey, II, June 1967, 341-353). In the republication of the essay, I have made several re- visions as well as included factual materials which originally appeared in sepa- rate essays by Professor Robert M. Smith, Dr. Margaret Fisher, Professor Chong- sik Lee, and Dr.
eBook - PDFThe Elephant in the Boardroom
The causes of leadership derailment
- A. Furnham(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
They need to deal in strategy and long-term visions, and most importantly, to communicate those visions • The real test of leadership is whether people will follow them in defeat and hardship rather than success • Leadership communication is mainly about stirring up energy, enthusiasm and engagement • Trust and good communication go hand in hand 50 EARLY RESEARCH AND SPECULATIONS • Leadership comes into its own when people are free and equal because they need to feel partners, companions or comrades in a common enterprise • Humility in leaders is a virtue because it includes seeing the truth about oneself but also being open to more learning. There also seems to be an unquenchable thirst for typologies of supposedly good leaders. For instance, Rooke and Torbert (2005) in the influential Harvard Business Review describe seven ways of leading, the most common of which are called Expert (38%), who “rule” by logic and expertise; Achiever (30%) who are action and goal oriented; and Diplomat (12%) who are conflict-avoidant, supportive, consensus- seeking types. There are fewer Individualists (10%), Opportunists (5%) or Alchemists (3%). This is a reinvention of the old stylistic approach which turned out to be interesting but unhelpful. Inevitably, any typological approach means there are competing approaches. Thus Bedell-Avers and colleagues (2009) compare charis- matic, ideological and pragmatic leaders. Charismatic Leaders, they argue, are visionary, future-time oriented, focused on their follow- ers’ needs and eloquently emotionally persuasive. On the other hand, ideological leaders are seen to be past oriented, focused on ideals and shared heritage, visionary but come to light because of historical circumstances. Pragmatic leaders are non-visionary, present focused, functional leaders who attempt rational persuasion and negotiation as their communication strategy.
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