Charismatic Leadership: Do You Believe in Magic?

"A full moon blanks out all the stars around it." Ted Turner (also known as Captain Outrageous) about himself
"I care more about being a leader than being liked, especially when I see someone with ability who isn't trying his hardest." Michael Jordan
"A huge portion of what Netscape is worth is Jim Barksdale telling investors it's going to work; he has this great ability to convey confidence and give comfort."
"Charisima, to me is almost a phony thing. It's what those TV evangelists have." Jim Barksdale

"Charisma is a tricky thing. Jack Kennedy oozed it-but so did Hitler and Charles Manson. Con artists, charlatans, and megalomaniacs can make it their instrument as effectively as the best CEO's entertainers, and Presidents. Used wisely, it's a blessing; indulged, it can be a curse. Charismatic visionaries lead people ahead-and sometimes astray." Fortune, January 15, 1996

Charisma matters more than it used to; when you had command-and-control environments, everyone knew his role and executed his boss's program. Today, if you're able to galvanize people into action, all the thinking, the analysis, the strategic prioritizing doesn't matter at all." Sears CEO Arthur Martinez.

Whenever problems seem intractable there comes a call for MORE LEADERSHIP. This usually means a call for better leadership and for many it is a call for charismatic leadership, something that we think we know when we see it but is very hard to define. We can't seem to get enough of movies like Rocky, Patton, or Godfather that center on charismatic leadership; we seem to think that if only we had better leaders, we could solve our problems.

Yet it isn't that simple. While on the one hand we call for more charismatic leadership, we also have a distrust of charismatic leadership. Charismatic leaders can lead us astray and into disaster (see David Kouresh of the Branch Davidians or Jones of Jonestown).

Does Charisma Matter?

It seems to-sometimes. Charismatic leaders can inspire and create excitement. Yet there are times or situations where it probably doesn't matter at all. Do you want a banker to have charisma. Some companies do fine without charismatic leaders and some companies do poorly with charismatic leaders. Robert House, a researcher on the topic concluded that "when conditions are uncertain, charismatic bosses spur subordinates to work above and beyond the call of duty."

What do Charismatic Leaders Do"?

Charismatic people have a remarkable ability to distill complex ideas into simple messages ("I have a dream"); they communicate by using symbols, analogies, metaphors and stories. Anyone can understand them
they relish risk and feel empty without it; they are great optimists
they are rebels who fight convention; they may seem idiosyncratic

An "Academic" Look at what they do

There appear to be four stages in the development of charismatic leadership

Sensing opportunity and formulating a vision: these leaders seem to sense their constitutents needs as well as see the deficiencies of the existing sitaution and untapped opportunities. The combination of these leads to an idealized vision of the future. These visions at least in organizations seem to fall along one of four major types: an innovative product or service; a contribution to society; a transformation of the organization; or a contribution to the workforce
Articulating the Vision: these leaders seem to have a great sense of strategic vision and a capacity to convey the essence and viability of that to a broad group of people
Building Trust in the Vision: subordinates must desire and support the goals of the leader and this is likely to be accomplished by more than coercion; rather the leader builds trust in the leader and the viaiblilty of the goals; this is likely to be done through personal risk taking, unconventional expertise, and self-sacrifice
Achieving the Vision: these leaders use personal example and role modeling, reliance on unconventional tactics and their use of empowerment practices to demonstrate how the vision can be achieved and how motivation can be sustained

A Trip to the Dark Side: Charisma doesn't guarantee success

Charismatic leaders are pictured as organizational heroes or "magic" leaders who can orchestrate turnarounds, launch new enterprises, inspire organizational renewal, and obtian extraordinary erformance form organizational members. These leaders inspire trust, faith and belief in themselves. Of course none of this is a guarantee that the mission will be correct, ethical, or successful. These leaders can be agents of destruction and can lead to disastrous outcomes. Some even question whether charismatic leadership is good for an organization rather than people being able to lead themselves. By believing in the leader as hero, we may ignore that many of the key solutions to today's organization are in ourselves and we should not depend on a "hero" to rescue us.

Where do we find these leaders?

Despite a stated need for major transformation and charismatic leadership, a number of organizational practices may make it difficult for charismatic leadership to emerge and for charismatic leaders to be effective. Charismatic leadership can be very risky and in most cases organizations are not willing to take the risk-often for good reason. The cost of following the wrong vision can be worse than having no vision at all.

Sources:

Sellers, Patricia, "What exactly is Charisma?" Fortune, January 15, 1996