Charismatic Leadership
Charisma is a certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men. Charismatic Leader gathers followers, through dint of personality and charm. Understand the meaning and concept of Charismatic Leadership and the qualities of a charismatic leader. Gain an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of using charismatic leadership. Finally, explore the difference between charismatic and transformational leadership.
What is the definition of Charismatic Leadership?
“Charisma is 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 powers or qualities." “Charismatic Leadership is "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".
– Max Weber
Qualities of a Charismatic Leader:
The Charismatic Leader gathers followers, through dint of personality and charm, rather than any form of external power or authority. Some prominent qualities of a charismatic leader are as follows:
- Vision.
- Speech.
- High Principles.
- Emotional Sensitivity.
- Personality.
- Charisma.
Every leadership style has its advantages and disadvantages when compared to other leadership styles. Let’s understand the advantages and disadvantages of charismatic leadership.
Advantages Of Charismatic Leadership:
- Ability to affect change.
- Energetic and driving leader.
- Sensitivity to people's emotions.
- Supportive environment.
- Vision and Articulation.
Disadvantages of Charismatic Leadership:
- Over-Reliance on Leader.
- Lack of Clarity.
- Failure of Vision.
- Misarticulating Goals.
- Poor Management.
- Autonomy.
- Broken Trust.
Now let us compare the charismatic leadership style, with the transformational leadership style.
Charismatic Vs. Transformational Leader:
A charismatic leader influences the followers with the dint of his personality and charm whereas a Transformational Leader inspires change, through his vision & passion to get things done.
Charismatic Leader is the “head of the show” whereas Transformational Leader is open to followers’ input and participation.
In the case of charismatic leadership, Vision fulfillment happens by stimulating followers to the leader’s vision and in contrast, under transformational leadership, Vision fulfillment is inclusive of both follower and leader's vision.
Charismatic leaders are most likely to emerge in crisis situations whereas it has been generally observed that transformational leaders, can emerge at different levels of the organization. From a style standpoint, charismatic leadership behavior is aimed at leader driven goals and, the focus is to promote feelings of obedience and dependency in followers. In the case of transformational leadership, the behavior is aimed at encouraging teamwork and commitment to the shared goals.
Related Links
You May Also Like
-
Understanding of how individuals of different cultures interact with each other is very important. Not all individuals can adapt to the leadership styles expected in a different culture whether that culture is organizational or national. In a fast-paced business environment, developing a richer understanding and sensitivity to other cultures is a skill that leaders must possess. Learn to be effective in a cross-cultural setting.
-
There are four characteristics of leadership that help us to understand the character of leadership as a concept. 1. Leadership is a process, 2. Leadership involves influence, 3. Leadership always occurs in a group context and 4. Leadership involves goal attainment. These are the four components that make up the character of the 'leadership' term and help us to define the leadership concept. All of these components of leadership have common characteristics.
-
Have you ever resonated that there seem to be as many different ways to lead people as there have been great leaders? When we recall the success of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon Bonaparte to Steve Jobs and Jack Welch, we also notice that they all used different approaches that were suitable to their specific situations and circumstances. Over the last century, researchers and psychologists have developed simple ways to describe the “Styles of leadership” and in this section, we will explore these commonly known leadership styles.
-
Adaptive leadership is a style of leadership that emphasizes the importance of each and every person and role within the company. Adaptive leadership views the organization as an ever-changing, living organization, where employees can learn, adapt, and grow. Adaptive leaders mobilize people towards a common goal and also have the courage to experiment with new ideas and approaches. Adaptive leadership is the practice of mobilizing groups of people to tackle tough challenges and thrive. Learn how to adopt this style and how to become an adaptive leader!
-
A good leadership style is something that every effective leader must have in order to succeed, but identifying what that entails or does not entails might be difficult to understand. Most of the research on leadership focuses on the exemplary, best practices, and positive attributes of effective and successful leaders. This article talks about a new approach to learn leadership using lessons from bad leadership. That is the lessons to be learned by examining leaders who have not effectively exercised their power, authority, or influence.
-
Power is the ability to exercise influence or control over others. Leadership involves authority and it is very important for leaders to understand what type of power they're using. The 5 Types of Power in Leadership are Coercive power, expert power, legitimate power, referent power, and reward power. Authority is the right to command and extract obedience from others. It comes from the organization and it allows the leader to use power.
-
Narrative leadership is interpreted as the leader who aspires to construct leadership by telling stories. Leadership is a task of persuasion, of winning people’s minds and hearts. Storytelling is thus inherently suited for the task of leadership. Learn about the narrative leadership style and how to use this style to inspire and motivate followers or to manage change.
-
This style is characterized by leaders making decisions for others and expecting followers to follow instructions. The directive leader is adept at giving instructions, setting expectations, and establishing timelines and performance standards. However, it is possible for the same leaders to display both directive and supportive behavior as per the demands of the situation.
-
Authoritarian Leadership Style
Although generally considered as a traditional, outdated, and non-preferred style of leadership, the autocratic style still can be used effectively in certain situations. It is a leadership style characterized by individual absolute control over a group. If you work for an autocratic leader, your job is usually to do what you're told. Learn more about this style and situations where this could be an effective style to use and when to avoid this type of approach. Analyze the characteristics of this style to evaluate if your followers consider you an authoritarian leader!
-
What are the functions which a leader does to establish as a leader? What are the activities undertaken by them to become great leaders, rather revolutionary leaders? The most important tasks done by a leader in all situations are defining the vision, mission, and goals, leading the team, administrative functions, motivating followers, decision making and conflict resolution, and continuous development.
