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.
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