We Know Charisma Isn’t Essential to Leadership. So What Is?
There’s been a lot of talk about leadership in our culture. If you want to understand our culture’s perception of leadership all you have to do is read the recent Time Magazine, “No Charisma? Don’t Worry, You Can Still Be a Leader”
One thing I noticed about this article is not what it says–but what it doesn’t say. What it doesn’t say is fundamental.
Sure Abraham Lincoln had charisma. Sure, President Obama has charisma. But in the final analysis, leadership is about the nuts-and-bolts skills of execution and getting things done.
When I ask my students at Cornell who they think are important leaders they come up with a familiar list: Martin Luther King Jr., Harry S. Truman, Mother Theresa, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, and now Obama. My next question to my classes is, “What do these people have in common?” They often tell me, “Charisma” or, in other words, that they inspired people.
Here, they are partially right. Charisma, according to Max Weber, is the amorphous quality that translates your vision to others. Yet this isn’t the whole story….
Leadership is about pragmatic, practical results, about the capacity to deliver. Leadership is comprised of small tactical and managerial skills. Today, Obama is being challenged, not because of his lack of charisma, but by his ability to deliver results. And he well knows it. Just like Martin Luther King Jr., Harry S. Truman, Mother Theresa, Winston Churchill, and Abraham Lincoln knew.
They knew that charisma couldn’t replace their ability to deliver results, sustain momentum, and get people on there side. In other words, they knew without the practical ability to deliver results they would just be a willow of a wisp in history—something beautiful, something dramatic, but something irrelevant.
We’ve discussed this notion of executing agendas here and here.
Tagged as charisma, leadership, leadreship + Categorized as Leadership, Managerial Competence
The word ‘charisma’ usually appeals to our emotions more than the reasoning of minds. In theology, charisma means a divinely conferred gift. When the term is applied in leadership, it is not difficult to understand it has a connotation that bestow astonishing power and capacity to a person.
Like culture, leadership does not exist by itself and should be studied in contexts. We admire and follow a leader often because we expect him or her will be able to achieve certain goals if we follow him/her.
I’d think charisma comes after leadership and not before it. We would not convince ourselves that he or she is a leader until he or she has proven his/her leadership skills; and we wouldn’t say he or she has charisma until we are convinced he/she is a leader.
To me, charisma is about drawing power period. It is attractive and brings people together. It is not necessarily the earmark of a good leader. Having the ability to draw people together is only the beginning. Then you have to do something, offer something, move something and/or change something. And that’s where the fundamental work of leadership begins.
I wrote a piece about charisma and transformational leadership at the time of Mr Obama’s election. If you are interested, here it is:
http://tinyurl.com/mpyyx8
Thanks for a thought-provoking post
Mr. Ling–
Charisma tends to be one of these amorphous concepts. I remember years ago when I was studying with Hans Gerth who was responsible for translating much of Max Weber into English from German. Gerth always made the point that charisma in Weber has an almost spiritual connotation, a sense that you believed in the other in spite of the content.
I suppose what worries me about charisma is that it tends to be such a slippery slope. It’s a thin line between spiritual inspiration, vision and fascism. In this context I admit that on any given day, I’m more comfortable with the mundane skills of execution and remain weary of the promises of charisma. Thanks much for the comments.
Gwyn Teatro
Thanks much I read your piece and really enjoyed it. We academics get a little narrow vision so thanks for the expansion. Let me encourage people to check out Gwyn’s material at
http://prissyperfection.wordpress.com/