Charisma – Inherent Or Acquired?

What is charisma?

Charisma is a magnificent property of mesmerising and others. According to predominant wisdom in society charisma is a divine gift that some people posses, by which they won’t be listed under ordinary people rather will be treated as super human or extra ordinary men. Charismatic leadership is heterogenic may be political, business, religious fields. Charisma is pertaining to personality of a person. In simple charisma is personal magnetism. Charisma is why people admire some leaders like anything for example Americans following Mr. Richard M Nixon even after his involvement in Water gate scandal. Charisma doesn’t show positive impact always; it has its own negatives. India’s largest corporate fraud was lead by Mr. Ramalinga Raju who was one of the most effective and charismatic leader who lead Satyam group of companies all the way to one of the top IT solution companies in India.

Is charisma inherent or acquired?

Against predominant wisdom prevailing in the society charisma can be acquired by any individual. Charisma is often considered to be a trait. Trait is internal character of a human like knowledge, energy etc. Traits like knowledge are not inborn they are acquired but charisma is an exceptional trait. Charisma is inborn in every one but at different quantities. Some leaders like JFK, Bill Clinton are born with miraculous charisma they are considered to be gifted. Parameters for charisma are communication skills, risk taking, authentic etc. All these characters can be developed by a person, which in turn enhances the charisma of a person. According to Attribution theory, charisma depends on people perception. A person is charismatic if and only if people feel that he is charismatic. Steve Jobs was conflicting for some people but for some he is charismatic, it shows an individual’s charisma will depend on the environment in which he exists. If people were in need of a character and leader posses that character then he is considered to be charismatic. Many instances are there where a person who was rejected by people at some point of time later proved himself to be charismatic as it happened in the case of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Regan. Some individuals will emerge as charismatic leaders after great speeches like ‘I have a dream…’ by Martin Lutur King. So charisma can be acquired by an individual. Muthandar al Zeidi, journalist who throwed shoe on American state head became charismatic in Iraq, it happened over night but the burning thoughts him are never over night, Years of Iraqis blood shed made him to take lead and made every one to follow him, admire him

Is charisma mandatory to be an effective leader?

Charisma is not mandatory to be an effective leader. Creativity, innovation anything can drive a leader towards effectiveness. If u can innovate something like face book or Microsoft or Google you will be listed as an effective leader irrespective of your charisma levels.

Larry page and Sergey Brin, out from Stanford University they had significantly low charisma but they lead hundreds of employees efficiently and made Google a multibillion dollar business. This example justifies that charisma is not obligatory to be effective leader. Charisma is just an additional boost up for a normal leader to become extra ordinary. Even without charisma a leader can build him into an effective leader by having other leadership qualities at an extraordinary level as do in the case of Jerry, former CEO of Yahoo. Mr. Yang Jerry has great vision but no charisma still he made his way to success.

Room for charisma depend on the field- in religion and politics charisma has a role to play not in business. If u can prove your ideas to be convincing you can be an effective leader.

Transformational and charismatic leadership-

Yes both charismatic leadership and transformational leadership have similarities, in that the transformational leader may well be charismatic. Charismatic leadership is a part of transformational leadership because for a leader to inspire his subordinates to work beyond their self interest he or she should have charisma. The ultimate aim of both leadership is to inspire employees more than what they can do. Mostly both leadership concepts are same but charismatic leader which is personal vision inspires the employees where as transformational leaders make employees to be aware of their goals and inspire them. Transformational leaders has a basic focus of transforming the organization and, quite possibly their followers, the charismatic leader may not want to change anything. Transformational leaders are mostly charismatic like Abraham Lincoln. If they are well intentioned towards others they can make higher and transform an entire company. The charismatic leader gathers followers through dint of character and magnetism, rather than any form of external power or influence.

Transformational leaders encourage their subordinates to work for the good of the organisation rather than completely for their own personal benefits. Charismatic leadership is also about creating an only one of its kind identity of the group which is very separate from the other group. The leaders make a separate picture of the group in the mind of the supporters, so that the supporters can simply recognize themselves with the group which in turns gives the supporters a sense of belongingness. The charismatic leader has fantastic self belief; they always walk the talk, have patience and show great willpower. Transformational leaders enlarge subordinates consciousness of the importance of their everyday jobs and the importance of performing them well. Transformational leaders create subordinates aware of their requirements for individual expansion, development and achievement. They have mental picture of how good things could be in an administration that contrast with how things currently are. Charismatic leaders without any doubt communicate this vision to their supporters and, throughout their own passion and stimulation, induce their supporters to passionately support his vision. Charismatic leaders tend to contain high grade of self self-confidence and self-worth which more promote supporters to respect and admire them. Charismatic leaders opening attempt is that to understand the background in which they are doing their jobs. They give a lot of consequence to people’s moods and sentiments and try to join together with them personally.

All the transformational leaders are charismatic but not all charismatic leaders are transformational for instance Sam Walton and Abraham Lincoln are transformational leaders and also charismatic. Jim Jones who is famous for his charisma but he is never transformational so do
Joseph Bizo Tito.

Why flexibility?

In our rapidly changing world, the technology advances faster than we can keep track of it, as virtually all businesses become globalized, and especially as climate change threatens our people. In the especially close to future, organizations will be looking for managers who have the sustainable management skills. It’s mandatory for an effective leader to be flexible. The way the change in trends suggests us to have a
manager flexible to his nature of work and features corresponding to that work.

Flexible and effective leadership-

The general qualities of the excellent leader are their aptitude flex, modify and adapt their style according to the situation, context and circumstances they are experiencing. The effective leaders have their own decisions and they will be able to act differently, think differently and seek inspiration from different sources. These all are the good qualities of a flexible leadership and a flexible leader must make their own decision without others help .The effective leader will have a grade of way and they can use to accommodate the several discipline that they find on daily basis and they are adjustable to any situation. Leader’s motive to be groomed to respond to huge layout of positions, jobs .Every time the leader often curiosities which leadership style is the best and they want to show their good qualities and they want to become the role model to others. Delegate distinctly and in effect to team members. Leaders at all levels require to develop ability to find out exactly what challenge to focus on at any given time and the best way to reply it. Even for the same leadership manners and formal programs will change as condition change. Common sense alone should assure us that brings in one position might be less effective in a different position, or when conditions change for the reason, leaders at all stage motive to originate the power to find out just what challenge to concern at any given time, and the best way to react it still for the same leadership challenge, the approximate mix of leadership activity and formal plans will alter as conditioned reaction change.

The situational leadership is often taken as the flexible one, where in a manager need to work in different kind of situation which he can’t predict the outcome. The need for those people had been increased tremendously in the recent past, as the globalised economy needs people having those skills set to fit in all kind of roles. An effective leader is a one who understands the group, the goal to achieve and the way to attain that. In general an effective manager is a task oriented one, but in times as how he or she manage the teams made them flexible to work in type of work environment.

According to contingency theory, no management principle holds good for all the situations effective leader will have a lot of leadership styles and uses it according to situation.