Studying About Charisma In Leadership

Charisma is important for a leader. Some evidence supports increasing the value of charisma in leadership. Many leaders who we know have a very strong charisma, like Martin Luther King, Margaret Thatcher, Mother Theresa, Barack Obama and others.

What differentiates charismatic leaders if compare with leader who does not have charisma? According to Stephen P. Robbins in his book The Truth About Managing People, the general characteristics of charismatic leaders include self-confidence, strong vision, ability to articulate the vision, and willingness to make radical changes. The things that need to be trained to help you become a charismatic leader are as below:

Projected a strong presence, confident and dynamic.
Leader need to have a charming voice and captivating. In addition, when speaking or making presentations, keep direct eye contact and keep your posture so that your body saying that you believe in yourself. Speak clearly, do not be nervous, and avoid words that do not need, for example: “ehmmm” and “what …. what ..”

Create a strong vision for the future
Determine ways that are not conventional to achieve that vision. Communicate that vision to others, how to achieve goals. Keep in mind that successful is not only a vision, but the ability to encourage others to participate in it.

Communicate high performance expectations
Need a belief in the ability of others to meet these expectations. Acknowledge the ambitious targets for individuals and groups and show your belief that these goals can be achieved.

One can be charismatic by following the three-step process:
First, you need to develop the charisma to maintain an optimistic view, use the spirit and passion as a catalyst to generate enthusiasm and communicate it through your whole body, not just through words.
Second, you need to attract others by creating a bond that inspire others to follow.
Third, you need to unleash the full potential held by the followers of the open road into their emotions.

This approach seems to work as evidenced by the success achieved by the researchers by providing the script for student to play a charismatic role. The students are taught to articulate a distant target, communicating high performance expectations, showing confidence in the ability of subordinates to meet these expectations and empathetic to the needs of their subordinates. They also demonstrate strong existence, self confident and dynamic, using charming tone and engaging intonation, maintaining direct eye contact and maintain a relaxed posture and expressive face.

The researchers found that these students can learn how to project charisma. Furthermore, the subordinates of these leaders have the duty performance, job adjustment and height adjustment to the leader if compare than subordinates who worked under the groups led by leaders who do not have the charisma.

The explanation shows that although some people clearly have an intuitive style that creates charisma, you can train yourself to show charismatic behavior. If you do consistently, then people will perceive you as a charismatic leader.