HOW MUCH Charisma is Best for Leaders?

HOW MUCH Charisma is Best for Leaders?

🔥 Charismatic leaders can motivate others to perform better. Therefore, charismatic leadership is sought-after in the workplace. Does this mean the more charisma a leader has, the more effective he or she will be? A study conducted by Vergauwe, Wille, Hofmans, Kaiser and De Fruyt (2018) reveals that there is a curvilinear relationship (Editor: ~consisting of a curved line; inverted U-shaped, first up then down) between a leader's charismatic personalities and level of effectiveness, indicating that moderate levels are better than low or high levels of charisma.

THE CURVILINEAR RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHARISMATIC PERSONALITY AND LEADER EFFECTIVENESS
A charismatic leader is quite often viewed by others as self-confident, captivating, risk-tolerant, persuasive, and creative. Any of these characters can easily turn into annoying behaviours and cause harm to a leader's performance. Furthermore, Vergauwe et al. research shows that highly charismatic leaders are more forceful than enabling, and more strategic than operational, in terms of leadership style. After charisma reaching a certain optimal level (around 60% or so), increased charismatic personalities can reduce leadership effectiveness in 2 ways:
- The enabling costs may overweight the forceful benefits.
- The operational costs may overweight the strategic benefits.

HOW CAN CHARISMATIC LEADERS SUCCEED?
Interestingly, the study also provides an answer: "adjustment". Such adjustment refers to being calm, self-critical and tense. A high level of adjustment can offset the negative effects associated with high charisma levels. For charismatic leaders, they can consider taking 360-degree evaluations, training and coaching, and development programs to enhance self-regulation and stay effective in leadership. For organisations, the best candidate for a leadership position might be the one that has a moderate level of charisma and scores high on adjustment level.

Source: Vergauwe, J., Wille, B., Hofmans, J., Kaiser, R.B., & De Fruyt, F. (2018), "The Double-Edged Sword of Leader Charisma: Understanding the Curvilinear Relationship Between Charismatic Personality and Leader Effectiveness", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2018, Vol. 114, No. 1, 110–130

		Comments Sort by date Sort by rating Rating
		1 Warren D. Miller, CPA, CFA Strategy Consultant, United States
	HOW MUCH Charisma is Best for Leaders? Let me begin with the take on charisma from the late Peter Drucker, the pre-eminent management schol... Sign up

		1 John Henry Project Manager, United States
	Charisma and Leadership Charisma is a great component for a leader. If the leader is likeable, if they are well spoken, they... Sign up

		2 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Charisma for Leaders is no Longer Black or White, But Grey In the times of Drucker, the thinking on charismatic leadership was still a bit black or white; ... Sign up

		1 John Henry Project Manager, United States
	Charisma is a Personal Power Charisma does not rely on positional power, it allows a team member to lead from within, or even fro... Sign up

		0 Mike McKeeman, United States
	Charisma as a Short-term Leadership Attribute @Warren Miller, CPA, CFA: A charismatic leader can have a positive, inspiring short-term effect on a... Sign up

		0 Warren D. Miller, CPA, CFA Strategy Consultant, United States
	Charisma is not Something that Gets Switched on Like a Light @Mike McKeeman: Mr. McKeeman, charisma motivates listeners to focus on style at the expense of subst... Sign up