Why is charismatic leadership bad

But beyond that, how can you channel this superpower for the benefit of the organisation? Hensley offers 3 tips to help overly-charismatic leaders avoid the pitfalls of their personality:. Browse leadership courses for executives. Leaders learned the importance of having a preparedness strategy and the ability to organise and manage work in a way that expedites the decision-making process. They also learned But many former and current chief executive officers can attest that achieving this goal But beyond IT departments where, for example, the majority of software developers employ Agile techniques , adoption is not as widespread.

Skip to main content. Home Career Advice Industry trends Can too much charisma make a leader ineffective? Can too much charisma make a leader ineffective? By Terri Williams. Disadvantages of being too charismatic as a leader Robert B. For example: Self-confidence could lead to overconfidence and narcissism Persuasiveness and risk tolerance could lead to manipulative behaviour Being enthusiastic and entertaining could lead to attention-seeking behaviour And these behaviours are problematic in how they can negatively affect an organisation.

Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Essay What are the disadvantages of charismatic leadership? Ben Davis May 8, What are the disadvantages of charismatic leadership? Why is charismatic leadership good and bad? What are the advantages and disadvantages of leadership styles?

Why is charismatic leadership important? Are charismatic leaders born or made? Who is the most charismatic person? Do leaders need to be charismatic? Are the best leaders Charismatic?

What happens when leaders have too much charisma? Can you be a good leader without charisma? Is Elon Musk a charismatic leader? Why Elon Musk is a good leader? Why Jeff Bezos is a transformational leader? Is Warren Buffett a transformational leader? Who is an example of a laissez faire leader?

What is the leadership style of Warren Buffett? Who are some examples of autocratic leaders? And subjects with speedy answers to general-knowledge questions were considered quick-witted, funny, and charismatic by friends. In fact, mental speed was a stronger contributor to charisma than IQ or personality. While height and mental quickness elude many of us, charisma can be taught.

Conventional wisdom suggests that the most charismatic leaders are also the best leaders. Charismatic leaders have, for instance, the ability to inspire others toward higher levels of performance and to instill deep levels of commitment, trust, and satisfaction.

As a result, they are generally perceived by their subordinates to be more effective, compared with less charismatic leaders. The theory of transformational leadership, widely viewed as the most credible kind of leadership, has been blended with the positive aspects of charismatic leadership. According to Max Weber, followers of charismatic leaders perceive their leaders to be gifted and to possess unique abilities that allow them to perform feats that are beyond the capacity of average individuals.

Moreover, the key to success for charismatic leaders lies solely in the extent to which they are perceived to be gifted by their followers.

If followers fail to recognize their leaders as having charisma, then the charismatic influence mechanism breaks down, and leaders can no longer exert their influence over followers.

Weber says the holder of charisma seizes the task that is adequate for him and demands obedience and a following by virtue of his mission. His success determines whether he finds them.

His charismatic claim breaks down if his mission is not recognized by those to whom he feels he has been sent. Rather, the reverse holds: it is the duty of those to whom he addresses his mission to recognize him as their charismatically qualified leader. According to Robert House , the key to successful relationships between charismatic leaders and their followers is the ability of leaders to inspire and emotionally arouse their followers.

Successful charismatics are able to energize their followers by championing an appealing and potentially radical vision for the future. The perception of leader charisma leads to a belief that charismatic leaders are blessed with extraordinary strengths that are likely to lead to a realization of the radical vision articulated by leaders.

Followers of charismatic leaders often identify personally with their leaders. Psychologically, they may subscribe to the same value systems, morals, and ideals that their leader is known to embody; and behaviorally, followers may end up enacting the same leadership behaviors that they observe their leader performing.

Like social identification, personal identification also moves followers to go above and beyond their call of duty. Shamir and colleagues described internalization as one more mechanism that is responsible for the influence that charismatic leaders exert on their followers. When charismatic leaders use ideological explanations to communicate their vision to followers, they portray their vision as noble, heroic, and having high moral standards.

Building on the theoretical groundwork established by Weber, House, Shamir, and others, Conger and Kanungo proposed an alternative theory. According to this conception, the phenomenon of leader charisma was described as a function of the processes that followers utilize to ascribe charismatic qualities to their leaders. According to Conger and Kanungo, the source of leader charisma lies in the attributions that followers make about their leaders.

The right mix of the three ingredients leads to followers attributing charismatic qualities to the leader, which marks the beginning of the influence process of charismatic leaders.

Conger and Kanungo outlined several traits and behaviors of leaders that cause followers to make charismatic attributions. Foremost among them is the portrayal of confidence by the leader. Leaders are seen as more charismatic when they exhibit a sense of self-efficacy in their beliefs and actions.

Followers also tend to attribute charisma to leaders who espouse radical and ideological visions that are distinct from the status quo. The fortitude and courage that is displayed in communicating a vision that serves to challenge the status quo leads to perceptions of leader boldness and decisiveness, both seductive attributes in their own right. One caveat, however, is that if the espoused vision is perceived to be too radical or too much of a deviation from what seems possible, the leader runs the risk of being perceived as incompetent or outlandish.

Kets de Vries and Lindholm looked at charisma from a psychoanalytic perspective. According to this perspective, followers can derive a sense of empowerment and positive energy by merging their identity with that of the charismatic leader whom they admire and cherish.

Through the process of transference i. They derive a sense of vicarious fulfillment of their needs and desires by associating with their leader, and the leader often becomes a source of continual motivation and inspiration.

Emphasis was placed on the emotional contagion processes between charismatic leaders and followers, a topic of research that has continued up to the present time. Several organizational researchers and leadership scholars suggested the existence of a negative aspect to the influence of charisma and charismatic leadership. House and Howell offered a distinction between two different kinds of charismatic leaders, viz.

Personalized charismatic leaders were described as self-aggrandizing, non-egalitarian, and exploitative leaders whose primary goal is to act in the interest of their own selves.

Socialized charismatic leaders, on the other hand, were described as collectively oriented, egalitarian, and non-exploitative and whose primary goal is to act in the interest of others. Furthermore, personality traits such as need for power, authoritarianism, Machiavellianism, locus of control, etc.

Researcher Gary Yuki listed some of the negative consequences of charismatic leaders:. Apple decided to offer free cases which would cover the sensitive area to lessen the dropped calls.

Dan Ciampa, writing in the Harvard Business Review , describes 5 phases that a charismatic leader can go through from a positive impact to a negative one:. They will discourage and censor divergent opinions and will expect that communication should be one-way, or autocratic top-down communication. Their need for admiration and self-absorption can be so intense that it can lead them to believe that they are infallible.

Professor Krume Nikoloski has examined the issue of the dark side of charismatic leadership in an article in the Journal of Process Management-New Technologies. Stephen Fogarty in his research on the dark side of charismatic leaders argues they can also exhibit dysfunction aspects of narcissism, which is a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, self-focus, and self-importance.

Narcissistic leaders are principally motivated by their own egocentric needs which, by definition, supersede the needs and interests of the organization and the members that they lead. Egocentric needs sometimes taken to the point of egomania include a grandiose sense of self-importance, preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success and power, excessive need for admiration and entitlement, lack of empathy, and envy.

These tendencies include a craving for power and consistent attempts to secure more of it regardless of potential peril to themselves and the organization they lead. Narcissistic, personalized charismatic leaders can demonstrate a myopic focus on their personal priorities, including willingness to exploit others and engage in behaviors of denial and entitlement. They can be self-absorbed, attention seeking, and ignorant of the views and welfare of others. They often claim special knowledge or privilege and demand unquestioning obedience.

Their sense of personal entitlement can lead to self-serving abuses of power and autocratic leadership styles. Their grandiose dreams of power and success can cause them to ignore the external environment and to avoid testing their judgment against external benchmarks.

Consequently, their grand visions often defy successful implementation. The personalized need for power, negative life themes, and narcissistic tendencies of personalized charismatic leaders can contribute to a view of the world where personal safety is achieved through the domination and depersonalization of others. In the absence of self- regulatory mechanisms such as guilt, moral standards, and impulse control, destructive behaviors can result.

They can have difficulty maintaining cooperative relationships with followers, peers, and superiors. Therefore, followers can be induced to be open to manipulation and deception as the leader pursues his or her self-interest.