Types of Charismatic Leaders - Term Paper Example

Running Head: LEADERSHIP AND COMMUNICATION Leadership and Communication Name Institution Date PAPER ONE Introduction A leader is an individual with the responsibilities of inspiring, guiding or ruling others. The leaders always apply leadership styles, for instance participative, servant, transformational and transactional leadership styles in performing these roles. Since there are diverse leadership styles as there are leaders, describing the leadership styles in useful simple ways has been a major concern in the world because they have different beliefs, preferences, cultures as well as values crucial to performance of organizational functions, businesses as well as in politics. The psychologists and the business people have also been very influential in developing simple descriptions of various leadership styles, as in the case of charismatic leadership. Charismatic leadership This is where the leader uses attractive and persuasive personality to gather followers. There are some assumptions in this leadership style where the followers are created through charm as well as grace .There is an assumption that the leaders also have self-belief and that individuals follow an admired personality. The charismatic leaders are always very attentive to individuals as well as making the individuals feel more important and appreciated. Apart from this the charismatic leaders often take great interests in their environment while keenly considering issues like feelings and concerns of individuals and multitudes of people, hence taking the advantage of these situations to pursue their ambitions, which includes winning people’s confidence and trust. Techniques The charismatic leaders employ a variety of methods in enhancing their public image as well as practicing a lot to enhance their leadership qualities. These leaders may also be involved in visible self-sacrifice and personal risks to support their beliefs as well as engendering trust. Apart from strong confidence in followers, these leaders have also the characteristic of being very persuasive using body languages as well as verbal languages like figures of speech, metaphors, meaning modification, parts of speech, persuasive languages, special languages, using syntax, and using punctuation. Examples of body languages used include the attentive body language which is through listening (ignoring distractions, stillness, leaning forward, tilted head, gaze and furrowed brow) and wanting more ( open body, slow nodding, interest noises, patience and reflections). The emotional body language exhibited by the leaders during a bad situation to show their sympathy and regrets include sadness (flat speech tone and some tears) while they exhibit happiness in times when the followers are happy and expect them to be happy too (smiling and open body language). The charismatic leaders may also feign a condition of surprise for instance through sudden backward movement and open mouth, to portray their surprise to the words shared by the followers (Gardner, 1996). The charismatic leaders often use a lot of storytelling and figures of speech so as to achieve their desired goals. Politicians do frequently use this leadership style in gathering supporters, hence the speech and the interaction behaviour of the charismatic leaders could be of great help in improving an individual’s charisma, where this is learnt from the leaders through studying the video on their speeches as well as how they associate with people. Both religious and cult leaders also use charisma. Team leadership In building groups, the charismatic leaders tend to distinguish the group from other groups while making the image of the group be seen by the followers as one with great superiority compared to others. The leaders often form a great identity with the group making people who join the group to identify themselves with the leaders first, hence making these leaders attain an unchallenged position in the group. Similar views The charismatic leaders have behavioural attributes that approach the transformational views where the transformational leaders believe in changing both individuals and the organization. In the transformational leadership the individuals are assumed to follow their inspirer, individuals with great vision and passion are assumed to have big achievements while creating enthusiasm and energy is assumed to be the best method for accomplishing things. Some of the views similar to the charismatic leadership style include vision and articulation, environmental sensitivity, sensitivity to needs of the members, personally taking risks and unconventional behaviour performance. The charismatic leaders are always committed to their ideological goals as well as devoted to themselves, of which the leader’s underlying needs and motivation determines their dominance. Their motivation may be from intrinsic motivations, motivating gaps, interests, beliefs, emotions, and values. Both charismatic and transformational leaders have various similarities, which may also enable the transformational leader to be charismatic. Their only difference is therefore in the way they focus on issues, since the transformational leader may focus on transformations of the organizations, followers and may be the environment, while charismatic leaders aren’t focused in bringing changes. The charismatic leaders tend to be more concerned about themselves and not the followers, in as much as they have charm and concerns. While talking they make their followers feel more comfortable through more convincing. The charismatic leaders have very significant values, including both end state values like prosperity, winning, and happiness as well as instrumental values (ethically essential). Their good intention towards others may result in elevation as well as transformation of the company while their selfish or Machiavellian characteristics may result in cult creation as well as taking advantage of the followers. These leaders deeply believe in themselves to an extent of trusting they are infallible, hence might cause problems to the followers who might have completely trusted these leaders and underrated any warnings prior to the problem, for instance leaders like Stalin, Hitler, as well as business leaders like Enron. Their self-belief may also result in Psychotic narcissism where their quest for admiration and submission or self-absorption may have consequences of the followers doubting their role. These leaders are often very intolerant to the challengers hence making them irreplaceable, leaving no successors incase of their exit. Qn. 2 Charismatic leadership, as can be seen from the summary, involves an individual using persuasive ways to reach the followers while gathering as much followers as they wish through providing them with a sense of security as well as using soothing language to win the hearts of the followers and charming them. It is also evident in the work that they adopt personality traits that will enable them be acceptable before their followers as they tend to make their followers believe that the group led by the charismatic leader is superior, way above others. It is also astonishing how majority of people would like to go by this idea and become ardent followers to this leadership, which might as well transform into a cult. These leaders try to assume the position of being infallible which as well is very risky for the faithful followers who mostly assume that the leader is perfect and that the decision made by such a leader is always wise and mistake proof, since the leaders always look focused ahead and with visions. This type of leadership also assumes that both charms as well as grace are vital to garnering followers, that the leaders must always have self-belief to be successful and that individuals are likely to follow people with qualities they admire. In as much as this kind of leadership is considered by politicians as the most promising one, its assumptions are based more on persuasive methodology than practical activities which guarantees future rejection by the majority of the followers. This type is only essential in the short run while its success trend might dwindle or even backfire in the long run. It is also true that a good personality trait may make an individual be attractive to others and hence win their support, but obviously there are more requirements for better leadership than just the personality and charm, therefore in as much as these traits might be considered by some individuals as the desired quality of leadership, majority of people might just as well be keen to watch out first for any sign of failure or sign of the leadership they expect before joining the charismatic group. While it could be more reasonable to assume that this type of leadership takes advantage of the submissive nature of people to get through with its goals, it could also be assumed that eventually the performance of the individuals will dwindle and there will be no creativity as well as free opinion among the followers hence a single mistake from the leader might lead to total collapse of the organization. The organization might as well lack productivity and perform poorly since there is no any external opinion that might contribute to general growth of the company. This leadership therefore could be termed as one concerned with minding about people than activities. United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a country comprising seven emirates that are in a federation, and which are located at the south eastern side of the Arabian Peninsula in the southwestern part of Asia, Persian Gulf. The seven emirates are Fujairah Umm al-Quwain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ajmann, Ras al-Khaimah, and Sharjah. The former president of the United Arab Emirates was Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, current president of the country is Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, having been the heir of his father’s (Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum) leadership. United Arab Emirates also demands a lot of man-power to be able to accomplish the developmental tasks as well as help in creating businesses. Since there is need for motivation as well as leadership skills and qualities’ that are essential in uniting people, individuals who might be diverse and from different economic, religious, as well as social backgrounds are therefore favoured. The country therefore requires people with team building capacities as well as those who are willing enough to work hard and achieve the best under minimal supervisions to join its work force. The expected candidates for various leadership opportunities therefore have to be people who are willing to take risks, accept responsibilities and keep teamwork stronger. This signifies that the charismatic leadership style is essential in coordination of activities in the country. Apart from this, the charismatic leaders of various teams are often identified with given dominant roles, while the leader aims at making the followers more comfortable by taking into considerations their interests, so as to gain more followers hence more strength. It should also be considered that charismatic leaders create strong bonds with the groups while putting their interest to the forefront hence the leaders are considered by the followers as very charismatic. The assumptions that charismatic leaders control their followers and make them submissive to their wishes could also be applied in the country since for productivity to be there, the teams have to be managed by the leaders who are willing enough to protect the team as well as monitor their progress. The values of charismatic leadership are also considered vital and used by the majority of organizations within the country to enhance good relationship with the employees as well as achieve submission to the position of the leaders. United Arab Emirates is a business hub with a lot of activities going on including leisure shopping, tourism as well as manufacture of various commodities, hence for all these to run smoothly there are central powers that control these activities to be able to perform the functions optimally and in an efficient way, majority of leaders responsible for coordinating such activities are frequently charismatic leaders. Therefore it could be said that charismatic leadership is both successful as well as productive in the country (Northouse, 2007). PAPER TWO Charismatic Authority Max Weber defines the charismatic authority as the authority based on dedication to an individual’s exemplary characters as well as orders ordained by the person. It is one of the three authority classifications by Weber, the remaining two being regal-legal and traditional authorities. The charismatic leader is considered as having super human or supernatural powers or other exceptional qualities which are considered divine or exemplary. Charismatic authority therefore is the power based on exceptional qualities and performance of the leader thereby making followers develop obedience as well as loyalty (Linden, 2000). This authority depends much on the leader since it has an idiosyncratic nature .it also relies mostly on perceived authority legitimacy. Charismatic religious leaders tend to cultivate an unchallengeable belief among their followers that they are touched by God. The power of the leader fades with follower’s decreasing belief hence making this an unstable leadership. The charismatic leader, according to the Weber style, doesn’t require to be a positive force, hence Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini qualify (Beckert & Zafirovski, 2006). There is also no differentiation between the different charismatic dominations hence there is axiological neutrality in sociology. Charismatic authority, due to different applications, uses terms like charismatic domination as well as charismatic leadership. Charismatic authority evolves mostly through restrictions set by legal or traditional authority while developing into a revolutionary one by challenging the traditional principles (Kunin, 2003). Politically, charismatic rule is present in autocracies, theocracies, authoritarian states, and dictatorships, which appeals to other authorities so as to gain legitimacy. Applications There is more concern over the applicability of charismatic authority in religions since most religious leaders tend to use this authority to manage their followers without questions or doubts, in as much as they might lack accountability. Although not all religious movements have this type of leaders. The ones that have the leaders still always have some hegemonic differences. The second paper puts into details many considerations on the charismatic authority. In comparison to the first paper, the latter tries to bring more of the history and the original meaning as well as the basic characteristics of the charismatic leaders while the first doesn’t put much emphasis on these. The second paper also agrees with the first on the basis of powers of the leader and how they are attained and retained. Apart from this both papers suggest that there could be a deep problem in case of absence of the leaders since the leaders are considered as the chief source of energy, motivation as well as the chief provider of information for the groups. Conclusion Charismatic leadership is no doubt the most dominant leadership style in the political world as well as business world. This leadership has been known to inspire the followers to undertake any activity that is assigned to them by the leader, without any doubt or question. However, this leadership style, in as much as it is common and effective, might be used for or against an organization depending on the motive of the leader, hence becoming one of the most unpredictable lethal weapon against an organization in case it is used inappropriately. References Conger, Jay. (1998). Charismatic Leadership in Organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Ann Marriner-Tomey (2004). Charismatic Leadership. (2nd ed.). Scarborough, On: Nelson, 438-439. Read More