Charisma
Transcript: Charisma Charisma What do we now about it ? 01 Charisma is a certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These as such are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader. Leadership x-factor ? 02 People around the world seem to agree on which leaders possess that mysterious X-factor leadership quality: charisma. Jesus and Buddha had it, and so did Churchill, De Gaulle, FDR, Gandhi, JFK, Reagan and Clinton. Obama had it when he was running for president, but I am not sure whether he still has it or has somehow lost it. I am fairly sure that none of the Republican Candidates have that X-factor of leadership, charisma. What qualities leader should have ? 03 A Charismatic Leader should have Elocution Individuality Special rate of speech Boldness Confidence Equanimity 1. Seize Your Moment Research suggests that groups have a strong desire for charismatic leadership when they suffer some existential threat. In one study social psychologists Cohen, Solomon et al. asked participants to write down what they thought would happen to them when they were dying.2 In a control condition they jotted down what would happen when they were taking an important exam. They then rated the suitability of one of three candidates for a mock state governor election based on their speeches. Under the exam conditions they preferred a task-oriented leader ("I will implement state wide plans to provide the resources to get the job done"). Only in the dying condition did they prefer the charismatic leader who said things like: "My goal is to do things differently than my predecessors have done and I'm willing to take some chances to show my voters how things can be improved." 2. Leader have to behave different 04 Charisma is about change and novelty. It seems that charismatic leadership becomes important when groups are fed up with the existing political hierarchy of a group and are in desperate need of change. Think of the rising popularity of Jesus after widespread dissatisfaction with the corrupt Temple priests. If you want charisma it helps to be different. This could be literally true. A recent study by Senior, Martin and colleagues at Aston University Business School found that individuals with asymmetric bodies and faces scored higher on a transformational leadership scale (a measure of charisma).3 This parallels stories about charismatic individuals in animal groups. These are outsiders who come new into a group and suddenly attract a lot of attention—"attention-holding power." They use this attention to challenge the alpha of the group and overthrow him with the support of the subordinates who are fed up with being dominated. 3. Develop your Prestige Whatever it takes 05 Charisma is probably the oldest form of leadership that humans know because it is based entirely on the exceptional personal qualities of an individual. In hunter-gatherer societies (which is the model of the way our ancestors lived) people were only able to exercise influence once they had proven to be the best at something, say hunting or gathering, or because they possessed some unique knowledge, say herbal medicine. Thus, in order to get charisma, and attract followers, people were always looking for ways in which they could be most useful to the group, and once they found something, they worked hard on their skills. Thus they developed prestige. In the complex world we live in it is not always easy to find out how to get prestige. But if you got something special that many people find useful, such as the skills and talents to build a computer or come up with a new ideology or religion that provides answers to people's existential questions, you will get your share of charisma. Why do you need charisma? What will it give? 06 With the help of charisma you can use human trust for your own needs, both in good and bad. Charisma is one of the most important factors in the formation of a future political leader. Not having money, power, fame and merit, wielding only charisma you can move people to kill or die
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