On Charisma.
You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet. — Theodore Hesburgh
It’s hard to dissuade a typical MBA student from believing that charisma is a key component of leadership. Intellectually, she may accept that it’s vastly overrated. Emotionally, however, the notion of being able to influence without logic is irresistibly attractive.
The word ‘charisma’ has a complicated but revealing etymology. It originated as a spiritual endowment — your distinctive divine gift or dharma. The thing that you can be best in the world at. To be charismatic meant developing and sharing this gift freely with others. To contribute with your unique talents and endowments. It had a sacred, almost mystical connotation. And a positive intent behind.
Over time, the term somehow diffused greatly from its original meaning into a mysterious, elusive quality of compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others, which is more or less how we understand it today.
Given how much harm some ‘charismatic leaders’ have done to humanity, the word’s etymology has little to do with its modern usage. Grace, kindness, and sharing have all evaporated.
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The term was first secularized by sociologist Max Weber, who used it to describe a certain ‘extraordinary quality’ of a leader, and was later hijacked without much regard to the original meaning, by various ‘leadership gurus.’ It became a shorthand for someone who’s personally attractive or magnetic, more about style than substance.
But it’s no use crying over spilled milk. There are, at least, two practical lessons behind charisma defined as seduction.
First, whether we approve of it or not, it elevates leaders who speak well, look the part, or exude confidence. Even when they lack everything else. Those who blow a certain trumpet. So even if you happen to be blessed with a quiet, introverted, methodical leadership style, it pays to improve your public speaking and lose that belly fat. You cannot train height, but you can control width.
Second, reflect on a powerful view from Camille Paglia — a feminist professor that women love to hate — who said:
‘Charisma is the radiance produced by the interaction of male and female elements in a gifted personality. The charismatic woman has a masculine force and severity. The charismatic man has an entrancing female beauty.’
While the case for adopting some traditional masculine traits by female leaders is not difficult to make, the crux of Paglia’s statement lies in its metaphoric latter part.
