Deiric McCann

Do you want to be a charismatic leader? Do you want to become one of those leaders who get extraordinary results from their people?

Many years before Jesus Christ walked the earth the ancient Greeks observed that some of their leaders more effectively engaged their people than others – and in doing so those leaders got them motivated to achieve much greater results in the service of their goals and vision.

Charisma – A ‘God Given Gift’?

Because they couldn’t figure out precisely what specific qualitie these leaders had that made them so capable of moving people to achieve such results they decided that this mysterious attribute must either be inborn or have come from an otherworldly source.  So they minted a new word for what these leaders had: they called it ‘Kharisma’, or ‘charisma’ as we spell it, - which literally means ‘God given gift’.

That word ‘charisma’ has found its way from the ancient Greeks into almost every modern language – and its meaning still holds the same mystique.   We still talk of those who have above average influence over others as being charismatic.

Today there are business leaders who have this same ability to get their people so engaged, to get their people so enthusiastic and dedicated to their cause, that they achieve results that stand out head and shoulders above all leaders around them.  We routinely called them charismatic leaders too.  Think of Steve Jobs of Apple, Pierre Omidyar of eBay or Richard Branson of Virgin.

The word charisma lets leaders like us off the hook – after all, if these leaders get their results because of a ‘God given gift’ then there’s nothing we can do to emulate them, right?  If God didn’t give us the gift of charisma then who are we to question that?!

But what if you could develop the same ‘leadership charisma’ that these impressive, engaging, inspiring and productive leaders share?  What if you too could engage your people more than the average leader – to achieve results above what the average leader achieves?

This series of posts will tell you how you can do just that – it will tell you how research with 40,000 leaders worldwide and 400,000 of those leaders employees explained what it is that charismatic leaders share in common – and how any leader can harness that knowledge to become a more engaging and productive leader.

In the next post, ‘Charisma is all about behavior’, I’ll talk about what our research told us about the nature of charismatic leadership – and how that research shows that anyone who cares to invest the necessary effort can become a more charismatic and inspiring leader who engages their people to produce superior results.

 

Do you / have you worked with a charismatic leader?

What impact has (s)he had on you?