One Common Trait Famous Leaders Possess
April 2, 2007 by admin
I was thinking last night about what I wanted to talk about today at Leadership Turn, and it occurred to me that there is one common trait all famous leaders possess.
The leaders I thought of when I thought of this special trait were John F. Kennedy, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr, and surprisingly enough, but not so surprising when you think about it, famous notorious leaders such as Adolph Hitler, David Koresh and Jim Jones.
Why did these evil leaders come to mind? Because the trait I realized they had in common with great leaders of the past is charisma.
In my opinion, charisma is something you either have or you don’t. It can’t be taught, bought or borrowed. It is an elusive trait, and it is hard to put your finger on just what makes a person charistmatic or what charisma really is. Haven’t we all known someone personally, that when they walked in a room, every head turned, the atmosphere became charged with energy, even the lighting in the room felt as if it had changed?
And what about famous motivational speakers like Dale Carnegie, Tony Robbins and Wayne Dyer? When these men take the floor, people listen. A person with charisma, as history proves by the number of souls who swallowed the doctrine of Jim Jones, even dying at his command, instills instant trust and confidence in those they comes in contact with. Why is that?
Why did we love JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. so much, aside from the fact that they had great visions? I believe there is more to it than that. And what about Bill Clinton? Many people, including me, found president Clinton highly charismatic, and continued to do so even after his White House sex scandal. Why?
I want this post to become a conversation. Do you agree that charisma is something a person is born with? Or can charisma be learned? What makes a person charismatic? And what exactly IS charisma?
I love forward to your comments.
I’ll go out on a limb here and disagree — not on whether those leaders you mentioned were charismatic, but whether charisma is a defining characteristic of a good leader.
I think charisma is a nice to have, not a must have. The must have is being able to define a vision, and get people to come with you to achieve this vision. Charisma is but one tool that leaders have in rousing up the “followers.” But the underlying ability is to get people excited about the end state. This could be from charisma, this could be from being able to connect with people in such a way to inspire action.
I think we overly project “charisma” as an important trait on our leaders, because the leaders who often get written up the most are the most charismatic — because there is a story there. Would Kennedy have been as effective if he weren’t charismatic? Probably — because it was the vision that was compelling, more so than how it was delivered.
All good points, Chris, but I made a point of NOT saying that charisma was a characteristic of GOOD leaders, only famous leaders. I have to agree that a good leader need not have charisma, but I must also say that the only great leaders I have been under have had this quality. That is what made the memorable and what I believe made them great. Anyone can have a vision, but if you don’t possess a certain, let’s say, viva que’, you won’t have many followers. I had a boss once who is a perfect example of a hard worker that was not a good leader. He had no charisma, nothing made him memorable to either his employees or his customers.
Thank you for chiming in, and again, valid points you’ve made here. I hope there will be others to join in our conversation today.
If charisma is a “you have or don’t” it sounds to be a trait. So the progression line of leadership has curved 360 degrees. Leadership studies orignated with traits, Stogdill etc.
I would lean in the direction that charisma may be important, but that it can be practiced and learned.
Culturally speaking, I don’t know if charisma carries a lot of wait. I find it doubtful Ghandi had charisma. Was he a famous leader? Of course, but my experience of him (through books and heresay) leads me to believe that the man lacked charisma. He had something special, like others like Mother Teresa. I wouldn’t say she had charisma. Both had a firm purpose, an intense focus that others found attractive and good and rightly so.
Anyways, these are my humble thoughts. A fun conversation though, keep up the interesting pieces.
JQ, you have given me much food for thought. Thank you for such an interesting viewpoint, you make me reconsider my original thinking, and I’m a stubborn Taurus, so that’s quite the feat! Lol
And thanks for saying that my posts are interesting. That gives me the motivation to keep them so. :)
Great topic!
I think (and again only my humble opinion) that charisma is something that makes a leaders job easier – especially when first trying to implement change or are meeting a new group of people. I do not think that it is something that is totally required to be successful, and if someone was to rely on charisma alone, without any other qualities, the leader will soon fail. It still comes down to dreams and action – and without action there is nothing!
Can it be learned – to some degree yes, but I question the time to learn something that you may not be good at. Everyone should make a conscious effort to learn what their strengths are and build on them. Working from a strength based approach, and focusing on what you are already good at and making that “trait” better will serve everyone better in the long run.
I think the one trait that all leaders possess is the belief that they can make a difference in the world and take action to make it happen. Even if it is a warped view of the way the world should be – like Hitler’s.
I think that charisma is the overall influence of a person to another person. So if a leaders has it, it would be easier for him to lead the people. With this, I think that it’s a must for leaders to have them.
There are two ways of looking at leadership traits. The first is to look at the traits that make someone a good leader. The other is to look at what will make people want to follow someone. If you have all the traits of being a good leader, but no one follows you, there is no one to lead.
Sometimes people will have traits of being a good leader, but not have the traits that attract followers, but by position or chance they get put into a leadership position and do very well.
However for most of us, getting people to follow us is one of the biggest parts of being a leader.
The research that eventually produced the book “The Leadership Challenge” identified 20 traits the people look for in someone they would follow. The top five are:
Honest
Forward-Looking
Competent
Inspiring
Intelligent
Charisma isn’t on the list. However charisma is something that will help people notice these characteristics. So I would say that having charisma gives you the ability to showcase your traits more than being a trait itself. At least that is how I tend to think of it.
If anyone is interested in a more detailed look at the five traits listed above, you might like this article.
I think that it’s not necessary to have charisma inorder to be a good leader. Those leaders which were mentioned such as Adolph Hitler, David Koresh and Jim Jones are indeed charismatic but also not good leaders. I think that charisma is about what people think about you.
Writing off M. Shead’s comments:
Early studies of trait also found common qualities to Kouzes and Posner.
Stogdill (1948): Intelligence, Alertness, Insight, Responsibility, Initiative, Persistence, Self-Confidence, Sociability
Mann (1959): Intel., Masculinity, Adjustment, Dominance, Extroversion, Conservatism
Stogdill (1974): added: Cooperativenss, Tolerance, Influence
Lord, etc. (1986): Intel., Masculinity, Dominance
Kirkpatrick (1991): Drive, Motivation, Integrity, Confidence, Cognitive ability, Task knowledge
These come from Northouse.
read dale carniges “how to win friends and influence people” its a little dated and i think if you follow it to much people will walk all over you but taking little bits from it will really help
Rush Limbaugh. The epitome of Charisma. Has 20 million hooked onto him like addicts to heroine.
Many effective leaders are not known for their charisma whether it is in business or politics. By accounts of people who knew him L. B. J., while not charismatic was one of the most powerful senators, but no one would have considered him charismatic. Ross Perot lacked charisma but he has created not one but two different powerhouse businesses. Obviously he is effective as a leader.
Charisma does not seem to be a trait; it comes and goes. In certain circumstances where a person has a vision people want to believe in than the person attracts admirers. However, the appeal is not universal nor is it generally long lasting. J.F.K. is remembered as being charismatic but looking at his history his popularity waxed and waned. Churchhill had many who admired him during WWII, but later and before was not highly regarded. Jesus at one time had a tremendous following, but it pared down significantly even to the point he was pretty much abandoned when it came to the end of his life.
A better definition of an effective leader is the ability to inspire others to strive towards a vision, goal or objective. To inspire leaders need to sell a person or group on the reasonableness and rewards of aiding in the achievement of a purpose. Along with the aforementioned effective leaders need the power to reward or penalize those who cooperate. Lastly, people are more inclined to follow leaders who are highly organized, transparent concerning their values, confident, excellent communicators, holders of high expectations, fairly but not excessively social, and give people the tools they need to succeed.
Hi Alex, I didn’t write this post, but I agree with you that charisma has little to do with anything. Charisma may have a larger role in chemistry. Charisma does tend to dull the senses. Most con artists are highly charismatic.
Thanks for stopping by and adding to the conversation and hope to see you again.
Well, not everyone you mentioned in your article had “charisma.” Namely, David Koresh. His former followers even said that he wasn’t particularly “charismatic.”
Koresh even joked in the videos, which were never aired, that women weren’t drawn to him because he was an “irresistible, good looking guy, but it was all about the seals.”
Koresh was a loner. The loner mentality is not really conducive to so-called “charisma.”