This chapter distinguished charismatic leadership from transformational leadership. Yet charisma is identified by most employees and managers as a characteristic of effective leaders. Why is charisma commonly related to leadership? In your opinion, are the best leaders charismatic? Why or why not?

This is an open-ended question that will encourage students to question their notions of leadership. Some leadership models say charismatic leadership is essential for transformational leadership and even suggesting that charismatic leadership is the highest degree of transformational leadership. However, the emerging view is that charisma is distinct from transformational leadership.

Charisma is a personal trait that provides referent power (capacity to influence others through identification with and respect for the power holder-occurs when others identify with them, like them, or otherwise respect them) over followers but doesn’t necessarily change the organization (may even result in greater focus on self-interest).

Transformational leadership is a set of behaviors that engage followers to bring about change. Based on these definitions, it is clear that charismatic leaders may not be transformational, and transformational leaders are not necessarily charismatic. Is a leader who is viewed as charismatic to some also viewed as charismatic to others as well?

One does not have to be charismatic to be a successful leader. Nonetheless, being viewed as charismatic is an advantage in securing the support of followers. There have been suggestions made that charismatic leaders produce dependent followers, whereas transformational leaders produce followers who are more empowered and therefore less dependent on the leader.

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