The Charismatic Leadership Style Essay Example for Free

The Charismatic Leadership Style Essay The Charismatic Leadership Style I have chosen to write my journal article on a leadership style known as a Ccharismatic Leader. Its difficult to identify the characteristics that make a leader charismatic, but they certainly include the ability to communicate on a very powerful emotional level, and probably include some personality traits. I do not believe that charismatic leadership is essential to be an effective leader but it can enhance the leadership journey. The Charismatic Leader gathers followers through based upon their personality and charm, rather than any form of external power or authority. Possessing these characteristics can be an extremely powerful way to gain and lead others. They can also make their followers (ordinary people) do some pretty extraordinary things. Charismatic leaders have the ability to sense the gap that exists between what an organization and culture of people and empower them to come together as one. By bridging this gap the leader can create a vision of a future state that everyone believes will be better than the current one. The charismatic leader often communicates their vision using metaphors and stories in ways that everyone can understand the vision. Their followers see the leader as one that possesses the ability to visualize the future with clarity. Their followers are also able to see how they fit into this future state and believe it will be better than today. Charismatic leaders do these things constantly in large and small ways. Charismatic Leaders are visionaries. They focus on transforming situations, not just maintaining. They will show great confidence in their followers. They are very persuasive and make very effective use of body language as well as verbal language. Many politicians use a charismatic style, as they need to gather a large number of followers. The person who I think is a great charismatic leader is Barack Obama. I have listened to a lot of his speeches and he has the power to motivate and empower people with his words, his testimony and his story of overcoming many trials and obstacles. Barack Obama is often compared to John F. Kennedy, who is arguably the most charismatic President of the United States. â€Å"Todays environment emphasizes organizational learning and follower empowerment conditions that promote mutual respect and dialogue. However, even in this environment leaders can, sometimes unwittingly, enact subtle abuses. Generally included in the typical definition of power are the notions of dependency and control: a leaders ability to determine followers behavior stems at least in part from the followers dependency on the leader. This, in turn, is based on leaders control over the various aspects of organizational life affecting followers or perceived as needed by followers, such as material resources and organizational advancement.