SKEDSOFT

Introduction:

People are drawn to them by their power of conviction and visions of reality. Charisma however is not just good speaking and public popularity, with a strong personality. Charismatic leaders may have problems matching vision with an accurate picture of reality since they may have problems achieving control, rely too much on positive feedback and may be too reluctant to break bad news and deliver unpleasant messages.

Traits of the charismatic leaders:

An in-depth study of charismatic leader has revealed that they tend to have the following common traits:

• Visions;
• Captivating and inspiring oratory skills;
• Ability to excite;
• Countercultural and/or unconventional behaviour and practices;
• High energy and dynamism;
• Brilliance in terms of strategic insights and knowledge;
• Active campaigning for organisational goals

Factors of charismatic leadership:
Charisma however is not just good speaking and public popularity, with a strong personality. Charismatic leadership is a style of leadership in its own right. Research has indicated that charismatic leadership includes the following factors:

• Envisioning: - Articulating a compelling vision

- Setting high expectations

- Modeling consistent behaviour;

•  Energizing: - Demonstrating personal excitement

- Expressing personal confidence

- Seeking, finding and using success;

•  Enabling: - Expressing personal support

- Empathizing

- Expressing confidence in people.

This style of leadership is certainly suitable at the early stages of spreading the benefits of TQM and trying to get people on board. It is often said that people have been inspired by gurus and quality experts who talk about the great benefits of quality with passion, enthusiasm, belief and excitement.

Limitations:

This style although positive has got some limitations as all the action centres around one individual. Some of the reported limitations include ‘unrealistic expectations’, ‘dependency and counter dependency’, ‘reluctance to disagree with the leader’, ‘need for continuing magic’, ‘limitation of range of the individual leader’ amongst others.’

Instrumental leadership:

Charismatic leadership has to be backed up by another style, called ‘instrumental leadership’ which includes three main elements:

•  Structuring (building teams and creating structures for expected behaviour in
•  Controlling (creating systems and processes to measure, monitor and assess
•  Rewarding (rewarding or punishing according to the degree of consistency to the organisation); behaviour and results so that corrective action can take place); requirements).

The need for transformational leadership:

• Transformational leadership means that besides the important task of making others achieve organisational goals, leaders have to share their vision, thoughts, knowledge, skills and power with all the people around them.
• They have to instigate a process of inspiration for others to aspire to becoming leaders.
• In a way they have to ‘coach’ leadership experiments in their organisations and create what one may refer to as the leadership process.