Charisma is a word that remains a mystery to many people. The concept of “charisma” came to us from the times of Ancient Greece. Charites - ancient Greek goddesses - had the ability to move gracefully and gracefully and were distinguished by indescribable beauty. Charisma can be described as the ability to attract attention to oneself, to control a large number of people, to the point that it can impose its ideological principles on other people. This is a resource of a person’s personality that helps to improve oneself.
Charismatic people find it easier to move up the career ladder, build relationships, and influence the minds of other members of society. Charisma is a kind of synonym for leadership. Only born leaders can achieve mind-blowing heights.
Let us consider in the article the features inherent in charismatic personalities.
I realized that it is impossible to follow a leader without admiring him. Delight is a stronger feeling than the feeling of power. Charisma is more effective than primitive pressure. Augusto Kuri. Seller of Dreams
Types of power
Considering the concept of “power” as a general sociological category, it is customary to distinguish three types of management. This is legal (legal-rational), traditional, charismatic power. In science they are usually called ideal types. Such a division was once proposed by the famous German sociologist and historian M. Weber. It is necessary to note that charismatic leaders often have two sociological characteristics: they are mostly people from the periphery, and sometimes even citizens of another state, and in almost one hundred percent of cases they come to power not by legal means, but through usurpation or as a result of existing critical circumstances.
Stories and Stories - Master Level
Mastery of the art of telling stories, stories, parables, the ability to convey well-known facts, interesting cases from personal experience and illustrate all this with arguments is another facet of oratory.
With this you can convince and win over a huge number of human minds to your side. Those with charisma successfully use such stories to educate and convince masses of people. Storytelling is a very functional thing. Simplicity and accessibility are exactly the format that is useful for correctly presenting information to the consciousness of the mass of people.
In most cases, the main object of stories of a charismatic personality is the person himself, his experience and personal views and beliefs. Most often, this is based on facts from biography and personal experience and supplemented with examples from your immediate environment.
Charismatic power as an ideal type
Charismatic power was defined by Max Weber as one of the ideal types. In his research, he does not pay enough attention to how a leader becomes and remains a ruler, preferring to study more the relationship between citizens and leaders, that is, the so-called social factors.
Thus, M. Weber determines that traditional power is based on the fact that citizens automatically agree to this system precisely because of its existence. This means that people emotionally and often despite the effectiveness of the system continue to support the existing system. On the contrary, legal-rational government, precisely because of its effectiveness, maintains in citizens faith in the legitimacy of government, which gives people confidence in the justice of such power.
Leader as the basis of charismatic power
Charismatic power is based solely on the leader's abilities, and it often does not matter whether these qualities are real or imaginary. Weber does not define in his works what exactly is meant by this concept. Regarding a charismatic personality, he means that this is a kind of leader who has supernatural and superhuman qualities or at least exceptional abilities and capabilities. Thus, the concept of charismatics includes religious leaders, but the question of whether these leaders had real power remains open. The main characteristic of charismatic power according to Weber is the presence of an acute social crisis; in fact, the scientist does not consider that the leader’s popularity can arise without this.
Subsequent researchers have significantly expanded the scope of such a concept as “charisma”. If initially this concept was associated exclusively with a certain “divine gift,” then in the works that the recognized charismatic leaders themselves left behind, the explanation of this phenomenon is not reduced only to a supernatural manifestation. Points of view on this issue are extremely different. For example, Marxist determinism connects the emergence of such people with the will of society demanding change, rejecting the role of the individual himself. Conversely, such an ideal charismatic leader as French President Charles de Gaulle fully supports the theory of the exclusive role of the individual himself in a given crisis period, as he directly writes about in his book “At the Edge of the Sword.”
Charisma test
A charismatic person can be easily identified through personal communication or watching a video with his participation. At the same time, the boundaries of this concept are blurred, and it is impossible to clearly determine the percentage of charisma in a person.
However, psychology professor at the University of California Howard Friedman came up with an original test that consists of 13 questions. The questionnaire allows you to assess nonverbal expressiveness and emotionality - one of the fundamental qualities of charismatics.
Friedman found that high test scores can indicate how successful a person is socially and professionally.
Try to answer these questions. Give each answer a score from 1 to 9, where:
- 1 – not about me at all;
- 9 is absolutely about me.
Then add up the resulting values.
So, let's begin:
- My laughter is loud and contagious.
- When I hear good dance music, my body can't stay still.
- I often touch my interlocutor during a conversation.
- I can easily express my emotions over the phone.
- I love standing out from the crowd.
- I like it when a lot of people look at me.
- I have quite expressive facial expressions.
- People around me say that I would make a good actor.
- In the company of people I don’t know, I don’t feel embarrassed and feel confident.
- I can look seductive.
- I'm good at playing Crocodile and other games where you have to pretend to be something.
- At small parties and friendly gatherings I manage to be the center of attention.
- When a person is pleasant to me, I can touch or hug him.
How many points did you get? According to the author, the average score, which is typical for most people, is in the range from 56 to 86 points. And the higher it is, the more pronounced charisma you are endowed with.
Characteristics of this type of power
The set of distinctive properties as a characteristic of charismatic power is manifested in the following points:
- Extremely pronounced personal character.
- Ahistorical, that is, the leader often does not adhere to any stereotypes, rules, or even laws that existed previously.
- Alienation of charismatic power from purely practical and everyday problems, in particular from the economy. Indiscriminate methods in dealing with economic problems - often the charismatic government prefers not to collect taxes, but to take away funds, confiscate and expropriate them, trying to give these actions a legal appearance.
Signs
Signs of charismatic power will appear in the following form:
- By publicly sharing ideas, future achievements and supporting the leader, followers connect personal plans with the activities of the organization.
- Optimism and high degree of enthusiasm of supporters, each of whom is actually trying to become a charismatic leader of the “lower order”.
- The central place in any social relationship is given to the leader. This creates the feeling that the leader is everywhere and takes part in any social event.
Positive and negative aspects of establishing charismatic power
Legitimacy, that is, the consent of citizens with such rule, arises as soon as a sufficiently large number of people are ready to become followers of their leader. There is no more personal form of government than the charismatic type of government. The power acquired by a leader surrounds him with a unique aura and helps him to increasingly believe in his capabilities, which, in turn, attracts an increasing number of followers. But a charismatic leader would not be one if he did not feel the needs of people.
It is leadership power, charismatic in nature, that acquires serious importance in such conditions when a fundamental change or radical changes are needed in an environment that is not adapted for this, is inert due to entrenched culture and traditions, and has often been in a state of stagnation for a long time. However, it is quite unstable due to the fact that the leader needs to consistently demonstrate his strength and exclusivity, manage and simultaneously solve more and more new problems, and with resounding success. Otherwise, even from a single failure, the leader may lose his attractiveness in the eyes of his followers, which means a loss of legitimacy.
In addition, this type of power has both positive aspects and disadvantages. The main negative parameter is that power, charismatic in its essence, is at the same time a usurpation, which also forces the ruler himself to delve into and resolve almost all the everyday and even the smallest everyday issues of the state. However, if the leader can cope with these tasks, a serious positive effect arises due to the fact that the government actually satisfies the majority of public interests.
Is there a difference between male and female charm?
All of the above qualities can be inherent in a person, regardless of his gender. However, there are some differences between the charisma of women and men.
Which girl can be considered charismatic? Most likely, that representative of the fair sex who knows how to charm, flirt moderately, her intelligence is quite high, she knows how to support any conversation.
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Often, charisma in a woman is determined by another person’s subjective view of her. For example, one man will consider a mysterious and reserved person as such, while another will consider a sociable and emotional lady charismatic.
It’s about the same with representatives of the stronger half. Traditionally, confident, persistent, responsible men endowed with eloquence are recognized as bright and charismatic. They are true to their word, leaders by nature, they know how to listen, but they only go their own way.
Characteristics of a Charismatic Leader
At a minimum, a charismatic person must have a number of characteristics that can be called basic:
- energy, that is, the ability to “radiate” and “charge” the people around with energy;
- an impressive, colorful appearance, which implies attractiveness, not beauty (often leaders of this type have physical flaws);
- a high degree of independence, primarily from the opinions of others;
- excellent oratory skills;
- absolute and unshakable confidence in oneself and one’s own actions.
Examples of the specific speech of a charismatic personality
The speech delivered by a true leader, a possessor of charisma, is mostly filled with special words, sayings, epithets, and specific catchphrases that are rarely used in everyday life by the majority of people.
Such “tricks” can be used as part of an ideology that is introduced to the masses by a person endowed with charisma. Or simply be explained by the peculiarities of his biography or special origin.
Particularly specific mastery of gestures is an important factor and aspect of the personality of a person with charisma. The gesture itself can be anything: restrained, graceful, overly mannered, or abrupt and awkward.
The most important thing is that these gestural techniques complement the harmony of the personality. Even speech impediments and accents can be used to create an individual image of a charismatic person.
True charisma is the ability to generate intense inspiration within oneself and demonstrate it outwardly. This ability makes a person an object of close attention and unconscious imitation on the part of others. Leah Greenfield
Examples of Charismatic Leaders
Charismatic leaders were initially characterized by Max Weber as religious individuals, but capable of changing the social life of society. There is no doubt that both Jesus Christ and the Prophet Muhammad were charismatic figures who still influence the historical process. But being a charismatic person and being a charismatic leader are two completely different things. Subsequently, sociologist George Barnes slightly adjusted the concept, and today for those whom we are accustomed to calling charismatic leaders, another definition is more appropriate, namely, “heroic leader.”
Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Lenin and Stalin, Hitler and de Gaulle were precisely such heroic personalities. These people, with completely different abilities, are shining examples of charismatics who became heroic leaders in critical events. In this context, it is very difficult to call large industrialists such as Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie or Bill Gates charismatic leaders, although they undoubtedly have charisma. Taken together, we can add some classic examples of charismatic (heroic) leaders who in reality had minimal power, showing their influence more through the support of supporters - Joan of Arc, Marshal Zhukov, Che Guevara. History knows many examples when power, charismatic and legitimate, ultimately ended in the complete defeat of both the leader himself and his ideas, and served as an instrument for the death of states and the reconstruction of the world order. This is undoubtedly Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, Mikhail Gorbachev.
Of the living charismatic leaders, only one person can be fully attributed to this concept without any reservations - Fidel Castro, who, undoubtedly, even after relinquishing power, is an extremely influential leader both among his own people and in the global social environment.
