Charming bosses are less effective
Exceptionally charismatic people may not make the best leaders, say scientists who found that those with moderate levels of charisma are more effective at managing an organisation.
“Our findings suggest that organisations may want to consider selecting applicants with mid-range levels of charisma into leadership roles, instead of extremely charismatic leaders,” said Jasmine Vergauwe, a doctoral student at Ghent University in Belgium.
Researchers took a trait perspective on charisma by measuring charismatic personality using 56 questions, known as the charismatic cluster.
The charismatic cluster focuses on four personality tendencies: bold, mischievous, colourful and imaginative, researchers said. Researchers compared the charisma scores of about 600 business leaders with their effectiveness as reported by peers, subordinates and superiors.
They found that as charisma
increased, so did perceived effectiveness, but only up to a point. At a certain level, as charisma scores continued to increase, perceived effectiveness started to decline.
Researchers also found that low-charisma leaders were seen as less effective because they were not sufficiently strategic, while high-charisma leaders were seen as less effective because they were weak on operational behaviour.