Charisma does matter

By Rakesh Khurana

It is common in many human activities for some individuals to command more attention than others, even at the same apparent level of competence. Historians, journalists and other observers often write about personal traits that distinguish such persons from others in a field, but their accounts can be unconvincing.

The celebrity of many movie stars and pop musicians, for example, is attributable not to their dramatic or musical skills or accomplishments but rather to the fact that audiences are excited when they appear on the stage.

Similarly, in the CEO labour market, stories, gossip and legends about some executives travel farther than those about others, irrespective of various individuals’ abilities or accomplishments…

Charisma, in short, is almost completely in the eyes of the beholders, who fasten on certain leaders out of deeply felt, socially shared needs. Just as the roles of directors and executive search firms in the external CEO search turn out to be comprehensible only when these actors are viewed in relation to the social structures and systems of belief within which they operate, so too with the charismatic candidates who become (or are already) society’s charismatic CEOs.

To understand how the role of CEO candidates is socially constructed, we need to look more closely at the loosely interpreted, often misunderstood concept of charisma.

From “Crowning Napoleon: The Making of the Charismatic Candidate.