Charisma in the workplace
Television producer Mark Goodson invariably responded to the question, “How do you cast people to appear as contestants on your shows?” with the same answer: “We look for three things. Personality, personality and personality.” Mr. Goodson’s answer applies not only to recruiting people to appear on reality TV shows and game shows, but also to applicants for senior management positions.
When high-calibre positions such as COO, CEO and President become open, there are many qualities to consider in an applicant, qualities such as ability, experience and education. But the quality that will most likely facilitate the acquisition of such lucrative positions, and there is no doubt about it among experts, is that part of some personalities called charisma.
Not everyone has charisma, the quality that gives them a personality influence over large numbers of people, people who follow not because they have to, but because they want to. Jack Welch, former Chairman and CEO of GE, has genuine charisma. The same goes for actor Jack Nicholson and the late columnist Mike Royko. Mark Goodson himself had it. Harry S. Truman had it, and Seabiscuit the Thoroughbred racehorse had it.
Charisma can be a trait that, while it helps employees in management rise to the top of their professions, can cause some serious problems later if a dark side shows up. Some top executives who look good to their peers and bosses, and who do well on most evaluations, turn out to be terrible for their companies and end up being costly by creating low morale, excessive turnover, and reduced productivity. Sometimes they can completely ruin a company.
Many corporations hire experts to handle the job interview, experts who know how to differentiate between genuine charisma, of which self-confidence is the foundation, and variations of it, which have a dark side, an almost grandiose sense of certainty with a disdain for subordinates
One whose assessments expose the dark side, if it’s lurking within a charismatic job candidate, is Robert Hogan, Ph.D., President, Hogan Assessment Systems (HAS), Tulsa OK. HAS pioneered the use of personality measures to make organizational decisions by predicting job performance, particularly aspects associated with “attitude.” Dr. Hogan’s 25 years of development, refinement, and validation provide the tools that provide valuable insights for in-depth development feedback.
“In addition to intelligence and strategic planning skills, good managers have enormous charm and energy,” said Dr. Hogan. “Charisma…refers to shining, shining and looking very attractive.” The key word is ‘apparent’.
“Three of the top 10 personality disorders are also characterized by charisma,” Dr. Hogan said, “they are narcissistic, psychopathic, and histrionic personalities. Narcissism is about being charming but arrogant—think Bill Clinton. Narcissists They act like the normal rules don’t apply to them.”
“Psychopathy is about being charming but utterly suspicious, think (former Enron CFO) Jeffrey Fastow. Histrionic is about being charming but capable of superficial relationships and being distracted, think of any movie star. People ( charismatic) lights up a room and makes quite an impact on strangers…”
When asked if two people were eligible for the same position, the person with the attractive personality would get the job even if the other had better grades, Dr. Hogan replied emphatically, “Charisma trumps achievement and integrity every time.” “.
One way to differentiate between charisma and narcissism, says Dr. Hogan, is “the degree to which they are willing to share the credit for success and accept the blame for failure. Narcissists will not… accept the blame. They are particularly good at ingratiating themselves with their elders, but mistreating their minors”.
To the question, “Do female employees trust a male leader more than a female leader?” Dr. Hogan responded, “My wife does.”
Others don’t disagree with Ms. Hogan.
Howard S. Schwartz, Ph.D., professor of organizational behavior at Oakland University, Rochester, MI, and author of “Narcissistic Process and Corporate Decline: The Theory of the Organizational Ideal” (New York University Press) believes that there is a difference between charismatic men and women.
Dr. Schwartz theorizes that male charisma has to do with strength, while female charisma has to do with sex. “It wasn’t Menelaus’s face that launched a thousand ships, it was Helen’s. Anyone who doesn’t think (sex) is about power just isn’t thinking.”
Within the confines of a charismatic personality in corporate life, Dr. Schwartz theorizes that “women are more inclined to act on what’s going on within the relationship” while “men are not as invested with the details of relationships but are more tied to the rules that structure the organization, living more in the abstract”. “That’s why,” he says, “how (men) feel right now doesn’t have much of a bearing on how they act. (They) can work productively with haters. Women have a harder time doing that.” .
But Schwartz agrees about the dangers of narcissistic management. He says it insulates managers from reality: “If the top management of an organization does something that sends the organization off a cliff, (the organization) is going to fall off the cliff and the only thing most people can do is cross their fingers and update their resumes.”
Sandra Davis, Ph.D, founder and CEO of MDA Consulting Group in Minneapolis, uses HAS, in part, to help screen job applicants for MDA’s corporate clients. Dr. Davis herself is a fascinating conversationalist, a charismatic classical pianist whose taste in music ranges from the Brahams to Willie Nelson to the Rolling Stones.
Guessing the difference between charisma and narcissism in job applicants for corporate clients, Dr. Davis, who practices objectivity with a heart, interviews with questions like:
Tell me about the last time you made a mistake.
Tell me about when something didn’t go your way. When was the last time you received feedback from someone who disagreed with you? What will people who know you say is your handicap?
These are intriguing questions that, Dr. Davis discovered, “narcissists are incapable of answering except with simplistic answers,” because “a person who turns inward can’t really see themselves as having made any mistakes and cannot accept comments.
In discussing leadership criteria, Dr. Davis, who believes that corporations can make mistakes in hiring someone from outside their organization because “that person has not demonstrated leadership ability to employees,” states that “charisma initial is not exactly the same as being drawn to the human spirit, depth of character, (or having) the thought, ‘I’ll follow them…'”
Although it seems difficult to discover a genuine charismatic, it is not impossible. One executive, whose name was mentioned repeatedly throughout these interviews as the ideal leader, intellectually flexible, and charismatic, was the president and CEO of Xerox Corporation: Anne M. Mulcahy.
Peers describe Anne Mulcahy as an optimistic problem solver who can deliver good news, bring the right players to the table and keep them inspired and talking. When she took over as director of Xerox, the company was struggling to get on its feet after management mistakes had plunged it into deep financial trouble.
Mulcahy frequently speaks of learning teamwork in her youth, where her parents treated her the same way they treated her four siblings. She is one of only 10 women in the United States to lead a Fortune 500 company. She Today, she says, she “always felt absolutely natural to be the only woman in a room full of men.”
Given the recent rise in known executive misbehavior, it might be universally beneficial for medical research to focus on cloning not sheep, but charismatic leaders.
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