Decoding charisma

Abstract

The concept of Charisma, specifically in the context of leadership has been largely written about, discussed, and imparted by academia and leadership trainers amongst others. There is a set of propagators of Charisma who believe that it can be developed as a quality while there is an opposing view by many researchers which suggests that you are either gifted with it, or you are not. The literature around this topic seems to be split, and there is no clear conclusion. However, most of the experts, and anybody with a point of view on this debate, firmly believe that it is a combination of both the factors that enable Charismatic leadership. In this research, a framework has been proposed to break down Charismatic Leadership into exclusive and exhaustive components. The specific elements differ regarding whether they can be imparted and the ease with which they can be imparted. This research works towards developing a way of prioritising those skills which have the maximum contribution towards building Charisma based on their Criticality and Impart-ability mix. In addition to this, the research also evaluates how to measure Charisma. This has high importance for the leadership training industry.