Charisma alone does not a leader make

When someone has charisma, they have a magnetic appeal about them that enables them to inspire others with compelling attractiveness.  Charisma is one characteristic of leadership that we sometimes see in organisational and political leadership today.  That is, an ability to inspire and/or influence people towards a common goal with compelling attractiveness. 

However, charisma alone does not equal great leadership.  History shows leaders who have been gifted with charisma yet have been incredibly destructive towards the human race such as Hitler.  On the other hand we have witnessed leaders like Nelson Mandela who is filled with charisma and achieved positively through great leadership.  Charisma, when harnessed for good, can be a positive characteristic of great leadership.

In order for leaders to be great though, they cannot rest on charisma alone.   As I have reflected on what has made me follow great leaders in history and in organisations, it has not been their charismatic leadership, although it may be initially attractive.   What has always inspired me to follow a leader is their ability to share their belief; their ability to inspire towards a dream; an ability to empathize and listen; and unquestionable trusting character.  

A call to action for Leaders.  Allow your character to be the foundation of your leadership.  Charisma is one aspect of leadership but don’t allow your charisma to carry you further than your character can sustain you.

People will follow charisma for a season but will follow leadership for life.

Organisation and leader trust impacts bottom line.

Stephen Covey (2006) in Speed of Trust defines leadership as achieving results in a way that inspires trust.  As organisational leaders we can understand the achieving results part, but how does inspiring trust impact a company’s performance, success and effectiveness.  At its essence, we can all probably come to the idea that building trust within an organisation and between employees and leaders should ultimately result in better performance and a more engaged workforce.  If we reflect, we have all probably experienced broken trust in our working life and how that becomes all-consuming, and let’s face it, will impact your ability to be effective and innovative for the organisation. 

So how do organisations go about increasing trust? Research has shown that individual leadership can improve organisation performance and that organisational trust impacts job satisfaction which will ultimately effect job turnover (Joseph & Winston 2005).  Organisational trust is similar to leader trust in that there are core behaviours leaders demonstrate that help to build organisational trust.   Leaders will influence organisational trust through their ability to effectively communicate and inspire employees on the company’s vision and goals and by honouring promises and commitments, showing fairness and respect across the organisation, having open and honest communication and being transparent.  Leaders need to remember that a simple step such as giving an employee due credit for a great idea and thanks for a good job goes a long way towards building trust with employees.

Employees want to be able to trust where the organisation is heading. They want to trust in their leaders to assess their skills objectively, to provide prompt and accurate feedback and to listen to what their needs and goals are.  Of course employees trust in their leaders will be a direct result of their leader’s actions. 

Not all leaders will be able to understand what is required to start building trust within their organisations and this is where human resource management needs to develop strong partnerships with the business and leaders at all levels to help coach and train leaders in defining and developing trust leadership towards a trust culture. 

Trust can be established; it can be developed and restored and will improve the bottom line.

Watts Ahead - A thought leadership blog

Covey, S 2006, ‘The Speed of Trust’, FreePress, CoveyLink, New York

Joseph, Error E & Winston, Bruce E. 2005, ‘A correlation of servant leadership, leader trust, and organizational trust’, Leadership and Organization Development Journal; Volume 26; Issue 1 2005.

Dare to disagree creates Innovative Employee Engagement - Ian Watts

I recently watched a great TED talk from Margaret Heffernan called “Dare to disagree”, & yes I am a massive TED convert.   This TED talk got me thinking and prompted me to implement an exercise in my team that had the potential to shift people to step outside comfort zones, break down barriers and keep the team focused on our vision.  In Margaret Heffernan’s talk, she highlights that most people will instinctively avoid conflict which promotes avoidance and passive agreement, rather than incorporating good disagreement within our relationships, businesses & organisations, that will ultimately foster creativity and innovation.

So the question that I asked my team to research and then debate in a team meeting was this:

•       Successful Employee Engagement across the organisation is a direct result of HR involvement in the business

Fairly straight forward question right?  While many would already have an opinion on what the answer to this would be, this question ended up creating great discussion as two employees battled out (slightly exaggerated) their different affirming & opposing views. 

What was really interesting in this exercise was to see how the team embraced this concept with vigour and how the discussion at the end of this process allowed the team to think outside our preconceived ideas of what Employee Engagement is and how both Leaders and HR can collectively shape employee engagement within businesses.  This exercise allowed the team to have their very best thinking on Employee engagement; it was innovative and allowed people to use their talents.

So to my surprise, the result was greater than I had anticipated.  While I primarily implemented this exercise as a way to get the team thinking outside the box so that we deliver the best initiatives possible, the best outcome for me was to see how a simple exercise that created so much fun, ended up creating employee engagement within my own team.  

I thoroughly recommend implementing this exercise in your team.  When you do, ensure you go into these discussions without your own preconceived ideas and you will be amazed at the innovation with your business and how engaged your employees will be.

Watts Ahead