THAT MOMENT WHEN YOU’RE ALL WONDERING

• “Am I the only one here that doesn’t get what X just said? But everyone’s nodding. What do I know…X must know better than me.”

• “When X talked about it, it made so much sense. But now that we’re trying to make it work…some things don’t quite add up.”

• “Everybody loves X….but it’s actually quite hard to work with X. But oh well, everybody loves X still so we just keep on keeping on.”

…you’re in the Good, Bad & Ugly of dealing with charismatic leaders at work.

THINK // 3 insights from the field

😇 THE GOOD THING about charismatic leaders is that they can influence individuals, groups, organisations, even whole populations to move in a particular direction - even if it does not make logical sense.

Charisma is a magnetic quality that allows someone to attract attention, garner admiration, charm and even inspire devotion from others. (This may already sound alarming - and we will get to the bad and ugly soon)

It can be useful to have charisma on your side when you need to deliver people bad news, convince them to make huge sacrifices or move as a collective whole in a painful, necessary or completely crazy direction.

Political scientist Ann Ruth Willner names 4 key factors that enhance a leaders’ charisma:

1. The leader is perceived as embodying one or more of the dominant myths of his society and culture. (eg: Elon Musk: genius world-changing entrepreneur; Elizabeth Holmes: girlboss)

2. The leader is perceived as heroic for pulling of an extraordinary feat. (eg: Steve Jobs turns around Apple’s fortunes; Lee Kuan Yew takes Singapore from ‘Third World to First’)

3. The leader projects, with uncanny force, that he/she possesses admirable, desirable qualities.

4. The leader has outstanding rhetorical ability: he/she is an articulate, engaging communicator who can emotionally connect followers to a cause.

These aren’t bad things yet - but if there are no guard-rails, the set-up for bad things is all there.

🤬 THE BAD THING about charismatic leaders is that unless they are held back by BOTH a strong foundation of personal integrity AND a strong system of public checks & balances, they can easily use their power over people for self-serving ends - and get away with it.

3 REASONS WHY THAT HAPPENS

1. REALITY DISTORTS AROUND A CHARISMATIC LEADER

Charismatic leaders are remarkably skilled and gifted at working with our perception of reality and bending people’s sense of reality towards where they want it to go.

Just think of author Walter Isaacson’s description of the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ infamous “reality distortion field”:

While many generally feel that Jobs’ charisma and reality distortion powers was a good thing for how it pushed Apple to work at peak creativity and innovation, there are just as many who are taken aback at how easily Jobs could lie, gaslight and manipulate - and how easily people forgave him for it.

Just read journalist Chris Taylor’s reflections after reading Lisa Brennan-Jobs’ memoir about living with her mercurial father:

2. VULNERABLE FOLLOWERS WHO ENMESH THEIR SELF-CONCEPT WITH CHARISMATIC LEADERS WILL BECOME OVERLY DEVOTED LOYALISTS.

Things get very dangerous when you take that reality distortion field and throw in vulnerable people into the mix.

You will be especially vulnerable to the emotional gravitational pull exerted by a charismatic leader if you:

• are an empathic idealistic dreamer with unfulfilled desires and hopes for connection to a bigger purpose

• struggle with self-esteem, loneliness, anxious attachment, fragmented identity issues

These vulnerabilities may lead you to over-connect - even enmesh - your self-concept with whatever identities, values, ideas and ideologies the charismatic leader is pushing forcefully into the world.

As a vulnerable follower, you may think you are experiencing empathy from a charismatic leader when it’s actually projection.

Look at what organisational anthropologist Timothy Clark explains about why leaders have to be very careful with their use of projection (let alone boosting it with charisma):

The internal process of how you can go from respecfful follower to devoted loyalist can look like this:

1. You perceive the highest values and ideologies in your selfhood as the same as the charismatic leaders’ projected highest values and ideologies

2. You believe the charismatic leader’s projection that they are that great example of that more advanced and admirable version of the person you hope to be.

3. You believe in the charismatic leader’s projection that they are one of the rare few who can fulfill that great vision they espouse.

4. You internalise that the best way for you to grow and develop is to emulate the leader psychologically and behaviorally (adopting parts of the leader’s beliefs, style, vocabulary, approach etc.) or serving the leader no matter what it costs.

A devoted follower will do hard and difficult things out of a real sense of loyalty and love for the leader.

But what the devoted follower is loyal to/in love with may not be the charismatic leader themself.

What the devoted follower might actually be loyal to/in love with is actually the idea of who they themselves are and get to be because of the charismatic leader.

• I want to believe I am part of something new, big and special.

• I want to believe I am one of the special, chosen, worthy ones.

• I want to believe I am wanted and I belong.

• I want to hold on to this belief as long as I can.

3. OVERLY DEVOTED LOYALISTS CAN BLOCK OFF OTHERS’ ATTEMPTS TO HOLD THE CHARISMATIC LEADER ACCOUNTABLE FOR A LONG TIME

There is a very thin line between bending reality for fairly benign reasons and bending it to manipulate others for increasingly questionable agendas.

This line is easily crossed when charismatic leaders surround themselves with devoted loyalists - especially powerful and well-connected ones - who are so wedded to their leaders that they may not see reality as-is but as how the charismatic one distorts it to be.

This is why when charismatic leaders repeatedly fail to deliver, compromise their ethics or mistreat people, they may still retain shockingly strong support from their loyalists.

It’s hard to let go when your self-concept is at stake. If the charismatic leader you have invested so much belief in falls, your whole sense of what you want to be real also falls.

Consider the story of Elizabeth Holmes, a 19 year old university dropout, who positioned herself as the female Steve Jobs.

Through sheer charisma, she convinced investors she could build and lead a 9 billion dollar medical technology company. For almost 10 years, the whole world worshipped her as the youngest self-made female billionaire in history. So when people started to discover she was lying about her technology’s efficacy, it was incredibly difficult for them to trust that someone would believe their version of reality over Holmes’ charisma-boosted version of reality.

Tyler Shultz, a former employee, described how he too was “mesmerised” by her before he was attacked by Holmes for questioning Theranos’ integrity. He explained the dilemma he and others had about becoming whistle-blowers:

Tyler was shocked by how his own grandfather (ex-US Secretary of State George Shultz, a powerful board member at Theranos) chose to believe Holmes over his own grandson. Tyler recalled his grandfather scolding:

When Holmes was eventually arrested and Theranos collapsed to near worthlessness, the Shultzes reconciled over time. George Shultz never apologised but before he died, he finally acknowledged that Tyler was right and shared with Tyler how he got hoodwinked:

How did Elizabeth Holmes fool so many smart people for so long? 

As George Shultz’s example shows, being powerful, smart and experienced does not innoculate you from a charismatic leader’s reality distorting skills.

We are all equally vulnerable to falling in hope with what seems to be a real, true, good and noble thing.

And we can all be so over-invested in every good thing we believe about ourselves, our vision and the charismatic leader we trusted to take us there that we can take a very very long time to realise we could be horribly wrong.

😈 THE UGLY THING to consider is whether the charismatic leader in your workplace is actually harbouring manipulative, even narcisstic tendencies.

According to management scholar Robert House, there are socialised charismatic leaders and personalised charismatic leaders.

The socialised charismatic leader is collectively oriented, egalitarian, and nonexploitive.

• They are comfortable with power in a healthy way and exercise power with/for people.

• When people try to correct, question or hold them to account, even if they initially reacted in a personal, defensive or aggressive way, they can acknowledge their overreaction, own their mistake and apologise for it.

But the personalised charismatic leader is self-aggrandizing, non-egalitarian, and exploitive - and deeply problematic.

• They need power in an unhealthy way and tend to exercise power over people.

• When people try to correct, question or hold them to account, they can react in a very personal, defensive or aggressive way and not see any reason to apologise for it.

• When underfed or overfed on the affection of people, they can display Machiavellianism, authoritarianism and narcissism.

The personalised charismatic leader is like the infamous Pied Piper: the talented musician who was originally hired to charm rats from the town of Hamelin but upon feeling shortchanged, used his magic vindictively instead to mesmerise all of Hamelin’s children into following him towards an unknown fate.

If you suspect you are in a murky situation dealing with a charismatic leader who might have a malignant side, consider the 3 things Audrey Murrell says can help to counter the dark side of charisma:

Ask yourself:

1. What do I think is the ethical thing to do here? What would an outsider without personal ties or professional interests with the charismatic leader say would be the right thing to do?

2. What are the diverse perspectives I should be including to get a better picture? Whose perspectives are being excluded or negatively reframed by the charismatic leader?

3. Whose voice among the followers should I be heeding? Have I talked to the followers who disagree or followers who have fallen out with the charismatic leader?

FEEL // 2 links to help you feel less alone

READ Director of the David Berg Center for Ethics and Leadership Audrey Murrell on what can be done to prevent the darker side of charisma from damaging your organisations:

READ  Assistant Professor Dritjon Gruda and Professor Paul J. Hanges Paul J. Hanges’ take on the charismatic narcissistic leader’s appeal from an Industrial/Organizational Psychology perspective:

DO // 1 strategy to try this week

NOTICE  the next time you are dealing with a charismatic leader

THEN, GET CURIOUS

Is this leader well-socialised - or unhealthily personalised?

1. Are they comfortable with power in a healthy way: do they exercise power with/for people or power over?

2. Are they collectively oriented, egalitarian and non-exploitative?

3. When people try to correct, question or hold them to account, can they acknowledge any overreaction, own their mistakes and apologise for it?

4. If no to all, do you spot any of these signs in them on either checklist?
   

   

   Narcissist checklist, Dr Ramani Durvasala

   

   Psychopath checklist from Surrounded By Psychopaths by Thomas Erickson

Is there anyone who can help me deal with a dicey situation involving leadership?

It's hard work to do alone. And I would love to have a chat with you about what's going on for you and how I could possibly help.

I help my organisational clients strategise how to change what's working/not working in their culture. I design interventions, train leaders & their people in necessary skills and facilitate necessary conversations on their behalf.

Have a worthy weekend, workplace warriors.

Leading organisational cultural change is a good and meaningful thing. But it can be a battlefield through some bad things and ugly things. I'm here for you in the trenches.

Every Friday, you’ll get 3 insights + 2 links + 1 strategy to arm you for Monday.

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Meanwhile, get some rest this weekend. I'll see you next Friday,

❤️ 👊 🙌

Wishing you love, power & meaning,

Shiao