Tag: charisma

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BLG Leadership Insights

Charisma is not Enough, You Have to Execute [Video]

penguinsCharisma has been played up as a key to leadership. It is, however, a double-edge sword. In the hands of some it’s hope, in the hands of others it’s terror. Charisma is more of a promise of leadership, rather than leadership. In the final analysis charisma may get them on your side, but the real issue is execution. Charisma is a overplayed attribute. A characteristic that may be helpful, but not a attribute that determines leadership.

Saints and sinners have have had charisma, but the leaders that are remembered, the leaders that count, are those that have shown the capacity to get things done. Charisma may give you an opportunity to lead, but it doesn’t mean you are a leader.

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BLG Leadership Insights

Stop Trying to be Like Steve Jobs: The Real Skills of Proactive Leadership

young_steve_jobs2Some of my most popular posts are the ones where I casually mention Steve Jobs. Why? Everyone is trying to figure out what leadership traits (or skills) Steve Jobs has and what they can learn from them. A quick look at Jobs’ profile will lead one to believe that his charisma, “presentation skills”, and his personality drove Apple to its current success. I’d beg to differ.

I don’t need to recite the bio of Steve Jobs, nor the history of Apple. Newspapers have already done that. We just need to separate Jobs’ accomplishments at Apple from his personality.

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BLG Leadership Insights Managerial Competence

We Know Charisma Isn’t Essential to Leadership. So What Is?

There’s been a lot of talk about leadership in our culture. If you want to understand our culture’s perception of leadership all you have to do is read the recent Time Magazine, “No Charisma? Don’t Worry, You Can Still Be a Leader”

One thing I noticed about this article is not what it says–but what it doesn’t say. What it doesn’t say is fundamental.

Sure Abraham Lincoln had charisma. Sure, President Obama has charisma. But in the final analysis, leadership is about the nuts-and-bolts skills of execution and getting things done.

When I ask my students at Cornell who they think are important leaders they come up with a familiar list: Martin Luther King Jr., Harry S. Truman, Mother Theresa, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, and now Obama. My next question to my classes is, “What do these people have in common?” They often tell me, “Charisma” or, in other words, that they inspired people.

Here, they are partially right. Charisma, according to Max Weber, is the amorphous quality that translates your vision to others. Yet this isn’t the whole story….

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