Charisma in Leaders is a Dangerous Thing.

Students of leadership theory know about traits-based approaches.  Traits are a basic attempt to address the question of what good leadership is.  I believe people tend to form a picture in their minds of good leaders by picking famous ones.  Famous leaders are usually charismatic.

So it is no surprise that most people think charisma is required for effective leadership.  I did an informal survey to check.  I asked 100 people (63 women and 37 men) to agree or disagree with this statement: “Charisma is required for effective leadership.”  The results: