How is charismatic leadership used? Securing fan support with a future-oriented vision. Actively confronting criticism publicly.
At one time, charismatic leadership was dismissed as being out of step with the times. A flexible and inclusive attitude that actively shares one’s authority with organizational members has been cited as the main virtue that a good leader must possess. However, as leaders who bring success to companies and organizations by attracting enthusiastic support from the public and forming a strong fan base, such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk, are attracting attention, interesting research analyzing charismatic leadership has recently been conducted.
A joint research team from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and the University of London, England, analyzed how corporate leaders who demonstrate charismatic leadership, such as Musk and Steve Jobs, use charisma to achieve success. Based on the results, we built a ‘Charismatic Entertainment’ model that explains how corporate leaders achieve a charismatic image while communicating with the public. It consists of three stages: staging, demonstrating, and resisting.
First, in the staging stage, corporate leaders stimulate the public to constantly compare existing problems with their future-oriented vision in order to imprint powerful charisma. A representative example is Musk, who founded the space exploration company Space The challenge of Space
In the proving stage, corporate leaders interact with the public and strengthen their charisma. At this stage, consumers who have observed the bold challenges of corporate leaders are fascinated by their sense of challenge and go through a process of ‘self-ization’ in which they internalize the leader’s philosophy, beliefs, and worldview. Consumers who have become admirers encourage others to join the company leader’s vision. One of the representative recommended actions is for consumers to actively leave positive viral content related to the brand on social media.
Finally, in the resistance stage, critics who oppose the actions of corporate leaders play a major role. The researchers found that the stronger the presence of critics, the deeper the relationship between business leaders and their admirers. It was also found that being proactive in publicly refuting critics’ stories helps build a charismatic image.
The research results are significant in that they reveal that the presence of a charismatic leader is important in creating a strong fandom and what process these leaders use to build their fandom. If business leaders understand this series of processes, it can help them effectively utilize charisma in marketing.
Seungyoon Lee, Professor of Business Administration, Konkuk University seungyun@konkuk.ac.kr
Summary = Reporter Hojin Choi hojin@donga.com
