10 reasons for why business leaders should be rather peaceful human beings.

The question is: do we still need, in the nowadays business world, this strong link between charisma and leadership? Do we still need to explain exceptional leadership with the help of this “ex-machina” trait?

Raise your hand if you believe that a good leader can live and perform fed by more affordably mundane character traits and liberated from the charms of charisma!

Leadership evolved a lot alongside society and its transforming needs. The career of the concept started when Max Weber first coined the term of “charisma”. He said there were three types of leadership: legal (rational, formally “elected”), traditional (inherited) and charismatic. Charisma made it so well that it almost magnetically got stuck to leadership – we all accept that leadership is a melting pot of ingredients but charisma seems to take the lion share among them.

I wonder why this happens: would it be because charisma smells like …rating? Its “divine” origin, elusive, mysterious and with enigmatic grace must be a part of what it takes to lead people. Truth might be that we simply need to believe in charisma: either to cover our personal incapacity to be a good leader (saying that not everyone is born with it!) or to give an acceptable explanation for why some people rise above others.

As any concept that incites, charisma was then called a “trap”: it is dangerous because it dilutes judgment through emotional manipulation and creates even irrational addiction. It’s true it works both ways, depending on whom it serves: charisma among political leaders led to both Ghandi and Hitler. But still, it throws the veil on the eye of objectivity and blinds judgment. So, no good. No good at all!

Despite the potential of charisma, leadership is by far the most frequent word in the business literature. Not a single concept unleashed a similar deluge of contributions. That’s because leading is an archetype that splits the world in the cardinal of “up” and “down”, North and South and there is no escape from it. The question is: do we still need, in the nowadays business world, this strong link between charisma and leadership? Do we still need to explain exceptional leadership by the help of this “ex-machina” trait called charisma? Why can’t we just let leadership breathe and live by itself in a little bit more mundane environment? Why don’t we figure it out as descending among us more often? Why can’t we make it a little bit more affordable?

Leadership in business requires a profile that might not resemble leadership in politics (nothing is like politics, actually!) or stardom. Leadership in business might require a human profile quite far from charisma.

Here is my take on it:

1. Leadership is no longer about leading. It is about facilitating the growth of something.
2. Leadership is not about showing the way but about mapping it progressively, step by step, with the full spectrum of uncertainty ahead, kindly assumed.
3. Leadership is about relationship. A genuine leader nurtures relationships that grow into tangible realities, instead of pointing towards self achievements.
4. Leadership is not about being in the front row of the battlefield (would it be because modern business battlefields happen on much more than one frontline?). A true leader is much better at knitting: ideas, opportunities, egos, facts and figures into a coherent picture.
5. Leadership is not about an overwhelming truth that everyone must see, but about mitigating among personal, smaller truths towards a common goal. Leaders are not containers for certitudes, but rather deep reservoirs for doubts.
6. Leadership is not about shouting from the top of the mountain but about listening deep to evanescent whispers in order to detect a more profound reality. #SusanCain talks about “moderate assertiveness” as a good skill for good leaders.
7. Business leaders do not carry a flag to stick in the muddy puddles of unchartered fields. They carry colleagues’ ideas to untangle complexity, with humor, over a cozy tea.
8. Leadership can be intrinsically introvert and camera shy and it’s nothing wrong with it. Shyness comes from naked self-awareness and decency. If it’s in there, true value will find a way out to shine for itself.
9. Leadership might not have a smashing vision of the future as long as it makes the most out of each moment.
10. Leadership and failure are pals.

I believe leadership is no longer about power but about the ability to empower and this is a thing we cam tame, practice and enjoy. I might not be right about that, either. And that’s ok. What do you believe?