CHARASMATIC LEADERS: Ethical vs Unethical Leadership

• 1. CHARASMATIC LEADERS: Ethical vs Unethical Leadership by Lilit Tadevosyan Kirsh

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• Charismatic business leaders are often heralded as corporate heroes by orchestrating turnarounds, launching new enterprises, engaging in organizational renewal or change, and obtaining extraordinary performance from individuals. The effectiveness of these leaders may be interpreted by executives as an unqualified recommendation for such leadership in their organizations. However the risks involved in charismatic leadership are at least as large as the promises. What is missing from current discussions about charisma is consideration of its darker side.

• Charisma can lead to blind fanaticism in the service of megalomaniacs and dangerous values, or to heroic self-sacrifice in the service of a beneficial cause. (Howell & Avolio,1992)

Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust you. Lee Iacocca Overview: 3.

• History has great examples of charismatic leaders who achieved their ideas because they were able to influence the public.Here some leadership quotations that are inspiring and compelling. One of the best known by American black civil rights leader once said:

• Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: - 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal., - Martin Luther King Jr. , 1963.

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• Unethical Charismatic leader

• Uses power only for personal gain or impact

• Promotes own personal vision

• Censures critical or opposing views

• Demands own decisions be accepted without question

• One-way communication

• Insensitive to followers need

• Relies on convenient external moral standards to satisfy self-interests

Individual Qualities of Ethical and Unethical Charismatic Leaders

• Ethical Charismatic Leader

• Uses power to serve others

• Aligns vision with followers needs and aspirations

• Considers and learns from criticism

• Stimulates followers to think independently and to question the leaders view

• Open, two-way communication

• Coaches, develops, and supports followers; shares recognition with others

• Relies on internal moral standards to satisfy organizational and societal interests

5. Charismatic Leaders: Some Uncommon Denominators When we research the history of the leadership we come to an understanding that the most charismatic and powerful leaders were the ones who serve their people. The leaders who haveintegrity, charisma, courage, character, humanity; who communicate his or her vision, set a good example, encourage employees, support them, recognize and reward creativityare calledEthical charismatic's. The leaders who promote self-interest and manipulate their followers to achieve their own goals are calledUnethical charismatic's. Exercising powerCharismatic leaders can affect peoples minds, coordinate their actions, and that is the power that needs to be used to master areas of innovation, talent, creativity, understanding, respect and trust because those are areas that will become a stepping stone toward an effective leadership. The good leader will be an example and will inspire his followers. Dwight D. Eisenhower said, Leadership: the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.Exercising power or influence varies among ethical and unethical charismatic leaders. Ethical charismatic leaders use power in socially constructive ways to serve others. In contrast, unethical charismatics exercise power in dominant and authoritarian ways to serve their self interests, to manipulate others for their own purposes, and to win at all costs. Power is used for personal gain or impact.(Howell & Avolio,1992) 6. Creating the VisionEthical and unethical charismatic leaders differ in how they create and express their vision.Ethical charismatic leadersexpress goals that are follower driven; their visions are ultimately responsive to the interests and desires of their followers. Unethical charismatic leaderscommunicate goals that promote their own personal agenda often to the disadvantage of others. Communicating with Followers To set agendas that represent the interests of their followers,ethical charismatic leaderscontinuously seek out their viewpoints on critical issues.Open communication is the key principal.Unethical leadersare one-way communicators, close minded to input and suggestions from others. Accepting FeedbackIf there is an objective criticismEthical charismatic leadersmust take it for consideration and not personally. They must look into the problem and find a solution. A good leader will be the one who can overcome his ego and admit his mistakes. People usually have more respects for those who are strong enough to admit their mistakes and learn from them. Ethical charismatic leadersare realistic in their appraisal of their own abilities and limitations. They learn from criticism, rather than being fearful of it.Unethical charismatic leadershave an inflated sense of self-importance, thriving on attention and admiration from others and shunning contrary opinions. Such leaders attract and gravitate towards loyal and uncritical followers.. 7. Stimulating Followers Intellectually Ethical charismatic leaders encourage their followers to view the world from different perspectives which they themselves may not have previously considered.Unethical charismatic leaders expect and even demand that their decisions be accepted without question. Developing FollowersUnethical charismatic leaders are insensitive and unresponsive to followers needs and aspirations, while ethical charismatic leaders focus on developing people with whom they interact to higher levels of ability, motivation, and morality.Moral Standards Ethical charismatic leaders follow self-guided principles which may go against the majority opinion.They posses three primary virtues: courage, a sense of fairness or justice, and integrity. Unethical charismatic leaders follow standards if they satisfy their immediate self-interests. They are adept at managing an impression that what they are doing conforms to what others consider the right thing to do .The charismatic leader needs to so serve and put the interest of his employees first. If one were more concerned about his own affairs he will never be the effective leader who has the respect and trust of his employees. Lao Tsu once said,A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. 8. The failure of SuccessEthical charismatic leaders have developed a value system that will help avoid the trappings of success. Moreover, the promotion of the followers to higher stages of development provides the ethical charismatic leader with critical input that may keep them from straying down the wrong path.The unethical charismatic leaders tend to believe the praises heaped upon them. Rather than focusing on next challenge, they become preoccupied with maintaining an aura of greatness.The Impact of Charismatic leaders:Developing or Enslaving Followers Ethical charismatic leaders convert followers into leaders. By expressing confidence in followers abilities to accomplish collective goals, and by encouraging followers to think on their own and question the established ways of doing thing, they create followers who are more capable of leading.Unethical charismatic leaders select or produce obedient, dependent, and complaint followers.They undermine followers motivation and ability to challenge existing views, to engage in self-development, and to develop independent perspectives.Creating and maintaining Ethical Charismatic Leaders As a transforming force, charisma is charged with explosive, unpredictable potential that, like the genie when released from the bottle, is beyond our control.(Roberts&. Bradley, 1988) Executives and managers need to be aware of the risks of unleashing its darker side as well as the promises of cultivating its brighter side. Without awareness of the key behaviors, moral standards, and effects distinguishing ethical and unethical charismatic leaders, appointing a charismatic to a leadership position can be dangerous. The attributes which contribute to the unethical charismatic leaders success in aggressively ascending the corporate ladder may contribute his or her ultimate failure as a leader. Beware charisma! But to beware does not necessarily mean or entail Avoidbe Aware! Then choose C. Hodgkinson 9.

• How ethical charismatic developed in the organization?

• Six key factors are:

• Top management commitment to a clearly stated code of ethical conduct

• that is continually enforced helps establish acceptable standards or boundaries

• for employee conduct ( Hegarty & Sims. Jr ., 1979).

• Recruiting, selecting, and promoting managers with high moral standards

• are ways of creating a culture of ethical responsibility.

• Developing performance standards and rewards that emphasize, for example, respect for people as individuals.

• Providing leaders with education and training that teaches them how to integrate diverse point of view. Being able to see the interrelationships among new perspectives and old, lies at the source of moral development ( Trevino, 1986).

• Training individuals with necessary personality characteristics, social skills, and motivation to acquire ethical charismatic leader behaviors ( Howell& Frost, 1990) . Training in ethical leadership skills must be consistent with the philosophy of the top leadership in the company and the company culture.

• Identifying heroes or heroines who exemplify high moral conduct. Such heroes or heroines need to be heralded by top management as essential to the long term success of the organization ( Kahn, 1990).

• In conclusion, building internal ethical standards in leaders is challenging undertaking which requires formal codes of ethical conduct, top management who subscribes to and practice ethical behavior, systems that reinforce ethical behavior and role models who exemplify high moral standards. In fact our ethical charismatic leaders reported that the most significant factor influencing their development of values and priorities was role models with whom they had very direct personal contact.

10. Conclusion: A Look Towards Future We can just say that charismatic leaders of the past, current and future need to have the ethical values described in this presentation to be an effective and successful. Times, technology can change but the core values will remain the same. Ethical charismatic leaders will be called only the ones that motivate their followers, stay true to core values and set good example.Each student of this class will read and share many examples of charismatic leaders with great values, and leaders who used the power to lead nations to wars and disaster. What kind of leaders we choose to be will depend on our values and our vision of being successful leaders. 11. References Hegarty, W.H and Sims. Jr., H. P. 1979 . Organizational Philosophy. Policies, andObjectives Related to Unethical Decision Behavior: A laboratoryExperiment,Journal of Applied Psychology. Hodgkinson,C. (1983).The Philosophy of Leadership.New York Howell, J.M. and Frost, P.J. 1898.A Laboratory Study of Charismatic Leadership Kahn, W.A. 1990.Toward an Agenda for Business Ethics Research. Nahavandi, A. (2009).The Art and Science of Leadership . Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall. Pettinger, T (2007).Do you have the Characteristics of an Effective leader?.Oxford Roberts, N.C. and Bradley R.T. (1988).Limits of Charisma.San Francisco Trevino, L.K. 1986.Ethical Decision Interactionist Model. New York. .