The fragile power of charisma

We are living in the age of social media, where ‘influencers’ are everywhere, we have empowered and democratised narcissism. We have created a platform for charisma’s most malignant and damaging aspects.

Protecting ourselves from its more harmful effects is becoming an essential life skill.

First published in the Mandarin.

Gartner predicts that by 2026, 30% of workers will use ‘digital charisma filters’ to achieve previously unattainable career advancements.

Before interacting with someone, consult AI for suggestions to improve your phrasing, tone, and body language. During the meeting, AI provides nudges to help you maintain eye contact and regulate your speech pace. Afterwards, AI offers feedback on effectiveness, including sentiment analysis and recommendations for improvement. The goal is for AI to enhance your charisma in all your interactions with others.

The opportunities for authentic leadership seem to be fading.

Living in the age of social media, where ‘influencers’ are everywhere, we have empowered and democratised narcissism. We have created a platform for the most malignant and damaging aspects of charisma.

Donald Trump and Elon Musk represent the most refined forms of narcissistic charisma. However, they are not alone; other lesser practitioners also manipulate their brands to appeal to the worst in us.

Charismatic individuals possess a unique quality that resembles us, yet their allure lies in their distinctiveness.

John F. Kennedy and Steve Jobs were both seen as charismatic leaders. They were inspiring, magnetic, and persuasive from a distance but had less admirable characteristics up close.

As narcissistic charisma envelops us, recognising its nature and protecting ourselves from its more harmful effects is becoming an essential life skill.

Charisma begins

In his book Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time, Jeffrey Pfeffer points to the considerable research that shows many of the qualities that make leaders successful are not the ones we claim to admire.

We profess to value honesty, humility, and authenticity in our leaders. Yet, in reality, our organisations reward power-seeking behaviour over humility, strategic deception over complete transparency, and self-promotion over quiet competence.

Subtle flattery and conformity to opinions are more likely to earn support, resources, and promotions. Although we claim to welcome dissenting views, we often discourage disagreement or ignore it when it is expressed.

Max Weber is best known for linking capitalism to the rise of Protestantism in The Protestant Ethic, and the Spirit of Capitalism. However, he should also be known for answering the deceptively simple question, ‘Why do we obey?’

One-third of his answer was Charisma.

The first two-thirds of his answer was about tradition and rules. Weber believed we obeyed because of tradition. Monarchies thrive on our respect for history, social norms, and tradition. He also thought we obeyed because there were rules. The laws that govern society are important to us.

After studying different cultures and religions, Weber determined that charisma explains why we obey.

Charisma is distinct from rules and traditions. While tradition and rules are embedded in society's frameworks, charisma is a uniquely individual characteristic.

Weber recognised that others viewed charismatic individuals as having exceptional powers or qualities that exceeded those of ordinary people.

As a historian, Weber looked back at the charismatic leaders of his time. However, we live in an era where charismatic leadership has become the norm.

There has never been a time before ours when charisma was democratised. Weber may have identified charisma, but the spoils and snares are ours to navigate.

Why charisma now?

We forget that there was a time when the rulers and the ruled were not closely connected. The people didn’t know what the King or Queen looked like. They felt like a remote group with whom we lacked any personal ties.

Engravings, portraits, and later newspapers served as platforms for spreading the concept of charismatic leadership. These mediums allowed individuals to connect with their leaders, facilitating establishing and promoting a cohesive and enduring narrative about leadership. Images and text were crucial in depicting George Washington and Napoleon as influential, charismatic figures.

To understand how social media fosters the emergence of charismatic leaders, we can reference novelist Terry Pratchett.

In Pratchett’s novels, gods flicker in and out of existence, their power ebbing and flowing with the faith of their followers. Gods grow based on garnering belief, with unsuccessful gods left in a desolate wasteland desperately hunting for believers.

Similarly, our social media age has transformed into a vast, swirling marketplace of belief, where narratives are no longer dictated solely by institutions but are shaped and sustained by the collective will of the crowd.

Like Pratchett’s emerging deities, charismatic leaders emerge when they accumulate sufficient conviction. A viral moment, a captivating story, and a well-crafted illusion can be enough to summon influence from the social media ether.

Yet, as in Pratchett’s novels, where a god without believers is merely a whisper on the wind, charismatic leaders in the digital age are only as influential as the momentum supporting them.

Charismatic leaders can shape social media narratives, inspire movements and exploit their followers’ devotion. However, maintaining the momentum of charisma is an entirely different challenge.

Belief is fickle. The same forces that elevate can just as swiftly erode.

A once-revered, charismatic leader may find their influence waning as attention shifts elsewhere.

Ultimately, power in the age of social media is not owned; it is borrowed and sustained only as long as the crowd continues to believe in it.

This is the essence of charisma: the power of leadership arises from ordinary people’s belief in one individual's extraordinary abilities. When that belief fades, power diminishes.

Like a fire, charisma must be constantly stoked. The most successful charismatic leaders transform their charisma into traditions and rules, which is the most stable means of retaining power.

Charismatic leadership is unstable

Steve Jobs was a charismatic leader. However, in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs, those who worked most closely mention that Jobs’ leadership style was his ‘reality distortion field’.

Andy Hertzfeld, one of the original members of the Apple Macintosh team, describes this as: ‘The reality distortion field was a confounding mélange of a charismatic rhetorical style, indomitable will, and eagerness to bend any fact to fit the purpose at hand.’

While many admire Steve Jobs, he is often noted for lacking several traits typically valued in leaders. Steve Jobs was successful because he was an unstable leader.

The instability accompanying charismatic leadership was a central feature of Weber’s original theory. For Weber, charismatic leaders were often a radical force that challenged the structural sources of institutional power: tradition, rules, bureaucracy, method, and rationality.

Emotion is the source of a charismatic leader’s power. It is emotional, revolutionary, and transforming. It is the power given to one person to break and remake. However, with time, charisma’s effects wane, and bureaucracy takes control.

Charismatic leaders often struggle with this transition. Their inherent psychological traits compel them to continually craft their image, highlighting the constant existential crisis they face for the benefit of others.

Charismatic leadership often ends badly.

What were they thinking?

As stories of ‘buyer remorse’ surface from the MAGA movement, many people wonder what they thought when they voted.

It’s not that Trump embodied statesmanlike stability during his campaign; his abusive, hubristic, and dysfunctional leadership style was always on public display.

The easy answer is that everybody that voted for Trump is an idiot. While this is a comfortably superior and dismissive response, it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

For Weber, charismatic authority resulted from ‘times of psychic, physical, economic, ethical, religious, [and] political distress’.

Crisis and social distress are necessary conditions from which charisma emerges.

Individuals who support charismatic leaders typically react in one of two ways when confronted with a leader they view as exceptionally capable of alleviating their existential turmoil.

John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King inspired hope, faith, and excitement, while Donald Trump tapped into feelings of despair, diminished status, and perceived unfairness. In each case, these charismatic leaders provided a blueprint for action and promised an attractive future in which today’s fears would not exist.

Trust me, and all will be well again.

Ask better questions

Today, social media fosters charismatic leadership in ways unimaginable during Weber’s era or earlier periods. It is a medium that uncritically promotes the idea of charisma.

Charismatic leaders wield influence through their intense emotional connection. Their ability to inspire hope can sometimes eclipse rational discussion and critical analysis. Our willingness to believe has become a powerful currency.

We must enhance our critical thinking skills to effectively confront the challenges posed by the spread of charisma through social media. Simply admiring the influence of charisma without scrutinising its intentions is insufficient.

Who benefits from our beliefs? Most importantly, does the offered vision stand up to scrutiny, or is it merely a mirage shaped by emotion and illusion?

In an era where digital platforms amplify the allure of charismatic individuals, our responsibility is to be more than merely captivated; we must exercise critical thinking.

The notable danger of charisma is its dependence on emotion rather than evidence and spectacle instead of authentic value.

If we fail to scrutinise it, we might unwittingly become passive observers in the rise and fall of leaders whose influence has an enduring impact on our future.