Personality may play only a small part in leadership effectiveness but there is no doubt that some leaders have a certain magic that leaves peers envious and followers entranced. If you could bottle this leadership X-factor – charisma – the queue of interested executives would be a long one. But what qualities can these often highly successful leaders be said to possess?

As individuals, charismatic leaders have highly developed communication skills, including the ability to convey emotions easily and naturally to others, says Ronald Riggio, professor of leadership and organisational psychology and the director of the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College, California. “They are able... through their emotional expressiveness and verbal skills, to inspire and arouse the emotions of followers,” he says.

“They connect with followers because they have emotional sensitivity/empathy and seem to truly understand others’ feelings and concerns.

“And they are great role models because they have savoir-faire [the ability to engage others socially and display appropriate role-playing skills] that allows them to walk the talk,” Professor Riggio says.

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The US presidential hopeful Barack Obama is the latest in a long line of US politicians blessed with the X-factor. Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy are good examples of charismatic leaders, Professor Riggio says. It’s no coincidence that acting was Reagan’s first career. Leading actors possess charisma in spades because they are trained communicators who can handle themselves easily in social situations. “James Bond is the prototype of a charismatic individual who was exceptionally high in the two skills that make up... savoir-faire: social expressiveness and social control,” he says.

Much hinges upon the perceptions of those being led, says Daan van Knippenberg, a professor of organisational behaviour and the head of the Erasmus Centre for Leadership Studies in Rotterdam. “One quality we like in our leaders is if they are seen to really represent us. We think someone is more charismatic, the more they represent our collective identity,” he says. In this way, a charismatic leader is somehow a larger-than-life version of ourselves.

Academics say that charismatic leaders also manage to stand out from the crowd, Professor Van Knippenberg says. They might do this by dressing a little flamboyantly, being unconventional or by taking a different approach to problem-solving, for example.

“They are up for new things, they are not stuck in the status quo. They are open to... out-of-the-box thinking, etc. An upbeat, energetic quality helps us to see leadership qualities in them and makes us open to their influence,” he says.

Charismatic leaders are exceptionally self-confident; strongly motivated to lead; and have a strong conviction about the moral correctness of their beliefs, says Kai Peters, the chief executive of Ashridge Business School. When these personality traits are coupled with the ability to make others feel good, generate respect, build confidence and transmit a sense of mission, it can be a powerful business tonic.

“A lot of charismatic leadership, and leadership in general, is very contextual. It’s really good in entrepreneurial firms. It’s [also] good for turnarounds if the organisation is in a bad state because it inspires.”

But not every organisation needs a charismatic figurehead. Leaders loaded with the X-factor can be narcissistic, self-aggrandising, exploitative and authoritarian. As Peters says: “Where it [is] a problem is where you have ‘look at me, I’m a star’ in stable environments where there is a need for good stewardship... not a need to cause a revolution.”

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