One thing great CEOs don’t have

Charisma is an attractive word. Charisma is the power to attract and attract others, and it is considered one of the best qualities a leader should have, whether it is a group or a company. In addition, since most people think that charisma is innate rather than acquired, they are more strongly attracted to charismatic characters. The word charisma comes from the Greek, and its original meaning is ‘God’s grace’ or ‘gift of grace’. How can you not admire those who have received God’s grace?

The word charisma was originally a Christian term, but it has been used as a panacea for leading since the 1950s, and has become an indispensable element in business as a quality of a great entrepreneur. So what is the correlation between charisma and entrepreneurs?

First of all, let’s listen to the evaluation of charismatic world-class management guru Peter Drucker.

“I have met and worked with many CEOs and leaders over the past 15 years. Some of the most effective leaders shut themselves in offices, and some were too sociable. And while some were quick and impulsive, others carefully examined the situation and made decisions only after much thought. The only thing most effective people I’ve met have in common is that they don’t have “something.” That is, they had little ‘charisma’, rarely used the word itself, and did not do what the word meant.”

What happened? Peter Drucker, who is full of charisma, says that there is nothing to do with charisma and outstanding managers. However, no matter how world-class management guru is, his opinion cannot be said to be exactly right. If so, let’s find related research.

In 2009, Steven Kaplan, Mark Klebanov, and Morten Sorenson jointly published a paper titled “What characteristics and abilities of CEOs are important?” They evaluated the personalities of 316 CEOs in detail and quantified their performance at the company. The result was too bland. This is because it has been shown that there are no specific characteristics that make an organization successful.

A study by Murray Barrick, Michael Mount, and Timothy Judge found that charisma, such as extroversion and likability, had no correlation at all with successful CEOs. In addition, Jim Collins, a world-renowned management guru, went one step further and said the common characteristics of CEOs of great companies in “From Good to Great Companies.”

“They have five levels of leadership: humble yet strong-willed, humble but fearless.”

According to Jim Collins, the CEOs who deliver extraordinary performance are “quiet, lowly, humble, reserved, shy, courteous, gentle, reserved, and quiet.” He also systematically charted and analyzed 5,979 articles, and found that companies that made the leap to greatness had less than half the number of articles than other companies, and few articles focused specifically on CEOs. In other words, successful CEOs were not the ones who wanted to come forward and present themselves with charisma. Rather, it was far from charismatic.

In the meantime, Jim Collins brings up the concept of ‘windows and mirrors’. Executives with Level 5 leadership in great companies look out the window when things are going well and give credit to factors other than themselves, and when they can’t find a special person or event to give credit to, they say they’re “just lucky.” did. Also, when things didn’t go well, he looked in the mirror and blamed himself, never blaming bad luck.

But companies that didn’t make it to greatness did the exact opposite. When things didn’t go well, he looked out the window and blamed someone else, and when things went well, he flattered himself in the mirror and praised himself. This is the essence of Jim Collins’ Window and Mirror.

Harry S. Truman left this quote.

“If you don’t care who gets the credit, you can achieve anything in life.”

Taken together, the foregoing suggests that charisma doesn’t explain anything about success, as we might think, and that no particular personal character or trait has a clear correlation to being a great CEO. As Jim Collins’s research shows, the leaders of great companies do not run companies to expand their egos, but always act without forgetting that the organization takes precedence over their own selfishness.

In order to become a great leader, I think I can forget the word ‘charisma’ now. If you see the causes of your success through a window and the causes of your failure through a mirror, then anyone will want to be by your side and have fun working with you.

In a way, isn’t that what real charisma is?