Comparison between Charismatic Leadership and Transformational Leadership. What Are Specific Impacts of These Leadership Types on Followers?

Generally, there has not been a specific explanation of leadership that is universally recognized. People have varying definitions and concepts of leadership, which they may use in different circumstances. The role of a leader includes developing connections with their supporters and motivating them to perform the task at hand. Leadership is considered a social phenomenon instead of a psychological one (Irwin, 2017). Leadership creates an atmosphere that is favorable to both opposition and change. Transformational and charismatic leadership are the two main kinds of leadership that have unique features. This essay will comprehensively compare and contrast the two types of leadership and explain the impacts of charismatic and transformational leadership on followers.

Charismatic leadership occurs as a result of people feeling encouraged to serve a leader because they love them. Supporters of charismatic leaders admire the personality and charisma of the leader. The supporters are not influenced by power or external influence, and people who lead are the focus of charismatic leadership (Grabo et al., 2017). They can persuade, impart and remain silent in their leadership roles. Furthermore, as a leader, this is what one should strive to achieve. This leadership style is characterized by leaders who impact the employees and attract them amid crises by using their excellent communications abilities and strong personalities. Charismatic leaders encourage their supporters to complete tasks or alter how they perform them (Grabo et al., 2017). This goal is accomplished by instilling in people a desire to achieve a predetermined mission or purpose. Essentially, a kind of gallantry promotes the charismatic leadership style. From the start, this type of effort is nearly divine.

Transformational leadership is a type of leadership style that affects both individuals and cultural contexts. It advances crucial transformations among supporters in its perfect structure, utterly geared towards changing followers into pioneers. They have trust in the excellence of their team (Budur, 2020). Transformational leaders connect their supporters’ future ambitions to the organization’s goals and encourage them to achieve their objectives. They act as motivators and role models for their supporters. They encourage their followers to be accountable and have greater responsibility. Such leaders appreciate the significance of their followers’ strengths and weaknesses, which help them choose the right tasks and improve their output.

Transformational leaders are more inclined towards the success of their supporters. They listen to their concerns by maintaining open communication, making supporters feel optimistic and compelled to work towards the organization’s growth (Budur, 2020). However, this kind of leadership style has its share of shortcomings. Often, a company or a person may be adamant about embracing change. As such, the leader might get discouraged, losing the vigor to drive the organization to greater heights.

Similarities and Differences of Charismatic and Transformational Leadership

There exist similarities and differences between the two types of leadership styles. Transformational leaders, just like charismatic leaders, encourage their followers to prioritize the organization’s goals before their individual goals. For instance, when a leader is admired, there emerge personality cults from a collaborative system. There are many instances of excessive loyalty to an individual where critical leadership quality judgments are endangered (Howard, 2019). Unfortunately, achieving an agreement may lead to mediocrity. The same scenario may be seen in charismatic leaders; according to various researches, they have an exceptionally high degree of charismatic influence on their followers. These supporters see their leader’s line of thoughts to be correct and incorporate them without questions. They show empathy for the leaders and are geared towards the collective’s or organization’s goal.

Conversely, in some instances, transformational leadership might not achieve the expected success compared to the authoritative and more centered leadership style. Anarchy is a blatant example of transformational leadership. If people in an organization have aggressive intelligence, it is unsuitable for doing the necessary tasks and making decisions (Howard, 2019). In difficult situations, uncertainty may lead to the organization extinction, specifically where people choose to be followers instead of decision-makers.

Additionally, transformational leadership is geared towards a common objective and encourages everyone to transform the organization to greater heights. Therefore, charismatic leaders are the key to charismatic leadership, while transparency and empowerment are the keys to transformational leadership. While transformational leadership prioritizes personal development, charismatic leadership believes that followers are essential in achieving the organization’s objective (Howard, 2019). Under transformational leadership, the followers create the company’s goal; however, the leader decides what the purpose of supporters in charismatic leadership becomes. In that sense, transformational leadership embraces an indisputably more participative visioning approach.

Conclusion

Conclusively, some people believe that charisma is an ingredient of transformational leadership. In contrast, others believe that charisma is too broad and scant to explain the transformative process without relying on another phenomenon adequately. Some people opine that charismatic leaders expect their followers to take their vision unreservedly. In contrast, transformational leaders are geared towards instilling the ability to question established views, such as the leader’s own. A charismatic leadership style includes a plan focused on the leader’s attractiveness and charisma to motivate and inspire people to support the leader. This scenario is different from the transformational leadership style, built on a shared vision that changes people’s social systems.