Charismatic Leadership

The Charismatic leader is very different. His emphasis is a need to break with the past in order to go in new directions. The word "charismatic" is used here in a sociological rather in a spiritual sense and it describes a magnetic personality whose leadership is spontaneous and whose decisions arise from intuition or from a special sense of Call, rather than being based on tradition.

Those who follow his lead do so because they are attracted by his life, message, methods etc.Their support will, of course, lapse if the attraction wears off. So it cannot e taken for granted. As long as the charismatic leader is accepted in any community or organization, it can often seem very successful, but success needs to be measured by the quality and maturity of other leaders' development and not just by the quantity of the members.