Too much charisma can be a problem at work

Too much charisma can be a problem at workToo much charisma can be a problem at workWe should all have problems like this.Too much charisma is a problem for leaders in the same way that too little is, according to a study recently released in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The studyfound that for leaders, moderate amounts are charisma make others perceive them as the most effective.The research said that leaders with smaller amounts of charisma dont perform as well because they dont act as strategically as possible,and leaders with a lotdont do as well because they dont have enough operational behavior.While conventional wisdom suggests that highly charismatic leaders might fail for interpartal reasons like arrogance and self-centeredness, our findings suggest that business-related behaviors, mora than interpersonal behavior, drive leader effectiveness ratings,Jasmine Vergauwe, a doctoral student at Ghent University and an author of the study,said in a statement.Wh ile a dark side of charisma exists, use it to your advantage.The findingsExcessive charisma is when it isnt beneficialanymore, or it gets in the way of being effective. Here are some of the findingsStudy 1 said questionsfrom a specific surveygauged trait-based charisma successfully. It said, as in other cited texts, charismatic persons are typically described as energetic, assertive, talkative people who inspire others by generating a lot of enthusiasm. Moreover, inventiveness, imaginativeness, and originality reflect their creative minds, whereas their carelessness may reflect risk-taking behaviors.Study 2 showed, across groups, leaders with moderate charisma seemed most effective, unlikethose with a little ora lot.Study 3 found that low-charisma leaders seem less effective than ones in the middle, because the dont act as strategically. Ones with a lot also wereless effectivebecause they tookfeweroperational actions - that is, they lacked theability to get people to get things don e more quickly.How to boostcharismaBasedon outside research,the researchers elaboratedon howleaders can improve their performance Ones with high charisma might benefit most from coaching in the operational department. Ones with lesscould improve how they strategize with a program that emphasizes planning for the futureand being more skeptical of the way things are.In a related study, MITs Alex Pentland researched honest signals - described as unconscious factors such as the way one persons speech patterns match the others, the level of physical activity as people talk, and the degree to which one person sets the tone - literally - of the conversation.He told the Harvard Business Reviewabout how these non-verbal cues can be used to understand whats really going on in social situations, shedding light on the role of charisma inthe office.A Forbes articledescribeshow the MIT team tried to gauge leaders charisma at a cocktail party based on variousfactors. Later, the leaders presente dbusiness plans for judges. The research team successfully predictedwho would have the more successful presentations, based on their behavior in the first setting (without seeing or hearing the presentations). The researchers reportedly saw how powerful the participants social signals were. The executives who fared well pumped up their energy by doing more taking and listeningand by detecting how others acted and asking morequestions.Upyour charisma at work - just dont overdo it.