Charisma: Micro-sociology of Power and Influence

Introduction
  • Page 1 Charisma is a sociological term that went viral. Originally it was made famous among sociologists by Max Weber. Its roots are in a Greek word meaning "gift" -- i.e. a gift from God --
  • Page 1 Micro- sociology is associated especially with Erving Goffman and his followers. It concentrates on how individuals interact with each other, above all face- to- face.
  • Page 2 what we know about the micro- sociology of charisma is about close face- to-face interactions.
  • Page 2 Social network analysis, as practiced by sociologists, collects information about who interacts with whom over and over again, in ties that range from strong and intense, to weak and casual.
  • Page 2 Charismatic persons build networks: they attract followers (who may themselves be isolates or densely networked -- which makes a difference);
  • Page 3 Thinking about every person as located in some kind of networks has another payoff. It keeps up from overly heroizing the individual. To some extent, the team makes the leader.
  • Page 3 they were good at taking the organizational resources that already existed, and improving on them. Steve
  • Page 3 building a team that got things done.
  • Page 3 Jesus always dominates the conversation. When anyone else starts it, he abruptly changes the topic to something surprising, but always appropriate to what they were really intending. He is a good judge of what other people are concerned about, and he makes quick decisions, whether to cut his losses and move on, or to ask someone to join him.
  • Page 3 He is a master of timing.
  • Page 4 networks that maximize success;
  • Page 4 just giving advice isn’t enough; networks generate success when they make real investments in people, such as fronting them money or getting them positions).
  • Page 4 Joan of Arc first got attention because it was unusual to be a woman warrior; but she was also good at recognizing who she could influence.
  • Page 4 Intense group- bonding rituals
  • Page 4 Fighting to protect her because she has become the emblem of their better selves.
  • Page 4 Jiang Qing, better known as Madame Mao, was the leader of the Red Guards movement in late 1960s China.
  • Page 5 Her career exemplifies charisma that can be built by proximity to others with charisma, as well as its dangers.
  • Page 5 always stealing the scene, always in the center of attention.
  • Page 5 Chapter 5 sums up the different dimensions of charisma: frontstage charisma; backstage charisma; and success- magic charisma. Plus a fourth dimension, which is really pseudo- charisma, the halo of fame that hangs around famous names from the past, even though these persons may only have been a front for someone else. We also examine how non- charismatic persons become charismatic. Charisma is not simply a gift;
  • Page 5 a charismatic person is not necessarily a good guy; in fact it is generally true that he or she is a hero to some people, and enemy or a fraud to others.
  • Page 6 there a difference between good charisma and bad charisma? Or do they both use the same techniques, but apply them in different directions? It is not yet settled (and makes another good discussion).
  • Page 6 the real test is whether you can move people emotionally, get them focused, and make things happen. 1 Jesus in Interaction: The Micro-sociology of Charisma
  • Page 7 Jesus is a master of timing. He does not allow people to force him into their rhythm, their definition of the situation. He perceives what they are attempting to do, the intention beyond the words. And he makes them shift their ground.
  • Page 26 the charismatic leader relates to the crowd by personally communicating with individuals in the crowd, 2 Playing the Networks: Becoming Lawrence of Arabia
  • Page 39 Sociological theory of networks says that the best position to be in is where networks are separated, and you get to be the only bridge between them.
  • Page 43 With the Arabs, Lawrence adopted another style. He was a uniquely important person, the sole conduit to British gold, weapons, and promises of future rule. But although Lawrence was always in the center, he played it low- key. In Faisal’s presence, Lawrence treated him as the revered leader, giving him all expected deference and flattery.
  • Page 44 Lawrence’s first task was to strengthen Faisal’s prestige. Lawrence never disagreed with Faisal, never pointed out weaknesses in his ill- considered plans.
  • Page 44 Like other charismatic leaders, Lawrence was a good micro- observer of individuals. He carefully studied the Arab leaders and soldiers, discerning which way they were tending. A master of timing, he sensed the moment when they would move.
  • Page 45 Lawrence’s career shows two crucial ingredients of becoming a charismatic leader: the micro- interactional techniques that made him impressive to the people he dealt with, and enabled him to recruit and expand his networks. But also, he rose above all potential rivals by his network speed. He found the crucial bridge- position in the networks, and exploited it to the full.
  • Page 54 We generally think of charismatic leaders as great speech- makers: Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Churchill, and even on the dark side of the force, Adolf Hitler. For most of them, what is best- remembered are the speeches they made. But if the key to charisma is generating high emotional energy in masses of people and rallying them around oneself, Lawrence shows there is another way to do it.
  • Page 54 A charismatic leader energizes other people, and thereby energizes oneself.
  • Page 54 Lawrence did this by talking quietly, observing silently, never giving orders, waiting his time and then making suggestions that others accepted. 3 When are Women Charismatic Leaders? Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, Madame Mao Zedong
  • Page 55 There are four main ways of becoming a charismatic leader.
  • Page 55 Frontstage charisma: moving large numbers of people into action as enthusiastic followers.
  • Page 55 Backstage charisma: gaining enthusiastic compliance in private, face- to- face encounters. This is the power of emotional domination on the personal level.
  • Page 55 Success- magic charisma: being perceived as unbeatable, running off a string of successes even against improbable odds.
  • Page 56 Reputational charisma: being known as charismatic (in any of the above senses) amplifies one’s emotional appeal via a feedback loop.
  • Page 64 Frontstage charisma: Cleopatra did not make speeches, but she certainly knew how to attract crowds.
  • Page 65 Cleopatra knew how to trap others in her spectacles, adjusting them to the victim’s personality.
  • Page 67 For her beauty, as we are told, was in itself not altogether incomparable, nor such as to strike those who saw her, but converse with her had an irresistible charm … There was sweetness in the tones of her voice; and her tongue, like an instrument of many strings, she could readily turn to whatever language she pleased.
  • Page 70 Fame per se is not charisma. It has its own causes. To note one here: very famous persons tend to cluster, in networks of acquaintance and antagonism.
  • Page 70 Perhaps surprisingly, women’s access to top power is greatest in conservative and autocratic regimes.
  • Page 70 Women do as well in autocracies as anybody, except generals. When political rulers are careful to keep generals from taking over, the woman closest to the male dictator has a unique opportunity.
  • Page 75 Being feared is not real charisma, if we define it as the power to move people spontaneously. 4 Charisma and Self-destruction: Marilyn Monroe’s Networks Pulled Her Apart
  • Page 80 In a way, this is not a very sociological question. Erving Goffman said that everyone has a frontstage self (or more than one), plus a backstage part of your life where you put on your clothes, your make-up, and your way of dealing with the people you’re going to meet. But he also denied that the backstage is the real self, since it is shaped by what you do on the frontstage part; it isn’t any more spontaneous or "real," just an alternation between preparation, social performance, and down-time.
  • Page 94 Frontstage charisma. Obviously, Marilyn was not the kind of person who makes speeches and leads crowds by swaying their emotions and beliefs. But no one was better at capturing the center of public attention.
  • Page 94 Backstage charisma. This is the realm of face-to-face relationships; the capacity for emotional domination that is so striking in the way Jesus talked with people, always seizing control of the conversation with an unexpected shift. Marilyn was not at all like this. But when people pressed her (like reporters), she usually came up with a stopper, a tag line that gave everyone pause, or made people laugh. 5 What is Charisma Anyway? And How Do You Get It? Eleanor Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler
  • Page 96 Frontstage charisma means putting on overpoweringly impressive performances in front of an audience. The crowd is not just convinced; they are swept off their feet. It is more than just an entertaining moment; after such an experience, we will follow them anywhere. Charisma seizes people’s emotions and shapes their will. A charismatic leader is a great speech-maker. Their speeches recruit a movement.
  • Page 97 An example of backstage charisma is Lawrence of Arabia. When recruiting an Arab army against the Turks in World War I, Lawrence did not try to dominate meetings or give orders. He let the warrior equality of the desert take its course as they discussed at leisure whether to follow the British or not; when the timing felt right, he would quietly announce that he was going to attack such-and-such, whoever felt like coming was welcome.
  • Page 97 Max Weber’s main criterion is that charismatic leaders are credited with supernatural powers. Jesus, Muhammad, and Moses are associated with miracles and direct contact with the divine. They also launched lasting movements. On the secular level, charisma comes from a string of successes, especially against the odds. Such a leader becomes regarded as unbeatable.
  • Page 98 If you have charisma, you get a reputation for it. The fourth type of charisma is a result of the other three. There is also some feedback effect; the more widespread your reputation for charisma, the more it pumps up your appeal as a frontstage performer and as a miracle-worker. But this brings us onto tricky grounds. People who want to be charismatic can try to manipulate it, by working the public relations machine. How successful is this?
  • Page 98 Subtypes of merely reputational charisma include: ephemeral pseudo-charisma: You get a big reputation; enthusiastic crowds flock to see you; everybody wants to get near you, touch you, get your autograph or a selfie with you.
  • Page 99 historically retrospective charisma: Some individuals’ charisma is created after their death. An example is Queen Elizabeth the First, whose name is attached to the Elizabethan age. She was not a speech-maker, and she did not direct the policy of England to any great extent during her reign. Crucial decisions, like executing Mary Queen of Scots and thereby setting off the Spanish Armada, were made behind her back. She had no backstage skill in winning people over.
  • Page 99 Charisma is a style of interaction that has to be developed. But some persons have further to travel than others. Some start as distinctly un-charismatic.
  • Page 103 If charisma is made, not born, a crucial point in every explanation must be when someone launches out on the pathway to deliberately making one’s own impact in the world.
  • Page 104 Some charismatic leaders come from obscure beginnings. Jesus
  • Page 109 The Nazi movement was designed to make Hitler charismatic, but it also was designed to be a movement that is charismatic. It aims to make everyone in it feel charismatic, special, energized, and at the center of action.
  • Page 113 Charisma leads social change. Appendix: Three Micro-sources of Power
  • Page 114 At the high end of the continuum, high EE is having a great deal confidence, initiative and enthusiasm. At the low end of the continuum, individuals are depressed, withdrawn, and passive.
  • Page 114 Favorable ingredients are: assembling persons face-to-face; focusing their attention on the same thing, so that they become aware of their mutual awareness; plus feeling the same emotion. If these micro-processes take off, they feed back and intensify, into rhythmic entrainment of voices and bodies that Durkheim called collective effervescence. Persons who go through this kind of experience feel solidarity and shared social identity.
  • Page 117 Durkheim would say that the charismatic leader becomes the sacred object for the group; I would say he or she is the focus of attention that sets the trajectory of the group, filling them with enthusiasm that they will accomplish something great together.