Is Boris the most charismatic contender in the Tory leadership race? Credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images
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Why are we so obsessed with charisma – or the lack of it? The most consistent complaint against Theresa May – and there’s quite a list – has been her want of it. Never mind the competence question. She’s been described as “a charisma-free populist” and the “Maybot”; many are calling for her replacement to have more of the magic C factor. So as the current crop of leadership contenders trot like show ponies round the ring of members and stakeholders, each is being assessed for their possession of this mystical quality.
Charisma is one of those slippery concepts – we know it when we see it, or more accurately when we feel it. But should we trust it? Some argue, and research indicates, that it may be something to be wary of – as it hides a lack of substance, capability and character. Boris Johnson is widely acknowledged as charismatic, but for many it is in this flashy, shallow sense.
I think we should definitely seek charisma in our leaders, but an older, deeper conception of it. The word charisma comes from the Greek for the gift of grace or favour. Truly charismatic leaders give off a sense of having received something beyond themselves and an ability to communicate and share this across difference. Whether it’s grace, power or purpose, true charisma isn’t just an appealing individual with whom we’d like to have a beer.
The original moment of ‘charismatic leadership’ offers a good model. Last week churches were celebrating Pentecost. This festival commemorates one of the stranger events in the generally quite strange New Testament. Following Jesus’s death and resurrection, a small group of his friends meet in a house, bewildered and exhausted, and “receive the Holy spirit”. An indoor tornado appears and small fires break out on their heads. They are then able to start speaking in the myriad languages of the nations gathered in Jerusalem for the Jewish festival of the harvest, and people start joining them. They receive a gift which propels them into leadership, with exponentially increasing numbers of followers.
Pentecost was the “ground zero” of the church. This divinely conferred ability to communicate across groups, to inspire, envision and incorporate people from every language, tribe and social class was part of the reason the early Christians were able to transform the face of the known world so rapidly. All Christians trace their lineage to it, but it is particularly associated with the wing of the church called Pentecostal or Charismatic, most of whom still “speak in tongues” and encourage powerful ecstatic experiences of the divine.
Whether you take this as a powerful story or gospel truth, it has something to teach us today about charisma. It isn’t about Hollywood gloss, or sex-appeal, or extraversion. It can’t be manufactured.
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