A Leader from the Past
House (1976) published a theory of
charismatic leadership, which is similar to, if not synonymous with,
transformational leadership (Northouse, 2016, p.164). For House (1976), the
personality characteristics of a charismatic leader include being dominant,
having a strong desire to influence others, being self-confident, and having a
strong sense of one own’s moral values. Sets strong role model, shows competence,
articulates goals, sets high expectations, express confidence and arouses
motives, are some common behaviors of a charismatic leader (House, 1976).
Bass
(1999, p.191) says that leaders are
authentically transformational when they increase awareness of what is right, good,
important and beautiful, when they help to elevate followers’ needs for achievement
and self-actualization, when they foster in followers higher moral maturity,
and when they move followers to go beyond their self-interests for the good of
their group, organization, or society.
One of the
leaders of my past that exhibited
some of the qualities of a transformational leader is Alexandra Caprioli, and this is one of the reason I chose
her to interview, as part of my final paper tasks for this class.
The first
moment I was impacted by her traits, it was in one of her speeches to students
of Tourism and Hospitality, where I was the orator of the event. At this point
I had not met her before, and I clearly remembered how she impressed me with
her communication abilities, her professional achievements, her confidence, her
technical knowledge as professor and owner of business in the field, and her
open mind when she invited me to work with her.
While working with her,
the main leadership traits and skills I observed in Alexandra’s was
assertiveness, efficiency, readiness to face challenges, continuous
self-development, humility and motivation. She was always seeking opportunities
to develop other. First, she invited, without knowing me, to work with her as a
trainee. Afterwards, she invited me to work with her in random events she
organized, until one day, after a year we did not see each other, she contacted
me to assist her in one of her most important events, which she organizes
yearly.
The fact of being
role-model, of trusting on me when I was only 17 years old and keeping looking
for my professional contributions for three years made me work harder on every
opportunity I was working with her. The fact of sharing with me her personal
life, taking me inside her house while working (which is very uncommon in my
culture), being so approachable and humble while being so well known in my city
(owning along with her family the main bus company, event agency and an
airline) transformed me professionally.
I remember my first thought
when I watched her speech: “I want to be
like her one day”. She inspired me to keep learning new languages, to work
hard in order to achieve my goals, to keep working on my professional dreams
while majority of people around me criticized the field I chose. She inspired
me to be humble no matter what is my rank in an organization, treating people as
human beings and with dignity, while being confident, assertive and directive
at appropriate times. An example on how transformational she was, and I believe
still is, is the fact she was the first leader who came to my mind when I
needed to choose I leader to interview, and now, again, to pick a leader from
my past.
“The way people make us feel lasts longer,
because it is stored in our emotional memory”
Debora Arantes
REFERENCES
Bass,
B. M., Steidlmeier, P. (1999). Ethics, Character, and Authentic
Transformational Leadership Behavior. Leadership
Quarterly, 10(2), 181–217.
House
(1976). A 1976 Theory of Charismatic Leadership. In J. G. hun & L. L.
Larson (Eds), Leadership: the cutting
edge (pp. 189-207). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: theory and practice. (7th edition). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
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