Contemporary Issues in Leadership

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Charismatic versus Transformational Leadership

“Charismatic leaders can be a transformational leader if their methods focus on changing the hearts and minds of the followers rather than simply creating a transactional reward system. However, not all transformational leaders are charismatic.”

Of course, we will never be able to see into the heart and soul of other people, so we will never actually know their motivations. But, think of some of the great leaders from history and from your own experience. Let's look at a few examples: Pak Lah, Alex Ferguson, Tony Fernandez and Adolf Hitler, are they transformational or charismatic leader?

Justifications based on the out of the box thinking.
1. Pak Lah is a transformational leader. It is difficult to have a charismatic leader in sequence. Mahathir is a charismatic leader and well-known for his inspiring modernization of Malaysia. During Pak Lah time continuous efforts had been taken to ensure the ethics and morality issues in governance. Islam Hadhari had transformed the way of thinking among the public servants.

2. Alex Ferguson (MU) is definitely one of the best coaches in this era. He is a risk-taker and inspirational motivator to his players. He always fought to the end and never surrender the title until the premiership is over. He is a tactician coach which put him in winning momentum. He is a charismatic leader in football.

3. Tony Fernandez gets everyone to fly. He makes Malaysian proud seeing Air Asia advertisement during the EPL games. He is one of the top Malaysian richest man. He is close to be known as charismatic leader.

4. Adolf Hitler is a charismatic leader to his countrymen, but only a transformational leader to his enemies. He is a good example of the evil kind of charismatic leader. The second world war was about the rise of this very influential leader – Adolf Hitler.

by Jakaria Dasan
School of Business and Economics
Universiti Malaysia Sabah

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