Which Trait Do Employers Consider More Important in Job Applicants - Charisma Or Authenticity?
When it comes to job interviews applicants often struggle with which persona or aspects of their personalities they should project, and which they should keep in the background. Obviously self-confidence is important, but what about flamboyance and charisma or authenticity? The image that job applicants project in the interview will not only have an affect on whether or not they are hired, but could also impact their chances of promotion and leadership opportunities.
For a long time, charisma was thought to be the ideal quality in leaders. Charismatic people were thought to be natural leaders, as others were automatically drawn to their strong and colourful presence. It was thought that inspired an inherent need to please or obey and that they would instantly bring about positive change. An article in the Harvard Business Review revealed that charismatic leaders often come to the fore in times of distress, particularly in the corporate world. This is because of their ability to sweep in and make fundamental changes to prevailing systems; changes that would ordinarily be decried, but because of the force of the leader’s personality are widely embraced and even revered.
But it can happen that charismatic leaders are all about the show and have very little substance. The loyalty that they win is shallow and fleeting, easily transferred to the next colourful personality who comes along. In a study among hotel personnel, Tony Simons from Cornell University, New York, found that employees value authenticity or personal integrity over charisma in their managers. Hotels with managers who were perceived as trustworthy tended to be more profitable than hotels with managers who failed to inspire trust in their staff. Consistency and credibility also ranked highly among the favourable characteristics of leaders, but so did an ability to recognise the effort of others, good communication skills, moral authority and building a close-knit team with a shared vision of where the company/business is going.
In an article in Strategic Business Network.com, Scott Gainsberg says that while charisma has a lot going for it, it can’t stand alone, it needs to be backed-up by intelligence, creativity and, of course, authenticity. He has very little time for those who posit charisma as the acme of leadership. He also has some unkind things to say about people who endorse the “fake ’til you make it” philosophy. As Gainsberg says, faking it is as far away from authenticity as it gets. How are people supposed to trust a colleague let alone a leader who blusters his or her way through the work day?
So, to get back to the question posed right at the beginning: which traits should you project in a job interview? It seems that parents, friends and all loved ones everywhere are right: be yourself. If you believe that you have to consciously project a certain image, you’re probably fighting a losing battle. Any projection that is not authentic to yourself will come across as affected, and that will cost you more jobs and promotions in the long run than quiet self-assurance.
Recommended sites:
http://www.strategicbusinessnetwork.com/ArticleVerses?id=28948
http://www.cba.nau.edu/pielstick-d/Leadership/Leading.htm
Sandra wrote this article for the online marketers Employers Jobs work opportunities and vacancies one of the leading site directories for information on work opportunities and job vacancies, as well as developing trends in the professional world.
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