Eugene Lin Week 2: Theories in Action

In the second week of my internship, I have grown more accustomed to the work culture and staff members in the American Red Cross. One observation that I have noticed is that my communications supervisor displays strong signs of charismatic leadership. He is very confident, extremely well spoken, and able to articulate his thoughts and concerns in a very persuasive way. (This is probably why he was so suitable for his position as the head of communications and outreach in the first place). However, I have also noticed that, although he is good at speaking to others, he is not so great at communicating what his goals and objectives are. Firstly, he loves to speak and dominate the conversation. He speaks fast and doesn’t leave much room for his peers and staff members to give their own input. His directions for assignments are ambiguous. I have also noticed that he goes off on tangents, and speaks on topics that are only loosely connected to the conversations at hand. By doing all this, he puts “followers” on the defensive and has them busy trying to keep up. He displays narcissistic tendencies at times as likes to speak about himself and his past experiences often. The best way I can describe his conversations is that they feel artificial and hyped.

The downfall of charismatic leaders is that they don’t necessarily motivate their followers to work for the group’s overall success. For example, when I speak to my communications supervisor, I see that he has strong emotional intelligence and I feel highly motivated to help him with assignments. Yet, when I leave his office and start my assignments, I firstly realize that his instructions are not too clear and that the motivation I had beforehand wears off quickly. Even as an intern, I didn’t feel that the work I did was making an impact for the American Red Cross.

I do not want this week’s reflection to seem like a criticism of my supervisor. I simply wanted to align his traits and qualities with that of the charismatic leadership model. I wouldn’t classify his leadership style as a transformational leader. Unlike a transformational leader, his goals are not clear, he doesn’t seem to inspire his followers well, and doesn’t seem to have high expectations for his followers. Similarly, his leadership style isn’t transactional either because the leadership structure isn’t hierarchical nor is it really task oriented. Most transactional leaders will also hover and manage their followers closely to make sure that they are working towards the goal; however, my communications supervisor is very hands off and doesn’t follow up on my progress frequently.