Personalmagazin (Haufe.de) — "Führen mit Charisma" (Leading with Charisma)
I teamed up with Ralf Lanwehr and Helena Hüster to write about something that gets a bad rap in HR circles: charisma. The gut reaction is usually "authoritarian," "narcissist," "Great Man Theory" and fair enough, charisma does have a dark side. But the research tells a different story too: it's actually one of the strongest predictors of leadership success out there, especially when it comes paired with integrity. We also dig into that it is learnable, not some inborn trait you either have or don't.
Newstalk — Moncrieff podcast: "Are women ever described as 'charismatic'?"
My work on charisma and value congruence got a shoutout in this radio segment, where my colleague Mary Hausfeld from University of Limerick joined Newstalk to talk about a question that doesn't get asked enough: are women held to the same charisma standard as men? Turns out gender bias plays a real role in who gets called "charismatic" and who doesn't.
CHRO.nl — "Maken charisma en stemgebruik vrouwelijke leider overtuigender?"
My co-author Janneke Oostrom wrote up our research on charisma and voice pitch in leadership selection for CHRO.nl — the Dutch platform for HR directors. The piece walks through what Margaret Thatcher and Elizabeth Holmes had in common (both consciously lowered their voice to sound more authoritative), then digs into what our data actually shows: across three studies with almost 2,500 experienced recruiters, lowering voice pitch barely moved the needle for female candidates, while charismatic communication boosted their selection rate from 48% to 73%. It also makes the case that the responsibility shouldn't fall on women alone — organizations need more structured, objective selection procedures too.