The Development of Charismatic Leaders Micha Popper University of Haifa This paper explores the origins of leadership potential and motivation for leadership, primarily with regard to two types of leaders: personalized and socialized charismatic leaders. Bowlby’s attachment theory (1969, 1973) provides a theoretical basis for determining an individual’s potential to be in leadership positions. The “internal working model,” formed (according to Bowlby) in the course of attachment processes in infancy, has a considerable impact on self-perception, which may later affect the development of “ego resources” required for leadership. The motivation to be a leader is analyzed with the help of various psychodynamic concepts and models. KEY WORDS: attachment patterns, motivation to lead, socialized charismatic leadership, personalized charismatic leadership. The study of leadership developed during the last century through a series of paradigms. From the beginning of the 20th century to the late 1940s, the “great man” paradigm reflected the assumption (Carlyle, 1841/1907) that the leader is a person endowed with extraordinary qualities that are the source of his or her influence, so leadership was viewed as a collection of inborn qualities that can be uncovered and measured. As early as 1948, Stogdill (in Bass, 1990) reviewed 124 leadership studies examining dozens of characteristics that might distinguish leaders from others. Some of the studies examined physical traits; others examined characteristics such as intelligence, determination, and originality. Many of the findings contradicted each other; characteristics identified in one study did not appear in others, and it was not possible on the basis of these studies to make any clear, unequivocal statement about leadership qualities. Disappointment with traits research paved the way for a diametrically opposite avenue, the situation approach; this eventually gave way to contingency models, which conceptualized leadership in terms of an interaction between leadership styles and situation variables (e.g., Fiedler, 1967; Reddin, 1967; Vroom & Yetton, 1973). These studies usually present data such as correlations between various Political Psychology, Vol. 21, No. 4, 2000 729 0162-895X © 2000 International Society of Political Psychology Published by Blackwell Publishers, 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF, UK.