ABSTRACT
I have examined a range of leaders from different cultural and political settings spanning an extended period of time from the earlier part of the last century until the present. I have found similarities and differences in how they have communicated leadership and have intended to represent a range of patterns of commonality and difference in the notions of ‘the design of leadership style’ and ‘performance’. ‘Style’ implies that there is no single formula for charismatic leadership and the ‘design’/‘performance’ distinction implies that there is a separation between a planning phase in which leadership strategies are formulated and a doing phase in which they are enacted. The concept of ‘the design of leadership style’ places equal importance on the full range of communication resources – including the verbal and the non-verbal. Following Goffman’s comment that: ‘Performers can stop giving expressions but cannot stop giving them off’,1 I have argued that successful leaders rely as much on unspoken communication in the performance of leadership as they do on language.
