Charismatic Leader

When I was a college student I worked part-time at a market research firm on the East Coast of the United States that collected its data using mainly telephone interviews. I worked at the same company over a period of several years, during which the managers and supervisors changed. When I first began working for this company, I was trained by and experienced the leadership style of the person who created the telephone interview operation at this company. He was, in my opinion, a very charismatic leader. He presented a vision to all of the interviewers of how important accurate collection of survey data was, and of how the interviewers’ accurate collection of the data contributed to successful project completion and the ultimate success of the company. He trained each new interviewer in the importance of obtaining and recording accurate survey information. He then encouraged interviewers—through frequent informal and encouraging interactions with each—to accurately record the survey answers of each respondent. Interviewers were instructed to not only correctly record survey answers, but also indicate when respondents hung up on the interviewer or did not complete an interview.