Squires: key followers and the social facilitation of charismatic leadership

Drawing on several theoretical traditions in the social sciences, we offer a theory of the social facilitation of charismatic leadership by introducing the concept of squires. Squires are key followers who serve four social facilitation functions: liberating and legitimizing, modeling, buffering, and interpreting and translating. Liberating and legitimizing builds on social conformity research. Modeling is based in the social learning and social influence literatures. Buffering, and interpreting and translating, draw on insights from the psychology of power and organizational theory. These functions help resolve two central charismatic leadership paradoxes: (a) the need to be different from followers, though followers prefer to be led by leaders who are like them, and (b) the need to be personally inspiring to followers while being socially distant from them. In specifying squires’ functions, we also address three weaknesses in conceptions of followership and contribute to understandings of how charismatic leadership emerges, works, and endures.