Emerging fromthe early work of Weber (1924) the charismatic ideological and pragmatic (CIP) model of leadership (Mumford 2006) has enjoyed a recent surge in research attention. According to themodel the three leader types differ in a number of fundamentalways — differences largely tied to how the leaders provide sensemaking to followers. Although these differences are central to the model these components have yet to be examined directly. As such the aim of this study was to explicitly test the core tenants of the CIP model.

Using a historiometric sample of college and NFL football coacheswe found general support for specific predictionsmade by themodel and in the aggregate the model as a whole. We also examined the unique patterns and features that were used to distinguish among the leader types providing useful insight into howleaders may be categorized. Implications and future directions are discussed.