Charisma can be very simply defined as “the ability to inspire action in others”.
The question then becomes “how can I begin to be charismatic?”
Firstly, we must understand the barriers in our way if we are to be viewed as more charismatic. Charisma is entirely a matter of others’ perception.
The key on any interaction is to emit emotional response. This was touched upon below in the video of Tony Robbins and Al Gore. Robbins states that had Gore got more emotion in his messages, then he may well have beaten Bush hands down.
I once knew a high flying PhD and businessman who had just returned from a training conference. I asked about one of the keynote speakers, who was well known for his excellent presentation skills. His response: “a fat bloke, talking about cells or something. That was about it really.” So in this entire keynote speech he remembered “fat”, “male” and “cells”. As exemplified here, we think that the spoken word is important. But psychologists tell us only 8% of the words people help to form an overall impression. And the following day, we only recall 1% of the words spoken consistent with the PhD’s recollection. Unfortunately, the speaker had failed to become
“So how can I be more charismatic now you ask?”
As Robbins effectively stated, get an emotional response from your audience.
A couple of colleagues of mine, Miles and Diane were sat in the office one day. We were talking about “emitting positive responses” by asking open but leading questions and Dianne said “I really don’t think that asking opening questions, with a positive lead, will work. When you feel lousy, nothing is going to change it aside from say a lottery win. It lacks authenticity and people will see through you”. About 10 minutes later she received a client complaint via telephone and was visibly distressed.
Taking a deep breath, Miles said “Diane, you seem really stressed. When was the last time you felt fantastic?”.
Diane sat up, smiled, her body language changed completely! She looked upwards. “Well, she said….” recalling her the last time she felt fantastic
Miles and I burst out laughing!
“You guys are the worst!” she exclaimed
By just asking a positive, open question, Miles was able to get a positive response from Diane after she had just come off an extremely stressful client complaint. If Miles and I had not laughed, she would have continued experiencing the last time she felt “really great”. In spite of the fact that we had just been discussing “emitting positive responses” in front of her, it still worked.
And Miles had inspired a complete mood change in Diane - that is the power of charisma!
