Five Principles for Developing Your Charisma
11 June 2014
Read by 2628 persons
Developing charisma has become the number one asset for managers today.
After the media, show business and politics, the corporate world is also discovering the virtues of charisma. Certainly, there is an element of mystery, even divinity, in charisma, which, in its basic definition, is a form of prestige linked to personality, a naturally ascendant character. However, charisma is not just a definitively innate behavior. This art, some will say, this practice, others will say, can be learned and developed from precise techniques, which, applied in the professional world, will allow you to progress and develop your leadership.
Here are five great tips to help you develop your charisma.
Propose a project
As a manager, you are expected to unite your teams and have leadership. For this, having charisma is essential. The essence of charisma is knowing how to give meaning, in the double sense of the term: direction and content.
To do this, you need to have a vision, a project in which you want to be involved with your team. This project must be in line with your company's strategy but also be consistent with your own personality.
Before you start, take the time to think about your vision of the future and that of the company, then write it clearly to develop your project.
Learn to express it
You need to know how to formalize your project and communicate it both face-to-face and to a large audience. However, in general, managers do not know how to switch from a written intellectual speech to an emotional speech.
So you need to learn to work on this emotional dimension: show your personal involvement, know how to smile, speak with your hands, express yourself clearly…
When we say that you need to know how to control your emotions, it does not mean containing them and preventing them. It's about knowing how to use them. So there is no question of trying to adopt such and such an attitude in order to achieve such and such a result. The complexity of body language makes this almost impossible. You must practice a kind of letting go, know how to be natural and consistent.
Look around you
To assess your charisma potential, it is always enriching to look at how you behave in private. The questions to ask yourself are simple: am I a charismatic leader with my friends? With my children? If so, you can then try to transpose into the professional world certain attitudes that you adopt without difficulty in a private setting.
Similarly, you can draw on models or counter-models, related to values, ambition or technique. These models can be politicians, historical figures, big bosses…
In short, you need to be curious, to be interested in others. Those who succeed best generally have a humanist background, they believe in man and do not consider employees only as a workforce.
Accept the perception of others
The other major task is to succeed in accepting the perception that others have of you. Through exercises, it is possible to learn to dissociate events from the opinion one has of them, and the emotions they produce.
So be attentive to the reactions of your collaborators and adapt your behavior accordingly. Don't hesitate to ask them questions, even if it means risking learning what they really think. Don't be afraid, either, to go back over minor incidents and try to understand the reactions.
Charisma is also built in the perception you can have of details and the level of attention you offer to your collaborators.
Inspire confidence
If you have a clear vision of the future, if you know how to express it and if you show yourself to be curious towards others and yourself, you will have gained a certain self-confidence, thus allowing you to gain the confidence of others.
This does not mean, however, that you should persist in certainties and deny any anxiety. Someone who has charisma also knows how to say that they have doubts, uncertainties, fears, desires…
The charismatic manager who will also be human by not locking himself into the image of a leader who takes everything upon himself, will reassure, will know how to expose himself and will thus have a position of strength.
Charisma in the age of communication, speed and professional efficiency has therefore become a fashionable value. Schools, training centers, and even simulation games integrate this dimension at all levels. Nowadays, people work on their level of charisma as they used to work on their mastery of statistics and prime numbers. So, why not you?
Philippe Montant
CEO of ReKrute
After the media, show business and politics, the corporate world is also discovering the virtues of charisma. Certainly, there is an element of mystery, even divinity, in charisma, which, in its basic definition, is a form of prestige linked to personality, a naturally ascendant character. However, charisma is not just a definitively innate behavior. This art, some will say, this practice, others will say, can be learned and developed from precise techniques, which, applied in the professional world, will allow you to progress and develop your leadership.
Here are five great tips to help you develop your charisma.
Propose a project
As a manager, you are expected to unite your teams and have leadership. For this, having charisma is essential. The essence of charisma is knowing how to give meaning, in the double sense of the term: direction and content.
To do this, you need to have a vision, a project in which you want to be involved with your team. This project must be in line with your company's strategy but also be consistent with your own personality.
Before you start, take the time to think about your vision of the future and that of the company, then write it clearly to develop your project.
Learn to express it
You need to know how to formalize your project and communicate it both face-to-face and to a large audience. However, in general, managers do not know how to switch from a written intellectual speech to an emotional speech.
So you need to learn to work on this emotional dimension: show your personal involvement, know how to smile, speak with your hands, express yourself clearly…
When we say that you need to know how to control your emotions, it does not mean containing them and preventing them. It's about knowing how to use them. So there is no question of trying to adopt such and such an attitude in order to achieve such and such a result. The complexity of body language makes this almost impossible. You must practice a kind of letting go, know how to be natural and consistent.
Look around you
To assess your charisma potential, it is always enriching to look at how you behave in private. The questions to ask yourself are simple: am I a charismatic leader with my friends? With my children? If so, you can then try to transpose into the professional world certain attitudes that you adopt without difficulty in a private setting.
Similarly, you can draw on models or counter-models, related to values, ambition or technique. These models can be politicians, historical figures, big bosses…
In short, you need to be curious, to be interested in others. Those who succeed best generally have a humanist background, they believe in man and do not consider employees only as a workforce.
Accept the perception of others
The other major task is to succeed in accepting the perception that others have of you. Through exercises, it is possible to learn to dissociate events from the opinion one has of them, and the emotions they produce.
So be attentive to the reactions of your collaborators and adapt your behavior accordingly. Don't hesitate to ask them questions, even if it means risking learning what they really think. Don't be afraid, either, to go back over minor incidents and try to understand the reactions.
Charisma is also built in the perception you can have of details and the level of attention you offer to your collaborators.
Inspire confidence
If you have a clear vision of the future, if you know how to express it and if you show yourself to be curious towards others and yourself, you will have gained a certain self-confidence, thus allowing you to gain the confidence of others.
This does not mean, however, that you should persist in certainties and deny any anxiety. Someone who has charisma also knows how to say that they have doubts, uncertainties, fears, desires…
The charismatic manager who will also be human by not locking himself into the image of a leader who takes everything upon himself, will reassure, will know how to expose himself and will thus have a position of strength.
Charisma in the age of communication, speed and professional efficiency has therefore become a fashionable value. Schools, training centers, and even simulation games integrate this dimension at all levels. Nowadays, people work on their level of charisma as they used to work on their mastery of statistics and prime numbers. So, why not you?
Philippe Montant
CEO of ReKrute
