Five Principles for Developing Your Charisma
9 July 2015
Read by 4167 persons
Developing charisma has become the number one asset for managers today. After media, show business and politics, the business world is also discovering the virtues of charisma. Certainly, there is an element of mystery, even the divine, in charisma which, in its basic definition, is a form of prestige linked to personality, a natural ascendant character. However, charisma is not just a definitively innate behavior. This art, some would say, this practice, others would 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 that will 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 to know how to give meaning, in the dual meaning of the term: direction and content. For this, you must 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 reflect on 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. It is therefore necessary 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 must know how to control your emotions, it does not mean containing 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 endeavor almost impossible. You must practice a kind of letting go, know how to be natural and coherent.Look around you To assess your charisma potential, it is always enriching to see 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 role models or counter-models, related to values, ambition or technique. These models can be politicians, historical figures, CEOs...
In short, you must be curious, 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 yourself. Through exercises, it is possible to learn to dissociate events from the opinion one has of them, and the emotions they produce. So pay attention to the reactions of your collaborators and adapt your behavior accordingly. Do not 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 enabling you to gain the confidence of others. This does not mean, however, that you should stubbornly cling to 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 themselves into the image of a leader who takes everything upon themselves, will reassure, will know how to expose themselves and will thus have a strong position.
Charisma at a time 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. Now we work on our charisma level as we used to cram our mastery of statistics and prime numbers. So, why not you?
Philippe Montant CEO ExeKutive.biz
Here are five great tips that will 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 to know how to give meaning, in the dual meaning of the term: direction and content. For this, you must 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 reflect on 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. It is therefore necessary 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 must know how to control your emotions, it does not mean containing 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 endeavor almost impossible. You must practice a kind of letting go, know how to be natural and coherent.Look around you To assess your charisma potential, it is always enriching to see 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 role models or counter-models, related to values, ambition or technique. These models can be politicians, historical figures, CEOs...
In short, you must be curious, 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 yourself. Through exercises, it is possible to learn to dissociate events from the opinion one has of them, and the emotions they produce. So pay attention to the reactions of your collaborators and adapt your behavior accordingly. Do not 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 enabling you to gain the confidence of others. This does not mean, however, that you should stubbornly cling to 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 themselves into the image of a leader who takes everything upon themselves, will reassure, will know how to expose themselves and will thus have a strong position.
Charisma at a time 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. Now we work on our charisma level as we used to cram our mastery of statistics and prime numbers. So, why not you?
Philippe Montant CEO ExeKutive.biz
