What is it that sets someone like Will Smith or Oprah apart from the rest of us? What is it that makes Dwayne The Rock Johnson, or the Obamas so engaging to watch?
It comes down to their charisma. Whether you like their movies or their politics, there’s no denying that these figures became as popular as they did because of their undeniable magnetism. These are people who you want to watch, who you want to look up to and who you want to listen to. But what is it about them that makes them so watchable?
The answer is charisma but what is charisma? How can you quantify it? And more to the point, how can you get some for yourself?
Breaking Down Charisma
There are many different facets to charisma but the one we’re going to look at in particular is the way you communicate and convey your emotion.
A study found that the more a person gesticulate while talking and the more they move around the space they’re in, the more we consider them to be charismatic.
So why is this? The best guess of the researchers is that in behaving that way, you are showing emotional congruence. That is to say that what you are saying and your body language back each other up. This in turn suggests that you really believe in what you’re saying and at the same time it makes the scene more dynamic and engaging to watch.
They say that communication is around 70% non-verbal. So, if you tell someone how passionate you are about your new idea, or if you tell someone how your plans are going to change the world, then you really need to not be standing with your arms crossed. Someone who is truly excited should be moving around and if you’re not, then you’re going to look like you don’t really care about what you’re saying.
And if you don’t care… then why should anyone else care?
Storytelling
We can also see some of this in storytelling. When you hear someone very charismatic tell a story, you will find that they tend to use a lot of dramatic pauses, that they will put on voices of the characters in their stories and that they’ll make things much more dramatic, dynamic and interactive. They’ll set the scene and even use rhetorical questions.
In doing this, a storyteller is able to help the listener really live the experience they’re being told about. And at the same time, it means that they will be able to feel the emotions that the storyteller is trying to convey.
There are lots of ways to tell ay story but the truly engaging one is the one that contains emotion rather than just fact – and for that, you need to be willing to add a little drama.
This might all sound complex, or perhaps it just sounds like something that doesn’t come naturally to you. The good news is that there is one easy way to help it come naturally: to feel passionately about what you do and what you say.
