By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy
Here’s an idea to lead more authentically. Reading time: 2:34

It’s not about you. Rick Warren’s opening sentence in his best selling book The Purpose Driven Life, is an apt description of charisma.

Charisma is not about how vivacious you are.

Charisma is not about how good looking you are.

Charisma is not about how funny you are.

And charisma is not about how pumped up you are.

Instead, charisma is all about how vivacious you make others feel.

Charisma is all about how good you make others look around you. Charisma is all about how much you pump others up when you are around them.

Charisma is not the force of your being but how you reinforce the being of others.

Charisma is not how well you sing your song. Charisma is how well you sync to get along. Consistently. Predictably.

In fact, Google’s employees provide their managers feedback in formal surveys twice a year (on 12-18 factors) and it turns out the most critical trait of a leader -at least seen through their followers-is predictability.

It’s better to be a little bit boring than to be a bit overbearing. It’s not how you can win OVER people. It’s how you can win PEOPLE over.

“Being charismatic means making others feel comfortable, at ease and good about themselves,” observers author Olivia Fox Cabane in her book The Charisma Myth.

How do you generate charisma if you don’t look like a Movie Star or aren’t as glib as a Talk Show host and you don’t wear the latest designer clothes?

Relax. Be yourself. Be real. Smile. Continue reading →