What You Don’t Know About Charisma.
6 Questions Reveal How Charismatic You Are.
Most of us know someone who has charisma, or you have a few friends you’d call charismatic. From the moment they walk into the room, people are attracted to them. They carry themselves with confidence and have a positive demeanor.
Have you ever wanted to be that person?
If the answer is “Yes!” Well, you’re not alone. To put it plain and simple, all of us have a little bit of a desire to be charismatic. We all wished to be liked and accepted. It’s human nature, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
So, the question of the day is, “Can I learn to be charismatic?”
Yes, you can! Mystery solved!
Charisma is not a skill you have to be born with! It’s a learnable skill. But, with anything in life, you must practice the right behaviors.
One behaviors you can easily understand and include in your daily conversations is very simple.
People who are charismatic have one thing that separate themselves from the majority of people …
They’re Genuinely Interested In EVERYONE they meet.
Charismatic people dive deep into who they’re talking to. They’re very good at asking questions that make people feel important and feel good.
Dale Carnegie said it best, “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”
More research and thoughts on Charisma.
A team of researchers at the University of Toronto, led by Konstantin O. Tskhay, have taken aim at the idea that the average person can’t quantify charisma.
According to their paper, your responses to six prompts can reveal just how charismatic you are. The prompts are below; rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 5 on each behavior.
I am someone who …
- Has a presence in a room
- Has the ability to influence people
- Knows how to lead a group
- Makes people feel comfortable
- Smiles at people often
- Can get along with anyone
Divide your total score by six to get your average charisma score. If your score is higher than 3.7, the researchers say you’re more charismatic than the average person.
These prompts were developed through multiple studies that the researchers conducted, with a total of nearly 1,000 participants. The researchers asked participants to rate themselves on a series of qualities that described charismatic people and determined that charisma comes down to two factors:
Influence — i.e. leadership ability and strength of presence — and Affability — or being pleasant and approachable.
Pro tip: Whatever you do, don’t stress out if your score is on the lower end of this measurement. Charisma is a great tool to have in conversations and can be developed and worked on. But people shouldn’t feel left out if they don’t relate as someone with charisma.
Always keep in mind charisma is a learnable skill that you can improve. Another way to accomplish this is to learn how to read people’s emotions and use specific body language in your conversations.
University of Connecticut psychology professor David A. Kenny, PhD, says,
“Our actions can speak louder than our words. Evidently, personality is somehow reflected in our appearance, our nonverbal behavior and how we express ourselves, he says. Physical appearance plays a role, sending signals to other people, which affects their way of behaving.”
A lot of research on charisma suggests charismatic people have strong emotional and social intelligence.
A lot of charismatic people are also better at empathizing and connecting with people.
It’s like running, we can all run and improve our mile time with practice, but some people are just faster. This doesn’t mean you should stop running or practicing. This is comparable to conversations and charisma. Don’t stop talking to people because you’re not like Ellen DeGeneres, or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, or Jamie Foxx.
But, don’t judge yourself out of trying and improving.
Keep practicing, and most importantly, have as much fun as possible.
Below is a spectrum of charisma, by Loopward.com. See where you’re at to gage your charisma level.
We hope this helps! And, if you want to improve your communication skills check out Loopward.com.
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