“Charisma is not a gift, it’s a tool. Olivia Fox Cabane makes a big promise with this book and delivers on it.” – Seth Godin, author of We Are All Weird.
In the whirlwind of life’s commotion, everyone strives to leave their unique mark. Everyone wishes to be honored, respected, and distinguished from the crowd. Every individual craves to attract others like a magnet. All these wishes can be completed by a quality known as ‘charisma’. This mysterious quality in the past was often thought of as inherent or magical. However, the book The Charisma Myth by Olivia Fox Canbane breaks this past notion and reveals the groundbreaking realities about this mysterious capability.
Olivia Canbane presents the idea that charisma results from certain verbal and non-verbal behaviors, rather than inherent or magical qualities. She supports her arguments through the anatomy of charisma. She promises her readers that they can be charismatic in relationships, jobs, and businesses. She highlights that mental and physical coherence play a vital role in a charismatic personality. She argues that our internal emotions are revealed through our external movements. In the book, she provides exercises through which an ordinary person in the room can be transformed into the most eminent person in the gathering.
The book presents presence, power, and warmth as charismatic elements, and talks about different charismatic styles, charismatic body language and exercise to perform these skills. The writer asserts that presence is a learnable skill. Presence simply means ‘to be in the moment’ rather than being captured by your thoughts. She also says that a charismatic presence does not require much time, but maximum attention. Power shows the authority of yourself instead of others.
Through power, you can strengthen your inner belief system. When you believe in yourself, your body language radiates more confidence. Warmth connects you to the people. She tells the readers that being warm means being perceived as benevolent, altruistic, caring, or willing to impact the world in a positive way. All these basic elements of charisma allow the readers to be attractive and impressive in the room. In the next chapters, she draws different styles of charisma, like focus charisma, visionary charisma, kindness charisma, and authority charisma.
In these chapters, she showcases the charismatic personalities with their relative forms of charisma. She first talks about business tycoon Elon Musk, who embodies focus charisma. The focus charisma requires the high presence of an individual. This style provides capability to exhibit how someone gives importance to others. Focus charisma is highly beneficial in business. Next, she says that Steve Jobs is a ‘perfect’ example of visionary charisma, who inspired his colleagues and people through his mesmerizing body language. Visionary charisma is an effective tool to inspire the people who are connected with you.
Then comes the Dalai Lama, who manifests kindness and charisma. He connects with people with his warm personality. Body language plays an effective role in this charisma, especially your eyes. This style helps you make an emotional connection with your loved ones. Last, Colin Powell exhibits the authority charisma. This charismatic style is crucial in leadership. She tells the readers that performing with the right authority and charisma can help you win debates and deals. This charisma is highly dependent on body language, appearance, title, and reaction of others. One can adopt a charismatic style according to one’s personality, goals, and situation.
In further chapters, the author mentions the body language through which a person can become highly mystical. She describes the charismatic body language as: emotional contagion, conscious mirroring, personal space, eye contact, and right body posture. Emotional contagion has been defined as the process by which one individual’s emotions are caught by another. Charismatic people are known to be more ‘contagious’. They pose a strong stature to transmit their emotions. Conscious mirroring means mimicking the body language. By imitating someone’s body language you can easily build trust and rapport.
Being attractive and charismatic means making others comfortable, at ease, and good about themselves. In non-verbal communication, respecting personal space is very important in order to make people feel comfortable. It is important in public dealings, but is often neglected. Profound eye contact impacts people intensively. It can communicate empathy and give an impression of thoughtfulness, wisdom, and intelligence. The right body posture is deeply ingrained and gives others clues to your confidence. These body language acts ensure a charismatic personality.
In conclusion, Olivia Cabane highlights the myth of charisma and proves that it is a skill that anyone can master. In this book, she reveals the core parts of charisma, different charismatic styles and charismatic body language. She has provided exercises in the book to learn these abilities. It is a worthwhile book, composed in simple language and based on research and evidence. It can be a boon for readers striving in this competitive world.