Do you have charisma? Charisma is another way of talking about magnetic leadership and communication. Some people seem to be able to effortlessly draw others toward them. But whether or not you think you naturally possess charisma, scientists tell us you can learn to be more charismatic with a formula of CLTs.
John Antonakis, Marika Fenley, and Sue Liechti published this formula of 12 charismatic leadership tactics (CLTs) in the Harvard Business Review. After leaders were trained in these 12 CLT’s, their leadership rating rose by about 60%. On Monday, we addressed the 9 verbal CLTs. We explored how our message can be tailored to be more charismatic.
Today, we’ll look at the 3 nonverbal charismatic practices Antonakis and his team identified. Charismatic leadership isn’t just about the content or the script. It also involves these three components related to how the message is delivered.
1. Animated voice.
The human voice is capable of great variety. You might raise your pitch to indicate surprise or when talking to children or animals. Or you might speak quickly when you are excited or nervous. Charismatic speakers make use of the variety in their voices. Can you think of a leader you admire who has a monotone voice? Me neither.
Take for example Steve Jobs. Researchers used state-of-the-art technology to acoustically analyze Job’s voice. They found that “Jobs stands out against our reference samples in almost all key features of charisma, including melody, loudness, tempo and fluency, and he produced significant quantitative differences when addressing customers and investors in his speeches.” So technology has proven what we’ve assumed to be true for a long time. When you speak with more variety and animation, your audience will be drawn to you and your ideas. This is one of three important nonverbal CLTs.
2. Facial expressions.
We have a great range of variety in what our voice can communicate. Likewise, we have the ability to communicate a great deal with our facial expressions. Research has proven that leaders’ facial expressions (or lack thereof) are directly tied to the how they are perceived. Leaders who use facial expressions effectively seem more skilled and credible.
The Harvard Business Review says, “Listeners need to see as well as hear your passion . . . so be sure to make eye contact . . . and get comfortable smiling, frowning, and laughing.” Many speakers believe they are being expressive with their faces, when they really aren’t. Record yourself speaking in front of an audience to make sure your face is actually moving and communicating. We love speakers whose faces communicate charisma.
3. Gestures.
Besides what you do with your voice and face, you also need to be aware of how you are moving your hands. Hand and arm communication is called gesturing. But just how important are gestures? Well, research has shown that every culture uses gestures as a form of communication. In their article, “Gesture’s Role in Speaking, Learning, and Creating Language,” Susan Goldin-Meadow and Martha Wagner Alibali show how natural and important it is. They say, “Even congenitally blind individuals, who have never seen anyone gesture, move their hands when they talk (Iverson & Goldin-Meadow 1998), highlighting the robustness of gesture in communication.”
But why do we need to use gestures when we speak? How do they add to our charisma quotient? Study after study has linked speaker gestures to audience comprehension. The more effectively we use gestures, the better the audience is able to understand what we are saying. And we are drawn to speakers who communicate well, who make sense.
So these 3 nonverbal CLTs combined with the 9 verbal CLTs give us a formula we can use to learn to be charismatic. But this formula isn’t meant to take the place of other leadership skills. You can’t just do these 12 things and become a great speaker or leader. Instead, Antonakis says that charismatic leadership skills should be layered on more instrumental and transactional leadership skills—like education and expertise.
Charisma is only one part of the formula for becoming a great speaker. But it’s an important one. And now we know it’s one we can learn.
Need help developing charismatic delivery skills that will move your listeners? We’re here and we’re happy to help.
