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What is Charisma?
What is charisma? I get asked that question a lot, especially by public speakers who want more of it, and by audience members who want to know how the magic happens.
Let’s start by talking about what charisma is not. It’s not something you are born with. It is not something that some people are gifted by the Fates and others are not — a matter of luck. And it’s not something that comes from exactly the same place in every human who does have it.
Charisma is the expression of strong emotion, emotion directed outward, not inward. It is focus — focused emotional meaning. It is awareness of your audience, not obliviousness to it. And it is energy in service to the moment, the message, and the audience in front of you.
It comes from understanding that great presentations aren’t about you, the speaker. They’re about the audience. Good public speaking begins with respecting the audience. Great public speaking results from realizing that you, the speaker, are in service to the message and to the people sitting in front of you.
Charisma is not an unalloyed good, necessarily. Charismatic speakers can be evil. By all accounts Senator Joe McCarthy was charismatic, though he seems oleaginous to me when I look at newsreels of the day. Hitler was charismatic, in an-over-the-top, ranting, weird way. But he was a good example of how strong emotion can…
