A Few Exercises to Boost Your Charisma as a Future Manager

• August 11, 2016
• By MWS
• Leave a Comment

Charisma is this rare form of magnetic energy that draws people’s attention towards them; this is a quality that exudes strength and confidence which transforms into an arousal of loyalty and admiration from the others.

Rarely people are born with this trait of natural charisma and possess and outgoing personality that lures others towards them. But charisma is not always something people must be born with. If someone wants to build their physique they visit the gym and if they want to learn to code, they take up a course either online or offline where they teach coding languages. But what would you do if you want to build your charisma or confidence to be a successful manager?

Here we will share with you a few simple exercises that you can use to build a charismatic persona to have a lasting impact in the two most important areas where confidence is key. They are – work environments and social situations.

Keeping a conversation going:

A common problem most people face is that after they get into a conversation with someone, they very quickly run out of things to say. This could mean within 5 minutes of entering the conversation or after 20 minutes.

A good exercise to counteract that problem is to take improvised comedy classes. This could pose to be a terrifying experience where it is much more than nerve wracking to get up on stage in front of a group of strangers and try to be funny right off the bat. Such exercises that push you out of your comfort zone will eventually add to better social situation tackling skills for you. But that is not the only reason to take up improvised comedy. The most important factor that helps you improve your social skills is that you will have nothing to start with when you get up on the stage. The moment you get up there, your mind will remain blank. Then someone in the audience tells you a scenario, asks a question or makes a suggestion and that instant you have to start making up a riff off of it.

This may seems like an isolated incident and not really anything but a stimulus to trigger all those social anxieties, but in actuality, it is much more than that. This is mostly how all kinds of conversations work. A two way street is the right description for human conversations, this is because one offers a “conversational threat or a question” and the other riffs off of that. This exercise can help people continue conversations and be an expert converser even when the other person begins to stall. People who can make conversations with almost any one are usually perceived as highly charismatic individuals and can attract admiration from others easily.

Public speaking:

Another charisma related problem that many people struggle with is public speaking. And this problem is more common than one would think, as addressing a group of staring eyes on a raised platform takes a lot of courage. We recommend that in order to be a captivating public speaker, simply speak with a purpose. Maintain a soft eye contact to make sure you seem comfortable and avoid making exaggerated hand gestures. While it is important that you make genuine soft hand gestures when speaking to an audience, as it makes you seem honest. But going too far with frenzied jazz hands can make your audience disinterested and counterproductively excited, by shifting their focus from the topic you are discussing. Also try and change the pitch, volume and tone of your voice when speaking in public to add some colour to your speech and keep the audience transfixed. This is a mental hack suggested by most famous public speakers.

Besides, most charismatic speakers are incredible story tellers. Their small narratives are enough to transform their audience into the very place being described by them and are often peppered with light self-deprecating humour to help the audience feel comfortable and relaxed.

Be genuine:

Charisma comes from genuine concern or purpose. There is no way to fake charisma without being truly genuine. Authentic people are genuine in their care for others, interest for a cause and respect for someone else; hence, they offer valuable insights and advice when sought after. Use authentic tools such as empathy and deep emotional connection with people you speak to and charisma will follow. This will also make every conversation you have with people interesting and make every experience enriching.

A manager with charisma has certain qualities that separate them from other people. These traits help them to build a rapport with their peers and sub-ordinates and thus, they can make the best use of the talents disposed for them.

There is no mystery or secret blood oath that charismatic people have, they are naturally caring, approachable, honest, respectful, social, fair, gracious, sympathetic and authentic when speaking. These are the bullet points in the recipe for building charisma. A charismatic individual may be assertive but also seem at ease to be a genuinely well-rounded individual.