The Charisma Myth

Image courtesy of psychologytoday.com

Self Made® Book Store

How could Marilyn Monroe go from being undetectable on a crowded subway train to being swarmed by screaming fans in a matter of moments?  How can one person convince masses of strangers to buy into what they say while someone else with the same or greater levels of understanding of the subject and skill not even be able to persuade those who should be most supportive of them?  How can one business executive always land big deals while another offering the same product or service struggles to stay out of the red?  Charisma.

Olivia Fox Cabane's The Charisma Myth argues that this often overlooked topic is not something that is reserved for a select few, but rather can be taught and trained.  She discusses this in great detail, covering the different types of charisma, which to use based on your personality, and which type goes best with your desired outcome.  She provides exercises to improve charisma that challenge how you view certain scenarios, how you think about yourself and the world around you, and the actions you take on a daily basis.

What I liked most about this book is that it made me look at a subject that has a huge influence in so much of what I do but that I really hadn't spent any time studying or reading about.  I always figured charisma was something you were either born with or not.  After reading this book, it is apparent that charisma, just like almost everything else, is a skill that can be improved with effective practice and proper training.

Cabane breaks charisma down into four types:  Focus Charisma, Visionary Charisma, Kindness Charisma, and Authority Charisma.  She discusses the body language, verbiage, tone of voice, actions, and mindset that goes along with each, as well as when to apply each type of charisma.  She also discusses the three behaviors that tend to go with any type of charisma:  presence, power, and warmth.

Each chapter ends with Key Takeaways that help sum up everything that was discussed in the chapter.  Because a lot of the information seems more natural or common-sense than in other behavioral improvement books, I found these takeaways to be more useful to ensure that I didn't miss anything that I may have only glanced over.

I recommend this book to anybody who wants to be heard and taken more seriously, who feels like they have something to say but nobody takes the time to listen, who wants to improve the feedback they get from others, or who wants increase the impact they have in their industry, whether by volume or density.

Enjoy this review? Get a copy of The Charisma Myth in the Self Made® Book Store!

Want to use this arti­cle in your blog, newslet­ter, or other plat­form?  You can, but be sure to include all of the bio­graph­i­cal infor­ma­tion found in the yel­low box below!

The Five Levels Of Leadership

Image courtesy of suite101.com

Are you stuck in a position at your job that you don’t like?  Are you a member of a team that is lacking direction or focus?  Are you looking for a way to set yourself apart, both as an individual and as a team or organization?  John C. Maxwell may have some advice for you.

Maxwell’sThe 5 Levels of Leadership is a guide to identifying potential leaders, developing others as leaders, and growing, yourself, as a leader.  As inferred by the title, Maxwell identifies 5 possible levels of leadership that one can reach throughout his or her lifetime.  Additionally, Maxwell discusses both the positives and negatives of being at each level as well as ways to perform your best while at that level and ways to go about moving up to the next level.

According to Maxwell, the 5 Levels of Leadership are:

Image courtesy of cbsnews.com

1.  Position

He describes positional leadership as “people following you because they have to” (6).  He says people’s job title is what defines them as a leader and gives them authority over their subordinates at this level (7).  He considers these people to be exclusively bosses, not leaders (7).

Image courtesy of loddymicucci.com

2.  Permission

At this second level, people start following you because of who you are and because they want to (8).  Unlike Level 1 where people had to follow due to the hierarchy that had been created, as a Level 2 leader people are following you by choice because of the relationships you have built with them (8).  Additionally, these feelings between you and those you lead cannot be exclusive.  Maxwell says, “You can like people without leading them, but you cannot lead people without liking them.” (8)

Image courtesy of totalcareermastery.com

3.  Production

The third level boils down to results.  It’s great that you have earned the respect of those you work with and they like you enough to follow you, but now you need to get things done (8).  A likable leader who doesn’t get results will only be able to do so much with their influence.  Eventually, people will need to see some type of accomplishment.  This is what makes a Level 3 leader so potent at creating change--they can take a following of people who fully believes in them and direct them towards pursuing and achieving a common goal (9).

Image courtesy of technacon.com

4.  People Development

A lot of leaders would be pretty satisfied with themselves after reaching Level 3, but that’s the issue--it’s about themselves.  A Level 4 leader is one who is able to take his or her previously established relationships and start to invest in those people and develop them into leaders themselves.  This takes someone who is not content with merely winning games, but rather is striving for the bigger picture of winning championships (9).  Maxwell says about this Level 4 leaders, “Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.” (9) Reaching this level is being able to answer “No.” to the simple question of, “Is being good, good enough for you?” and then doing something about it that is outside of yourself.

Image courtesy of kunbibalogun.com

5.  Pinnacle

Level 5 leadership boils down to the quality of leaders you develop.  In order to reach the Pinnacle Level, you have to be able to develop others into Level 4 leaders (10).  In other words, you have to develop leaders who are able to develop leaders on their own.  You have to be willing to put a significant amount of time into developing your relationships with those whom you wish to develop as leaders in order to guide them to the point where they can teach others what you have taught them.  In essence, you have gone from only influencing those around you to being able to indirectly influence those around them, as well.  That is huge.  As Maxwell says, “Level 5 leaders develop Level 5 organizations,” (10) so, once again, are you alright with settling for “good”, or are you striving to achieve more?

I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in developing their leadership skills, is already in a position or wanting to be in a position of leadership, or is wanting to maximize the potential of their team or organization.

Given these brief descriptions of the 5 levels, how would you rate yourself as a leader?  What do you do on a daily basis to improve your leadership skills?

Your body.  Your training.

**Com­ment, Like, Sub­scribe, Tweet, and Share the Knowl­edge below!!**

Enjoy this review? Get a copy of The 5 Levels Of Leadership in the Self Made® Book Store!

Want to use this arti­cle in your blog, newslet­ter, or other plat­form?  You can, but be sure to include all of the bio­graph­i­cal infor­ma­tion found in the yel­low box below!