Yeah, But Can It Be Taught?

and if so, how?

We generally think of charisma as an innate thing, that we either have or do not have. Olivia Fox Cabane, in The Charisma Myth, makes a persuasive case that charisma is not entirely innate, but can be trained.

Fox Cabane’s model of charisma has three elements: power, presence, and warmth. Different people have these ingredients in different combinations. Bill Clinton, says Fox Cabane, is especially strong in presence—when you are with Clinton, he is paying full attention to you. The Dalai Lama is especially strong in warmth—when you are with His Holiness, he cares fully about you.

You can increase your own power, presence, and warmth. I recommend Fox Cabane’s book for that.

But charisma can also be modeled as combinations of other factors. We are more willing to follow leaders who signal beneficence and competence than those who fail to signal either (with some interesting twists about what they must do to keep our followership). We can learn to better signal our beneficence and our comp…