New research shows that characters such as the freedom campaigner Martin Luther King, South Africa’s first black president Nelson Mandela, former US-president John F Kennedy, the actress Marilyn Monroe, Argentina’s first lady Eva Peron and Britain’s Princess Diana had something in common. They had the ability to induce their own emotions in others.

If one studies their voices and facial expressions in detail, one finds that they communicate a considerable number of emotions. In this way they form a vibrant, attractive image of themselves.
A study of charismatic communication skills points out three ways of increasing your charisma:

• Use an expressive face and voice.
• Deliver your messages with the help of anecdotes, similes and metaphors to create images in people’s minds.
• Add a visionary element, connect to peoples feelings and you get a winning combination.

Charismatic communication isn’t something to be used everyday and everywhere. No one would put up with a colleague or boss, every morning saying with passion: ”I have a dream …”.

However, a speaker wishing to convince the audience can use it as a shortcut to compelling and moving presentations. Fifty percent of charisma is innate and fifty percent can be trained, says British researcher Richard Wiseman from the University of Hertfordshire.

What is your unspoken message

Energy is infectious. It’s easier for a person who has strong convictions and powerful feelings about something to acquire attraction and charisma. What makes you enthusiastic, powerful and motivated? Talk about it, or just think about it and use those feelings in your speech.

Sportsmen use mental training to improve their results, and a speaker can make use of the same method. If you imagine something or someone you like very much, the thought affects your body. Muscle-tension softens, the breathing is affected, as is the colour of the complexion and the expression around your eyes and mouth.

A detail such as the position of the eyebrows can affect how others regard us. New research in the field of communications indicates that we have a genetic, inherited ability to register and absorb expressions signalling anger. Most people are not aware of what their main facial expressions communicate. Many walk around with a critical wrinkle between the eyes, creating a somewhat angry or irritated expression.

” A smile is the shortest distance between two people” said entertainer Viktor Borge. A smile goes beyond any intercultural communication difficulties. But it has to come from the heart. When it is warm and genuine, it includes the eye-muscle orbicularis oculi. Like blushing this is not controlled by our willpower. Only when someone feels real joy and happiness will it be activated by the brain.
People that laugh and smile a lot shape their wrinkles in a certain manner. A true smile creates what the old greeks called ‘Pistis’, trust and confidence, a foundation for persuasive presentations. Maybe the plastic surgeon of tomorrow will work mainly on arranging our wrinkles in the right direction!

'Sound bites' – candy for the hearing

And do you also work on creating alluring sound bites? You don’t have to be bit by a rhetorical bug to appreciate rhetorical devices. They are excellent sound bites – alluring words that bites to your ear. Winston Churchill was the master of them, this is only one of them:

”Never before was so much owed by so many to so few” (referring to the Royal Air Force defending Britain against the Germans). His choice of words in combination with his voice and personal appearance allowed people to believe.

www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/winston_churchill.html

www.quotationspage.com/
www.quoteland.com/

Metaphor is the currency of knowledge

Creating images in people's mind is the second way of increasing your charisma. Metaphors, similes (a simile is a comparison that uses the word ‘like’ or ‘as’) and anecdotes go directly to our subconscious, and therefore aim straight for the goal. They are the number one amongst rhetorical devices.

Almost a third of our entire brain is devoted to visions. American presidents, regarded in the public eyes as charismatic, used more than double amount of metaphors compared to other presidents.
Using imagery builds bridges, reaching the listener so that he or she more easily can remember what we say. It is also a way of creating effective sound bites.

Metaphor workshop will help you create your own metaphors/similies.

”A leader is a dealer in hope.”

Those words were Napoleons, one of the convincing leaders through out the history of the world. Visions attract! Do you hold on to your dreams? Are you cultivating your passions? Addressing the audience’s feelings and helping them imagine an attractive picture of the future is an important part of charismatic communication skills.

What is so good about visionary and far-sighted people? They have the capacity to imbue others with hope, make them believe change is possible and creates an atmosphere where people want to follow them.If you can inspire others, imbuing them with hope, energy and enthusiasm, making them believe everything is possible - you will certainly gain their interest.

Let history talk

Here are some quotations from renowned visionaries - good sound bites to get inspired by when you want to enthuse and encourage others:

”Be the change that you want to see in the world.”
Mohandas Gandhi

”We need people who can dream of things that never were.”
John F. Kennedy

”I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

”It always seems impossible until its done.”
Nelson Mandela

”As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”
Bill Gates

• Number one is to become conscious of everything the body conveys without our knowing it. Change what needs to be changed in order to elicit the desired response.
• Number two is to train our expressiveness so that we communicate ourselves in an attractive, appealing and convincing way. We simply need to act more powerfully and dare to push the boundaries with our voice and face.
• Number three is to be aware of and increase our skill in reading other people’s physical codes. If we develop the art of reading our surroundings, we increase our skill in saying the right thing at the right time – timing or kairos, as it’s known in rhetoric.

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