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What makes and Inspirational Charismatic Leader

Inspirational leaders often are shown in research to be high on the “Charismatic Factors.” For example, in the US the popular vote tends to go to the most Charismatic Candidate. The four first impression factors are credibility likeability attractiveness and power and the last three likeability attractiveness and power form Charisma. I discuss at length in my book SNAP Making the Most of First Impressions Body Language and Charisma that charismatic people are shown to have the ability to lead, motivate and persuade people to action.

 When you really look at charismatic people those that inspire they often have the power/alpha characteristics tall and broad, big gestures, and deep-voiced and an intense gaze just borderline of staring, (but what charismatic people do has they put in not just the "power" the aspect of eye contact but the likability of smiling and nodding,) Interpersonally that gaze and intense focus make the Charismatic person makes the person they are talking to feel mesmerized, as if they are special an It’s interesting that it’s often how they make the other person or other people feel that identifies them as charismatic, which I think is one of the magical secrets about it. 
 If you act interested in others, they’ll have a better impression of you, which is why charismatic people also happen to be great listeners. Holding eye contact, leaning in, ignoring their phone, giving the person their total focus even if it's for a short handshake and a one-minute conversation. 
 They are also talented at drawing out information from others by being superior listeners (They can talk a lot but when they listen, they really listen) They ask questions and want to know about you. They often tend to be great at matching and mirroring the nonverbal cues of the person they are with so again the person feels valued and totally understood. They can often match the zeitgeist or the emotion of the room, client, audience, country. For example leaders like Hitler, used anger which has shown to be the strongest persuasive emotion, that mirrored a segment of the population to inspire them to follow him.

Charismatic inspirational leaders often have ‘Emotional contagion,” meaning very strong, very clearly communicated emotions, and those emotions transfer to the listeners So, we can’t stop watching them when they speak.  And inspirational leader’s ability to show and communicate a broad range of emotions that translate into perceived power and charisma.

You will notice that charismatic leaders don’t have to be credible. In fact, when someone is highly charismatic, it overrides our brain's ability to detect whether or not they are credible. We can’t tell if they are honest or not. So charismatic people have superpowers they can use for good or evil.  In a research study on the effects of charisma on politics, the researchers found that people with charisma are able to gracefully persuade us to buy from them, vote for them and (as charismatic leaders like Kennedy and Clinton have shown) mate with them. But authentic body language where the words and the nonverbal cues are shown to communicated honesty. The limbic brain can decern when someone is dishonest.





Take Care,

Patti


Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.