What Makes Someone Charismatic?

17 years ago, I started a little folder on my desktop called “curious cues.” I noticed that highly charismatic people–whether they were politicians, actors, athletes, or business leaders used the same cues over and over again. And I started to study them. How did charismatic people speak, sound, and use their hands?

I found patterns. Highly charismatic people use specific gestures to socially signal warmth and competence.?

It’s a simple, but powerful formula.

My latest book, Cues: Master the Secret Language of Charismatic Communication examines how highly effective people use warmth and competence to connect with others.

I discuss a groundbreaking study from Princeton University found that warmth and competence are two of the most important traits humans can signal. They make up 82% of our judgments of others.

And this formula isn’t just at play when making a first impression. Any time people interact with you, they scan your body language, voice, and face for cues to gauge your warmth and competence.?

And we are constantly doing the same to others. When we meet people we want to know:

Can I trust you? (Warmth)

Can I rely on you? (Competence)

Whether you are in a business meeting, on a date, with your boss, or with new friends, managing your warmth and competence is essential for your success.

Highly charismatic people exhibit the perfect blend of these two traits. They immediately signal trust and credibility. We see them as friendly and smart, impressive and collaborative. They earn both our respect and admiration.

And amazingly we can learn to more purposefully telegraph our warmth and competence using cues. I have found there are 4 main channels of communicating our cues.

1. Nonverbal: This is our body language, facial expressions, posture and gestures.?
2. Verbal: The words we use in person, in chats, in emails and any time we verbally explain our intentions or ideas.
3. Vocal: This is how we say our words – our pace, cadence, volume and tone.
4. Imagery: This is how we use props, ornaments, colors and emblems to show who we are. This can be objects on our desk or in our Zoom backgrounds or props we hold in our profile pictures.

The best thing you can do to be more charismatic is to see how you are communicating warmth and competence in each of these areas. Look at your LinkedIn Profile–do you use mostly warm or competent words? Are you in professional or casual clothes? Are you using warm body language in your picture (head tilt and smile) or mostly competent (serious expression and steepled hands)??

Take-Away:?

Assess your current warmth and competence. Take our free charisma diagnostic to see if you are higher in warmth, competence, or a balance of both.

Here’s the good news: Anyone can learn to be more charismatic. If you learn to leverage your warmth and competence you can inspire more trust and capability in all of your interactions.

You can also check out my LinkedIn Learning course: Communicating with Charisma .