You may view yourself as a charismatic leader but everyone else thinks you’re a big blowhard. Or you may be convinced that your quiet, unassuming style is as far from charismatic as possible, but your people feel like you’re a dynamic, magnetic leader. You can’t just go by personality type to determine if you’re charismatic. Tony is very different from John F. Kennedy, who is very different from Oprah Winfrey, who is very different from Woody Allen, who is very different from Tiger Woods. Therefore, don’t look in the mirror seeking your charisma. Instead, have other people look at you and provide you with feedback. The following are implied questions to distribute to direct reports, revolving around the four underlying elements of charisma that Tony possesses. Ideally, they’ll provide you with honest feedback. Even if they don’t, you can use these ideas to reflect on what you need to do to become the type of leader who has presence.
Maybe you’re never going to have Tony’s electricity, but you can certainly increase the wattage with which you burn. As you receive the responses to these statements or reflect on how people might respond, make your goal to move "one-up" in four of the eight categories. In other words, you just need to move from never to sometimes or sometimes to all the time relative to four of the numbered responses. This may seem like a modest gain in charisma on paper, but in real work life, people will notice.
TONY’S CHARISMA AHA!
Enter a room like it’s your own kitchen instead of some hoity-toity mansion where you’re afraid of using the wrong fork.