Charisma

Some people are natural born public speakers.  No matter the size of the crowd they can speak with confidence unfazed.  Throughout my time pursuing academic study and in later years through my work and the many training events I attended, I got to watch and listen to a lot of people.  Teachers, Lecturers, Professors, Trainers, and even through observation of the political landscape I have seen many politicians address the public.  Through all of this there is a clear division of speakers into two camps, one possessed of charisma and the other distinctly lacking.

You might ask what relevance charisma has in bearing to their ability to do their job, and I would argue if the primary means through which they address and convey information to people then charisma is perhaps the most important characteristic of their jobs.  Can charisma be learned?  I am undecided on the answer to this question, as it is quite clear that you can indeed be trained in the fine art of public speaking to a point where you can have a crowd eating out of your hand.

The importance of charisma is perhaps at its most imperative when it comes to captivation of the audience and by extension, their attention.  A captivated audience will pay much more attention to you than one which is not engaged.  It is often said in training courses that what you say accounts for 10% and the other 90% is how you say it.  This holds true when it comes to public speaking.  One prime example would be the use of breath control, the best example of this in modern times would be the oratory style of Steve Jobs.  Throughout his speeches Jobs was acutely aware of his breathing, always presenting a calm demeanour, and where breathing was necessary he paused for impact to make it as unnoticeable as possible.  The result is a style of speaking that keeps an audience transfixed, hanging on every word.

In recent weeks in the UK a lot has been said in regards to who should lead the Labour Party.  Politics of this decision aside, one of the things that has repeatedly cropped up in this debate are the speeches of former Prime Minister Tony Blair.  When you look at Blair's speeches with the same level of scrutiny, ignoring what he actually said and focusing on his delivery, it is no exaggeration to say that his oratory style was charismatic.  While his persona and his reputation today are viewed in a very different light, you must look back to the environment that existed when he made those speeches and understand the mentality of the audience of the day.

If someone can employ charisma when speaking then as an audience member the captivation overrides your reason.  Whether you have any interest in what they say becomes irrelevant instead you want to continue to hear them speak, in an almost hypnotic trance-like manner.  Whenever someone is truly charismatic you could sit and listen to them speak all day, without a single care or interest in what they are actually saying.  On the obverse of this the less charisma the speaker has the less willing you are to listen to them and the more emphasis you put on what they actually say which can make lectures and presentations excruciatingly painful to watch and make you feel like they last forever.