And I'm honored and flattered to see that

it's not just standing room only,

but three rows deep. So the pressure is on.

It was a sunny day in New York City 1955.

The streets flowed with traffic,

the sidewalks bustled with busy people.

And Marilyn Monroe wanted to prove a point.

With a photographer in tow,

she walked down into Grand Central Station.

Though it was the middle of the week and

the platform was packed with people, not a single person noticed her,

while she stood waiting for the train.

As the photographer's camera clicked,

she boarded the train and rode along quietly in a corner of the car.

Nobody recognized her.

What Marilyn wanted to show was that just by deciding to,

she could be either glamorous Ms. Monroe or plain Norma Jeane Baker.

On the subway, she was Norma Jeane.

But when she resurfaced onto the busy New York sidewalks,

she decided to turn into Marilyn.

So, she looked around and she teasingly asked the photographer:

"So, do you want to see her, the Marilyn?"

and then he said, there were no grand gestures - she just

"fluffed up her hair, and struck a pose."

And yet, with this simple shift, she suddenly became magnetic.

An aura of magic seemed to ripple out from her,

and everything stopped.

Time stood still, as did the people around her,

who starred in amazement as they suddenly recognized

the star standing in their midst.

In an instant Marilyn was engulfed by fans, and

"it took several scary moments" to help her escape the growing crowd.

Charisma has always been an intriguing and controversial topic.

And when I tell people that as part of my leadership work,

I "teach charisma," they often exclaim,

"But I thought it was something that you're either born with or not."

Some see it as an unfair advantage,

others are eager to learn, but everyone is fascinated.

And they are right to be so.

Charisma gets people to like you,

trust you, and want to be led by you.

It can determine whether you're seen as a follower or a leader,

whether or not your ideas get adopted,

and how effectively your projects are implemented.

Like it or not, charisma can make the world go round - because

it makes people want to do what you want them to do.

Now whenever I'm asked how I got into this field,

I have to admit, it was personal desperation.

Because by nature, I am a socially inept

awkward introvert and by my late teens,

I realized that I really only had two choices,

either exile myself to a desert island or somehow

try to make this whole human thing work.

So, I chose the latter for now,

but I'm still keeping the desert island option open.

In studying charisma,

it turns out that of all the myths surrounding the subject,

the most commonly held was of charisma as an innate,

magical personal quality.

Instead, as extensive research has shown,

charisma is the result of specific behaviors.

This is the reason (one of the reasons) why charisma

levels fluctuate and as Marilyn demonstrated

it can be there one moment and gone the next.

In fact, in controlled laboratory experiments,

researchers were able to raise or lower people's level of charisma,

as if they were turning a dial,

just by instructing them to display specific charismatic behaviors.

Charisma has been turned into an applied science.

Now one of the reasons why charisma is

mistakenly held to be innate is that, like many other social skills,

charismatic behaviors are usually learned early in life,

when people don't even consciously realize they are learning them.

They're just trying new behaviors,

seeing the results, and refining them.

Eventually, the behaviors become instinctive.

Some people, however, make a conscious decision that they are going

to learn this whole charisma thing.

Steve Jobs is a great example.

And if you go to my blog,

you'll see a piece called demystifying the Steve Jobs magic,

showing with videos how he consciously,

gradually acquired, step by step,

each of the charismatic behaviors we're covering tonight.

The blog is called askolivia.com.

Now, of course, in learning charisma,

not everyone is going to become Steve Jobs,

nor Bill Clinton for that matter.

But everyone can learn enough charisma to see

a measurable difference in their daily lives.

So with that said, what are the behaviors that create charisma?

Well, they fall into three categories: behaviors of presence,

behaviors of power, and behaviors of warmth.

All three components of presence,

power and warmth are critical to achieve charisma.

The only thing that changes is what kind of charisma you will

get depending on which of these components is strongest.

So, let's look at each of these components in turn.

Presence: when people describe their experience

of seeing charisma in action,

whether they met Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, or the Dalai Lama,

they often mention what an extraordinary presence the person had.

And presence is the single most requested aspect

of charisma when I'm coaching executives.

They want to increase their boardroom

presence or their executive presence.

And they're right to focus on it,

because presence turns out to be the real core of charisma,

the foundation upon which all else is built.

When you're with a charismatic master,

take Bill Clinton, for example,

he gives you the feeling that he's completely

here with you, in the moment. Present.

And I've met hardened Republicans, who've told me Bill Clinton,

I hated him before I met him, I hated him after I met him,

but while I met him, ma'am, I loved the man.

Have you ever felt in the middle of a conversation

as if only half your mind were present,

while the other half was busy thinking about something else?

Raise your hands if that's ever happened to you.

Alright then.

Do you think the other person noticed? Yes.

When this happens, there is a good chance that your eyes will glaze

over or that your facial reactions will be a split second delayed.

Here is the thing: because people can read facial

expressions in as little as 17 milliseconds,

the person you're speaking to will likely notice

the smallest delays in your reactions.

And on a gut level, they'll get the feeling

that something is not quite right, something doesn't quite fit.

This delay, technically called an incongruence,

can even give them the feeling that you're being inauthentic.

Nothing ruins trust or charisma faster than appearing inauthentic.

We think we can fake presence.

We think we can fake listening.

We think that as long as we seem attentive,

it's okay to let our minds turn on other things, but we're wrong.

When you're not fully present in an interaction,

the person you're speaking to will likely notice it.

I'm sure you've had this experience of speaking

with someone who wasn't fully listening. You noticed.

So, how do you get presence?

Well, my favorite technique to stay present

in a conversation is kind of quirky, but remarkably effective.

So, right now, if you would,

focus on the physical sensations in your toes - your toes,

big toes, little toes,

all the toes in between however many of them you have,

focus on the physical sensation in your toes.

What this does is that it forces your

brain to sweep your body from head to,

of course toe, and gets you very physically present in the moment.

So, you do that for only a split second

then you get back to the conversation.

But it's very effective. Just by focusing on your toes you can

up your level of charisma immediately.

I realize that you probably weren't expecting

your toes to be crucial to charisma, they are. That's one technique.

Technique number two, is to really focus on the colors in the

eyes of the person you're speaking with.

If you pay close attention,

you will see that their eyes contain a dazzling array

of colors that can keep you quite captivated.

And better yet, give you the kind of deep soul searching

eye contact that is extremely powerful.

The kind that Bill Clinton is famous for.

So, obviously don't over do it, a little goes a long way.

Realize that giving people your full presence is one of the most effective

ways to make them feel that they're the center of the universe.

And guess what;

charisma is not just how you make people feel about you,

it's also how you make them feel about themselves.

In the heated London election of 1886,

William Gladstone was running against Benjamin Disraeli

for the post of Prime Minister to the British Empire.

Now this was the Victorian era.

So whoever won was going to rule half the world.

And in the very last week before the election,

both men happened to take the same young lady

out to dinner on consecutive evenings.

Naturally the press asked her,

what impressions the rivals had made upon her?

She said, after dining with Mr. Gladstone,

I thought he was the cleverest men in England.

After dining with Mr. Disraeli,

I thought I was the cleverest women in England.

Guess who won the election?

It was the man who made others feel intelligent

and fascinating - it was Benjamin Disraeli.

I often tell my clients: don't try to impress them.

Let them impress you and they will love you for it.

So, that is what charismatic presence can achieve.

Presence, once again, is the core component of charisma,

the foundation upon which all else is built.

Together with presence,

power, and warmth combine to create charismatic magnetism.

So, let's look at power.

Power is not commanding an army. It's not the actual power you wield.

It's our perception of your ability to affect the world around you.

Whether this be through raw physical power,

or large amounts of money, influence, expertise,

intelligence, high social status and so forth.

We look for clues of power in the person's appearance,

in others' reaction to that person,

but most of all in the person's demeanor in their body language.

Now, I'm sure you've all heard of the importance of body language.

But listen to this.

The MIT Media Lab was able to predict the outcome of negotiations,

sales calls, and business plan pitches with 87% accuracy

without listening to a single word of content,

only by analyzing the voice fluctuation and the

facial expression of the person pitching.

So what's a powerful body language like?

Well, imagine an alpha gorilla whose territory

has just been breached by a rival.

Our alpha wants to intimidate the intruder off his territory.

What does he do?

He beats his chest. Why?

Why does he beat his chest? To scare the other people.

To scare the other person?

What's he signaling, what does beating his chest make him?

Strong, feel strong.

Feel strong, okay, but look technically from here to here,

what does it make him?

It makes him bigger - it turns out - Stanford researchers found,

alpha humans do exactly the same thing.

They sit on one chair, they drape their arm on a second,

they put their feet upon a third or even on the desk.

These gestures are always of claiming space.

If you picture a nervous,

insecure person, they're probably claiming a smaller

space than if you picture Colin Powell.

So right now, if you please, put everything down,

stand up and give me the body language of a military general.