Researchers at the University of Lausanne have identified a dozen tactics that can help you develop your leadership charisma like Bill Clinton, Martin Luther King Jr. and Steve Jobs. The charismatic leadership tactics (CLT) toolbox includes 9 verbal and 3 non-verbal tactics.
Verbal Tactics
- Demonstrate moral convictions – show your intention to do the right thing.
- Reflect the sentiment of the group – listen to group concerns, emphasize shared story, desires, struggles.
- Set high expectations – set audacious goals for both yourself and your audience.
- Communicate confidence – assure that high goals can be achieved.
- Tell stories and anecdotes – engage and wrap your audience around real-life stories.
- Use metaphors, smiles and analogies – help your audience understand the message in terms o f experiences which they already know.
- Employ contrast – define yourself (your ideas) clearly by emphasizing what you and your ideas are not.
- Organize content into triads – leverage the rule of 3 to make your message easy to remember.
- Ask rhetorical questions – prompt your audience with questions to get them cognitively involved.
Non-Verbal Tactics
- Gesture naturally – use your gestures as punctuation.
- Speak through facial expressions – express emotions of your words.
- Animate your voice – Modulate tone, volume, pacing and pauses for emphasis.