The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism Author: Visit Amazon's Olivia Fox Cabane Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1591845947 | Format: EPUB
The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism Description
Review
“The top book I’ve read all year.”
—Dr. Tina Seelig, Executive Director for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), the entrepreneurship center at Stanford University's School of Engineering, and author of inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity .
“Olivia Fox Cabane offers hands-on advice and a practical guide to humanizing leaders without comprising integrity or authority. She focused on the ‘it’ factors that can make a real difference.”
—Laura Lang, CEO, Time Inc.
“Cabane has done us a big favor. She’s woven solid science and engaging narrative into an instructive treatment of the role of charisma in leadership—a topic that (until now) we only poorly understood.”
—Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence
“If you are interested in increasing your ability to be charismatic in your unique setting or employment, this book will give you direct skills to use.”
—Psychology Today
“The Charisma Myth is an easy read, effectively integrating stories and research, strategies and applications, techniques and practices.”
— New York Journal of Books
“We can’t all be as charismatic as Alexander the Great or Madonna, but with Cabane’s help, we can sure get close!”
—Marshall Goldsmith, author of Mojo
About the Author
Olivia Fox Cabane has lectured at Stanford, Yale, Harvard, MIT, and the United Nations. As an executive coach to the leadership of Fortune 500 companies, her clients include Google, Deloitte, and Citigroup. She is a regular columnist for Forbes and has been featured in The New York Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and The Wall Street Journal.
For more information about the book, please visit: www.CharismaMyth.com
For more information about Olivia Fox Cabane, please visit: www.AskOlivia.com
- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Portfolio Trade (March 26, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1591845947
- ISBN-13: 978-1591845942
- Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
I read a lot of books in this genre - call it "professional self-help." I've spoken professionally a few times now about leadership and communication, and for my most recent one just a few months ago I did a ton of reading research and a lot of it was books like this one. Most of them are mediocre. I began reading The Charisma Myth expecting more of the same, frankly: platitudes, some common sense stuff, the kinds of advice that will only make sense to people who don't need it. I was just hoping for a tidbit or two that would be useful.
I don't really gush about things. If anything I tend to be very demanding and therefore very critical. Like I said, I think most books in this genre are essentially useless.
The Charisma Myth is a truly phenomenal book. It's so good that I have recommended it to several of my colleagues and it has already changed the way I manage my team and relate to my coworkers. In fact, my first gut reaction when I read it was "I guess I should stop speaking, now, because everything I'd want to talk about is covered in here."
Here's the thing: most of these kinds of books give you a few things:
1. Platitudes: useless, pithy sayings.
2. Random Anecdotes: stories that don't really offer any takeaway you can act on.
3. Abstract Imperatives: things like "be a good listener!" If you're not already a good listener that's kind of like saying "Roast Beef Recipe: Get some beef and roast it." It's not helpful - it doesn't tell me what actual specific actions to take.
Here's what this book gave me:
1. Extremely concrete, specific actions: Every piece of advice about conduct or mindset is accompanied by direct actions to take.
I bought this book to help me during a job application with a company I really wanted to work for. The final part of the application process was a series of onsite interviews with different staff members, I was looking for something to help me with this section and fortunately came across this book through hearing the author being interviewed.
There is a wealth of great information in this book, and what I really appreciate is the many references to concrete academic studies which have proven the points being made in the book.
If you are going to benefit from this book, do the exercises and try to internalize as much as you can to keep applying it to your everyday life.
The first thing I tried to apply was being present in conversations to be a better listener. The first time I tried this on somebody they spoke for almost 2 hours straight about their day. They were happy because they were truly being listened to and I was enjoying seeing how uplifting it was for them to have the spotlight shone firmly on them.
To start focusing on the interview I spent ages practicing handshakes with a partner, there is so much more to a good handshake than simply a firm grip. Once you have your own handshake down, you can't help but begin to accessing somebody you meet by observing their handshake.
I found on my interview day, as I shook hands with people, I felt more in control when
they had limp handshakes, as if I knew they had just given me an upper hand so to speak, like a poker playing reading tells.
On my interview day I made sure to speak slowly and lower my tone at the end of sentences and threw in many, many random pauses and waited two seconds to speak before responding.
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