Telling a leadership story of “faith in the future.”

If you’re in the business of leadership, there are plenty of empirical tools – mostly in the finance department – to help you analyse the past and the present. There are rival and mostly intangible hypotheses about what the future might look like, thanks to all those management consultants and brand gurus.

Guidance about numbers and strategy is useful, but the really hard part of leadership is telling your people what the future will look like using a story that’s simple and persuasive enough for them to rally around, willingly giving their leader the ‘benefit of the doubt.’

Will they rally around?

All talk about the future involves estimates, not facts. The slides might look fancy, yet the credibility of those estimates rests wholly upon the leader’s communication style.

This part of leadership is hard because you’re so exposed. Either it works and you see people with pumping fists and smiles that say “faith in the future” – or it doesn’t and they avoid eye contact with you. If you can’t command this rapport, then one more spreadsheet won’t help.

Anyone who’s done a bit of leadership will know the “what to say” part – the message – isn’t really that difficult. Nor is the “how to say it” part – the narrative – quite so tough once you’ve put in the necessary practice at conferences and offsites.

The killer is “who to be.” Meaning the in-the-round person that audiences see in front of them, transmitting ideas, energy, and conviction. A person who’s simultaneously receiving feedback from that audience, adapting to their needs.

The best description of this is what it feels like to stand on the Red Dot delivering a TED or TEDx Talk. Step off the dot and you’re out of camera shot. Exceed 18 minutes and the mike goes dead. It’s just you, maybe a slide advance in your hand, and the audience. Can you sell your story?

Your author on the Red Dot

If that’s a struggle, how much would it help if you could visualise, map and then measure this part of your communicative persona, to truly understand how you’re coming across?

You may already be influencing peoples’ judgement in ways they can’t really explain – but makes them willing to trust you and go along with your ideas. If that doesn’t come easy, then perhaps you’re unconsciously replaying a lifetime’s worth of bad communication habits or haven’t yet identified what your strongest suit really is.

Given the amount of technical expertise and energy most leaders apply to the business of getting things done, it’s astonishing how little method they apply to the business of telling people what to do, or influencing others’ judgement. It’s one of those mission-critical areas that until recently, most business schools neglected altogether.

Not surpisingly: many models of leadership communication are, frankly, outdated.

Time for a newer communication style?

Communicate Charisma was designed to change all that. We set out to create a simple set of visual tools that would allow any user to map, measure, and then manage his or her unique set of communication assets. Communicate Charisma is a methodology allowing anyone to consciously develop their influencing skills with a style that’s authentic and uniquely personal.

We simply didn’t believe that success in communication was destined to remain an intangible, almost secret skill that some had, and others could only strive for. We don’t believe in repetitive, low-yield trainings attempting to instil standard behaviours and messages that don’t persuade and may even seem insincere.

And we don’t believe all leaders are generals in disguise.We wanted to democratize access to that age-old quality known as Charisma, by introducing a simple methodology that allows leaders everywhere to hold up a mirror to themselves and discover, in communication terms “how to make it better.”

At the heart of our methodology lie two visual projections or profiles that reveal the dimensions of your personal charisma. The data for your personal plot comes from a simple online test that takes only a few minutes to complete.

The Charisma Projection Profile is a simple two dimensional map showing the zones and styles you use to most effectively influence those around you. This reveals how all of us project personality in different circumstances.

The Charisma Essence Profile shows your personality “in the round” with a circle that plots the seven dimensions of your communications strengths and challenges. This reveals the unique personality assets you put to work every time you start talking.

Both these Profiles are contained in a detailed 20 page report that provides analysis, guidance and suggestions – all you need to interpret the plots that decode your communications style.

But Communicate Charisma isn’t just a mapping service; it’s a whole methodology that recognises authentic leadership takes time and practice to grow, and that personal development comes through experimentation, feedback, coaching and dialogue.

And this isn’t just ‘armchair warrior’ theory: we wouldn’t ask others to do anything we hadn’t already tried ourselves in front of a TEDx audience.

Trainers and coaches must also walk their talk

So the Communicate Charisma Self-Assessment Profile forms the basis of a range of coaching and training interventions for leaders, either individually or through interactive group workshops. These trainings are delivered by ourselves and – soon – by accredited coaches, trainers and leadership development professionals around the world.

We recognize, too, that developing something as unique and identifiable as your communications style should remain just that – personal. That’s why we offer a Personal Development Plan helping individuals keep track of their experiments, learnings and successes over time.

So if you – or your clients – could soon be facing a Red Dot moment of any kind, then maybe we can help.

At Communicate Charisma we teach people how to become more engaging and effective communicators. In our Charisma Dimensions workshops, we use practical exercises coupled with our bespoke self-awareness tools to allow participants to understand and experience the impact of individual personality traits on how we are perceived by others. Together, we use these insights to develop a more effective and authentic personal style, and so raise our power of influence and communications mastery.

Find out more about our workshops.