How to Turn Up Your Charm
While perusing Dan Schawbel’s blog I saw a post called From Identity to Personality: Be Remembered. It occurred to me that many people don’t realize they aren’t going further in business because they are low on the charm/charisma factor. If you suspect this might be you, there are some ways to sort of check yourself and increase your charisma. Some of it does come naturally, but much of it is learned behavior.
You have to be motivated to be more charming and know that this is not “smarmy” behavior. Charisma generally comes from real caring about the people around you. If you are in a line of work where you do not care about the success or happiness of your customers or clients, you must either work very hard to develop this caring or flee that business!
Charming people are warm, flexible and generous. They lavish praise, when justified, and do their best to accomodate client needs. Often they add on extras like connecting people or sharing information just because they know it is helpful for the client.
They know their customers, what’s going on in their lives, who their family members are, what they love. When charismatic individuals are with people, they look them in the eye. They read people well and can identify various subtle behavioral clues.
They disarm people with humor. Funny, kind people are generally the most liked people around. If things are getting tense they acknowledge it.
Charming, well-liked people are very willing to accept responsibility for mistakes. They keep their word for the most part, meet deadlines and say “yes” more than they say “no”. They are positive, optimistic people.
Given these things, which things are you doing well and which could you work on? 2010 is right around the corner. What will you do differently to turn up your charm in the new year?
Tags: charisma, charm, client relationships, personality