Charisma

John Maxwell says the quality that draws other people to a leader can be summarized in one word: CHARISMA. In his book Be A People Person: Effective Leadership Through Effective Relationships, Maxwell says “the potential to be charismatic lies within each of us, but first we must remove hindrances from the development of this important personality characteristic.” The very first hindrance he gives is PRIDE. People are not drawn to someone who is arrogant and prideful. Maxwell explains that pride is a roadblock to charisma because "a prideful person will have a tendency to look down on other people."

We are not drawn to people who are full of themselves. We are, however, drawn to people who exhibit at least a little humility. People who are humble are approachable. They are touchable. They are warm and real. Those who are pride-full repel us. We aren’t sure we can trust them. We are challenged by their conceit to find a flaw, a chink in their armor. They may think they have charisma, but what they have is obnoxia.

If we are alarmed by selfishness and charmed by selflessness, what sort of persons should we want to be? If we enjoy people, want their company and want to invest our lives in them, we will learn to be humble. Humility will be among the qualities which we covet and practice. We will despise egotism and egoism when we see it in ourselves as much as we dislike it when we find it in others. We will be drawn more toward those in whom we find humility and influenced less by those with swagger and gall. We will become more honest and authentic, and finally find what Maxwell means by charisma.