4 Different Types Of Charisma

So it has finally come to this, the last of my trilogy of articles pertaining to charisma. As I have repeatedly stated, the state of being charismatic is a set of tools rather than just some inherent wonderfulness that you’re either born with or you’re not. And in a related revelation, there is more than one way to be charismatic than just being the stereotypical loud and aggressive “Chad”—although that is certainly one of the ways to be charismatic.

More specifically, there are four main types of charisma. In this article we will be discussing those, as well as my theories as to why “charismatic” people (like celebrities and politicians) also seem to be abject pieces of shit.

1. Focus Charisma

Focus charisma is defined by having ample amounts of “presence” and a cool confidence. This is good for introverts. People with focus charisma are people who make you feel like every word you say is being listened to. His body language hints at his PRESENCE. Even if you’re a dweeb you can have this. Focus charisma also conveys respect for others and makes them feel like they matter.

You get focus charisma by paying attention to people, good listening skills, and patience. Do the “presence” exercises that I discussed before. Also the nullifying of internal discomfort, like delving into sensations and responsibility transfers, again from the previous articles.

This is the simplest and easiest form of charisma to get, and it can be effective in more subdued and intellectual scenarios. But as it is the easiest, it is, in my opinion, the type of charisma that can most often go wrong.

One of the risks is the one that I have always warned about: having too much presence without enough power could very easily make you into a spineless, supplicating lapdog and that will not convey sort of positivity to those you are trying to convince. In other words, if you don’t display enough power you’ll come off as a fellating little tool, so if you’re going to use focus charisma, try to avoid this.

However, remember that the three elements of charisma are power, presence and warmth. Having power and presence without warmth can have its own problems, mainly that if you convey too little warmth, you will come off as interrogative. And whether you’re trying to make a sale or get into a woman’s bed, you don’t want to come off like a teacher grilling a student.

Focus charisma is good for defusing angry situations, or in negotiations—and really, what is sex and romance if not a series of negotiations? Do NOT use it when you need to be in authority.

2. Visionary Charisma: Belief and Confidence

This is the charisma that inspires people, it makes them believe what you’re saying. Conviction and passion. People are naturally uncomfortable with being uncertain, they want a leader to lead the charge. Hell, this sort of charisma even managed to get Dubya into the White House, and if it could make a moron like him President, you know it works!

This is probably the type of charisma that is closest to the stereotyped “Chad Thundercock” sort of charisma—Chad knows that his plan will work out, so he has confidence in his vision.

Conveying visionary charisma requires the ability to project complete conviction and confidence in a cause. In this way, visionary charisma is based on power and warmth—but not necessarily interpersonal warmth. They feel warmly about their vision, strong and passionately.

Visionary charisma is assessed via demeanor—which is to say body language and behavior. If you seem strong and inspired, they’ll assume you must have a good reason to do so. Somebody who is conventionally attractive will have better luck with this then an uggo, but if you can convince people really hard, then you can overcome your ugliness—think of the stereotypical “fanatical preacher wearing a hair shirt before a roaring crowd.”

The message matters for visionary charisma. This means knowing how to craft a bold vision and knowing how to deliver the message charismatically—and you can do that with the public speaking and body language tricks I have delivered here.

One of the keys to communicating your visionary charisma is getting yourself into a state of complete conviction, and shedding any doubt. You can use the tools previously learned here.

The main problem with this sort of charisma is that if you do it too well you will create a worshipful movement of slavishly devoted chodes around you— or even worse; you may start to overestimate your own abilities and set yourself up for a complete debacle.

Worshipful chodes, wildly overestimating one’s own abilities…I *can’t imagine* why I immediately thought of Tucker Max…

3. Kindness Charisma: Warmth and Confidence

Kindness charisma is based in warmth primarily, connect with people’s hearts and make them feel cherished and accepted. Like visionary and focus charisma, kindness charisma comes entirely from body language—specifically your face, and even more specifically your eyes.

Practice this by accessing warmth with internal tools such as gratitude, goodwill, compassion, and self-compassion as the last article discussed. Also go out of your way to not show tension and coldness. Again, you need power and confidence here because otherwise you come off as a simp.

Use this when you want to make people feel safe and comfortable, like if you need to deliver bad news gently. Avoid it if you need to be authoritative or if there’s a risk the other person will get too clingy.

A little something like this

4. Authority Charisma: Status and confidence

Before I tell you what this is, notice that power and confidence are involved in all of these, the key is to make it seem like your great and magnanimous self is deigning to be warm and kind and present to them, not that you’re demanding THEIR approval.

Anyway, this form of charisma is possibly the most powerful one of all. People instinctively follow leaders—for better or worse.The Dalai Lama embodies authority charisma, but so did Stalin.

Those who have authority charisma are not necessarily likable: To quote The Charisma Myth, which in turn quoted a sportswriter: “[Michael Jordan] rankles, sometimes infuriates, his teammates. But he uses his charisma to lift the whole team’s level of play.”

Authority charisma is primarily based on a perception of power: the belief that this person has the power to do what he wants. We evaluate someone’s authority charisma through four indicators: body language, appearance, title, and the reactions of others. And you already know how to do all those.

Now, having learned all this, let’s ask an uncomfortable question…

Why Are Charismatic People Often Shitheads?

As the recent casting couch brouhaha with #MeToo and ongoing political controversies will indicate, many of our societal betters, who are charismatic by any objective measure, are also objectively miserable human beings. Why?

I have repeatedly been discussing that a major trick for getting charisma is to “fool” yourself into a charismatic state. And what is acting, in particular method acting, if it’s not “fooling” yourself into getting into character? For that matter, politics is “Hollywood for ugly people” after all, to quote Ronald Reagan. Are you seeing how it all ties together?

While this is just an idle theory I have had, perhaps the reason that politicians and celebrities are simultaneously so charismatic and such reprobates is because they don’t have any personalities of their own, and thus the budding sociopath finds it easy to “paint” various personality traits upon themselves.

Regardless of whether or not this is true, you certainly don’t need to be a sociopath to use the charisma techniques I have ennumerated—use them for good instead!

Read More: How To “Program” Yourself To Be More Charismatic

33 thoughts on “4 Different Types Of Charisma”

  1. … or just be yourself.
    Those who claim it does not work, simply have problems with dropping inhibitions without the help of alcohol and drugs.

    1. Perhaps you’ve never had to rely on those who aren’t exactly the same as you. Unfortunate and inevitably unwise. Timidity guided can become unfailing loyalty. Neglected it stews into a bitter venom.

  2. “Fool urself into being charismatic”, hmm, I guess it’s worth a try for some people, nothing to lose, tho’ I prefer the “search for people who u genuinely like & u’ll discover urself to be charismatic” approach.

  3. The backbone of being charismatic is confidence. Faking charisma won’t land you any kind of long term relationship because you can only fake it for so long. Take care of yourself first and the rest will fall into place, people will treat you differently once they see you as a successful person.

  4. No other country on Earth tries to instill “be yourself” platitudes onto it’s people than the United States, yet everything about the culture insinuates that only people with balls-to-the-wall charisma, fake smiles, and chattiness will be economically and socially successful.
    This is largely true. HR cunts will discriminate and axe men in the interview process whom they deem “too quiet” or “too stoic” or doesn’t display some kind of fake and exuberant enthusiasm for everything. Skills, non-belligerent behavior, and competency be damned as far as hiring criteria is concerned.
    Eastern cultures are far more accomodating of people on the introverted spectrum, which is probably well over half of the general population in Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam etc anyways.
    “Be yourself” is one of the great big lies of the US.

    1. Excellent points. My now long and mostly life draining years of being in the workforce can substantiate what you’ve commented on. A solid work ethic, bonafide marketable skills, integrity, and a moral compass means absolutely nothing. I’d add if you are not Christian Grey, and thus don’t give these HR wimmins the tingles, you might as well just shake your death rattle, cut your loses, and end the interview then and there. The same can be said of the many feminized male managers and male HR types, and the many male donut dunkers as well. If one doesn’t bloviate endlessly, lie like a ten dollar prostitute, trip their triggers, avoid pricking their overly sensitive egos, or exhibit some false sense of groveling and gratitude for undeserved loyalty or respect, its as bad, or even worse than the HR wimmins, and will earn you a quick path to the exit door. More than once, I’ve had to dumb down my credentials, and have lost count of the times I’ve spent in dead end and downright degrading job interviews. I now think these younger men that work low-level jobs, live like monastics and save a pile of money, and then go into obscurity, are really onto something.

      1. Wow precise analysis of current times. The buyer expects a Rembrandt to compose symphonies for slave wages cuz they know the audition line wraps around the corner.

  5. Charismatic people are often shitheads because a lot of them are salesmen. Charisma and sales share the same bag of tricks and it’s really easy to fall into a rhythm and come off as insincere. The only way around this is to always follow the golden rule: interested is interesting. Show a genuine interest in a person and they will respond always. And that’s tough. For me I find it really hard to give a shit about my co-workers. Can’t remember their names, or what they do, or their interests or whether they have children or any of that shit. Same with girls I pick up. If I grab their number and don’t fuck them that night there’s a damn good chance I just won’t remember who the hell they are when I see their name in my phone. Likewise I’ve accidentally tried to pick up girls I’ve already fucked before, there’s no way to recover from that. Note: I freely admit, I’m a shithead.

  6. Dear relatively normal reader,
    before you adventure yourself into the mental masturbation of overanalyzing if you are charismatic, all while believing that anyone surrounding you might have noticed that or even might even give a fuck even if you had charisma (which you don’t, for obvious reasons, except maybe some nerd charisma of looking like the guy who knows it all because he spends hours and years on the internet reading shit), think first that people reading this article are most likely Dan Cilley (google his name) , just like the authors, aka people without minimal common sense nor self-awareness.
    Kind regards and I hope you’ll become normal

      1. Fuark asdasda, you are the biggest candidate right now to become the next dan cilley and eventually go ER

    1. Wow. What a terminal case of penis envy. Congrats sweety. One day they’ll definitely have an award for you. One day. Promise. Derp.

  7. ASDASDA
    You always use the word “triggered” in your rambling posts. You are the one who is triggered.

    1. @ Gen X-ile, I use “triggered” just as I use the word “honey.” They’re just blunt tools to illicit feelings emasculation.
      I also call you Gen X-ile rather than whatever your current avatar is as a tool to let anyone out of the loop recognise who they’re reading/writing to.
      I also use paragraphs as a tool to break up the text as it makes it easier to read.
      I also have a tenancy to use punctuation, too much, in fact, as a tool to try imitate my speech/thought patterns.
      What I’m getting at here, in case you missed it, is that language is a tool, so why not use it. Be creative even, hell, go off on a tangent, I don’t care. Just, I dunno, every time I try to read what you are writing I doze off. Genuine advice, if I were you try write short replies, I’ve read maybe 2% of your long ones, and I doubt I’m the only one. Cheers.

  8. CHARISMA & RACE
    Blacks seem to have more inherent charisma and masculine confidence that draws the chicks-there is something about the live-in-the-moment existential lives of blacks that has appeal to chicks-even white ones.
    Hispanics and Italians have the appeal of machismo.
    Both of these groups are street smart and this in itself is appealing.
    Jews can sometimes be compelling through sheer verbal dexterity-this is a huge reason for their prominence in the media and law.
    But the white just does not have innate charisma. If he is not a Chad than he is simply a lump of few interesting words.

  9. Charisma & Race Pt II
    Watch the average action film. Clint Eastwood or Chuck Norris were never that interesting. They are just laconic white guys. Therefore, in order to hold the attention of the audience, the producers always have to hire charismatic character actors. These character actors are usually Jews or Italians playing Hispanics or terrorists (DELTA FORCE) although some are whites (Andy Robinson who played Dirty Harry’s SCORPIO adversary).
    Blacks on film do not have to perform crazy stunts. They have a natural charisma.
    The same for the Italians-Pacino, De Niro, Stallone. They exude a machismo the audience finds absorbing.

    1. Let me guess you’re a black guy. LMAO. You’re almost as bad as the white supremacists here.

  10. This relates to something I saw earlier today. The infamously infantile Kanye West apparently has intentions of running for president… This raises a possible subcategory of charisma. I’ll call it positive addiction. That is to say those who encourage the choice to embrace degeneration because feelings. These individuals exhibit a strange kind of charisma fueled by, in this opinion, the desire to not be alone in worthlessness. Catchy if the goal is to deflect responsibility. It’s a certain crossover to the female garbage we deal with each day. Example: “My life sucks, your life sucks. Our lives suck. Therefore, because we recognize how so many lives suck, our complaints must be legitimate”. Absurd yes? Now, I never finished college. But the Logic 101 textbook I still have would shred this mentality. Unfortunate that in imagination land the mind is mostly immune to shredding. Some of it sticks because truth isn’t shreddable, hence cognitive dissonance. But a frail ego is an amazing beast. Like a vicious chihuahua. The more smoke it blows the more it snarls. The world is against you. Good luck gentlemen.

  11. Really good series of articles, my man. I am a part time personal trainer (actually, Master Trainer) as well. After 15 years on and off in that business, it is 100% apparent to me that people initially start with a trainer based on their display of charisma. Keeping clients requires not being a shitty trainer, but charisma gets the ball rolling.
    I also work in politics and in finance (I know…I’m busy) but I keep the training gig because it connects me with people in a way that I am now better able to identify thanks to these articles. So, thank you.

  12. KAYNE WEST
    Let us look at the white men that blacks actually admire. Are they politicians or saints or philanthropists.
    Nope, Italian thugs and actors who play Italian thugs.
    Blacks have a faint admiration for the misanthropes like Nick Nolte who play assholes.

  13. Charisma without the wisdom to wield it is a ditzy chick on a gun range. Never know when she’s going to spin around and flag everyone with a hot chamber. If she’s a 10 you might not even notice you’re being flagged. As some old guy or another once said, wisdom is practiced in public but acquired in solitude.

  14. Americans have gone insane.
    The USA is a bankrupt warmongering police state.
    The default American response to the US collapse is to ignore the decay, excuse government abuse, attack the messengers who warn of the dangers of tyranny, and to blame everyone else except themselves for the decline.
    Americans are ignoring the obvious collapse of the US by sticking their heads in the sand and focusing instead on bread and circuses, celebrities, sports, movies, music, alcohol, drugs, and sex.
    Americans don’t care about government corruption and scandals.
    Americans will vehemently attack anyone who dares criticize their beloved government overlords by shouting “fake news!” or calling patriots spammers, trolls, shills, bots, racists, or nutjobs and demanding that the truth-tellers be censored, banned, get IRS audits, be arrested, or be killed.
    Americans quickly blame China, Russia, libtards, Bush, Obama, homosexuals, Communists, Nazis, blacks, atheists, Christians, Jews, Muslims, feminists, or illegal immigrants for the fall of the USA, but if Americans really want to know who is responsible, they just need to look in the mirror.
    Americans say Churchill, FDR, Stalin, Putin, and Hitler were Jews, no one died during WWII, white people never owned slaves, Communists never killed anyone, the Bill of Rights was repealed by the Organic Act of 1872, and Freemasons control the world, but they never offer any proof.
    Americans say increasing the national debt decreases it.
    Americans say food stamps are freedom.
    Americans say war is peace.
    Americans say tyranny is the American way.
    The collapse of the US is shocking and disgusting.
    How can Americans sleep at night now?
    Every country has the government it deserves.

  15. Although I did see some stellar points mixed in with a questionable penmanship style, perhaps in the future you could keep your political biases mute.
    Yet, also, if I could add some examples that worked for me.
    People and societies judge us. And should. If you want to taken seriously abide by these simple guides;
    A. If you want to write well you must read well. Great examples of the written language are the letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee.
    B. If you want to speak well then seek out examples of public figures- past and present to study their flow, patterns, modulation and tone. Avoid the “um’s, OK’s, You guys and ya know’s” that are the death of us all. Street lingo is an abomination.
    C. Dress to reflect one step above your listeners.
    D. Be conscious of your poise. To be thought of as commanding check your corners. Back straight, shoulders back, arms at a comfortable position, face your speaker or person you are addressing and flash your pearlies ever so often.
    E. Study the Masters! Jimmy Stewart for empathy. Cary Grant for charm. Billy Graham for passion and conviction. Watch Jordon Pederson. Read of heroes and villians. We should all be a little of both.

      1. Oh the irony, how I do blush, I forgoteth a common comma! Not even a simpleton would be so foolish as I.
        “Yet, also, if I could add, thou doth haveth questionable penmanship.”
        I have corrected my folley. Now I bid you a gay day indeed good sir.

        1. ASDASDA
          In your pointless cackling hysteria you come off as a woman, not even an Indian male.
          At first I made you for an Asian-Indian probably-because of your stumbling first-person responses and over-familiarity.
          But you might be female as well.

  16. I don’t value the responses of a womanly hysteric who comes off as an Indian young man. You don’t even seem white.
    You’ve read enough of my posts to follow my avatars but all of your replies so rambling and interpersonal I don’t really care what you say anyhow. You wear the halo of a South Asian.
    Your tangents are not even interesting, they are just a first-person bore.

    1. Oh how I do love your projections, Gen X-ile. Here, let me project for a change: you always wanted to be in the CIA but they went, nah, you’re shit. So you’ve spent every waking day trying to hone your skills so that you can one day pass that test and walk up to those mean CIA men in black and say, “No, YOU’RE shit.”

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