Sasha Block’s (Work and Organisational Psychology) question:
Dear Lara,
We always hear that charisma matters (for example, in leadership), but how can one work on becoming more charismatic? Isn’t it all in the eye of the beholder?
Sasha
Lara Engelbert’s (Social Psychology) answer:
Dear Sasha,
The world is full of books and guides on how to become more charismatic, and I think it’s safe to say that for many people, being more charismatic sounds like an appealing way to become more influential, more important, more powerful…
The good news is that, according to science, charisma is trainable and everyone can in theory increase their charisma. Pioneering work on the trainability of charisma and its effects has been conducted by Prof. John Antonakis and his colleagues. For example, they showed that charisma is composed of trainable verbal and non-verbal strategies (so-called Charismatic Leadership Tactics; Antonakis et al., 2011). These tactics include how you deliver a speech or how you phrase your messages (e.g., by telling a story or contrasting ideas). These tactics can have true economic value. Research showed that listening to a charismatic speech increased work output comparable to a monetary incentive (Antonakis et al., 2022). So, being charismatic may be literally worth it.
But beware! With great influence, comes great responsibility. In my own work, we have gathered some evidence that being charismatic may have some detrimental effects on followers. In one study, we found that participants remembered less facts about climate change from a speech, when the speaker was more charismatic (Engelbert et al., 2023). That’s a bit scary, isn’t it? Arguably, there isn’t much work yet that looks into how charismatic personalities, and leaders in particular, influence the way people process, interpret, or remember information. But the ways in which they do so may not all be positive, as implied by some of our work.
And, of course, there’s yet another a catch, which brings me to your second question. There is some evidence that Charismatic Leadership Tactics have the greatest effect when the follower’s and leader’s values align (Wilms et al., 2025). So, yes, at least to some extent, charisma seems to be in the eye of the beholder. Intuitively, this makes a lot of sense. Would you even listen to someone, if this person does not stand for the values that are important to you (e.g., sustainability)? I guess it’s like it is with many things in science: It depends. In the case of charismatic leaders, whether you are susceptible to their charisma or not likely depends on your values, too (for the interested reader, also see the signal definition of charisma; Antonakis et al., 2016).
Lara
Lara Engelbert’s question is for Leon Hilbert (Work and Organizational Psychology):
Dear Leon,
Students often have to balance the workload of their studies with a job to finance their education and sometimes even face financial uncertainty. How do financial pressures affect people, and are there effective ways to help?
Lara
References
– Antonakis, J., Bastardoz, N., Jacquart, P., & Shamir, B. (2016). Charisma: An ill-defined and ill-measured gift. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 3(1), 293-319. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-041015-062305
– Antonakis, J., d’Adda, G., Weber, R. A., & Zehnder, C. (2022). “Just words? Just speeches?” On the economic value of charismatic leadership. Management Science, 68(9), 6355-6381. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.4219
– Antonakis, J., Fenley, M., & Liechti, S. (2011). Can charisma be taught? Tests of two interventions. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 10(3), 374-396. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2010.0012
– Engelbert, L. H., Van Elk, M., Kandrik, M., Theeuwes, J., & Van Vugt, M. (2023). The effect of charismatic leaders on followers’ memory, error detection, persuasion and prosocial behavior: A cognitive science approach. The Leadership Quarterly, 34(3), 101656. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2022.101656
– Wilms, R., Bastardoz, N., El Dahan, C. S., & Jacquart, P. (2025). Are we on the same page? Leader-follower value congruence as a boundary condition in the emergence of charismatic effects. The Leadership Quarterly, 36(2), 101839. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2024.101839
Sasha Block’s (Work and Organisational Psychology) question:
Dear Lara,
We always hear that charisma matters (for example, in leadership), but how can one work on becoming more charismatic? Isn’t it all in the eye of the beholder?
Sasha
Lara Engelbert’s (Social Psychology) answer:
Dear Sasha,
The world is full of books and guides on how to become more charismatic, and I think it’s safe to say that for many people, being more charismatic sounds like an appealing way to become more influential, more important, more powerful…
The good news is that, according to science, charisma is trainable and everyone can in theory increase their charisma. Pioneering work on the trainability of charisma and its effects has been conducted by Prof. John Antonakis and his colleagues. For example, they showed that charisma is composed of trainable verbal and non-verbal strategies (so-called Charismatic Leadership Tactics; Antonakis et al., 2011). These tactics include how you deliver a speech or how you phrase your messages (e.g., by telling a story or contrasting ideas). These tactics can have true economic value. Research showed that listening to a charismatic speech increased work output comparable to a monetary incentive (Antonakis et al., 2022). So, being charismatic may be literally worth it.
But beware! With great influence, comes great responsibility. In my own work, we have gathered some evidence that being charismatic may have some detrimental effects on followers. In one study, we found that participants remembered less facts about climate change from a speech, when the speaker was more charismatic (Engelbert et al., 2023). That’s a bit scary, isn’t it? Arguably, there isn’t much work yet that looks into how charismatic personalities, and leaders in particular, influence the way people process, interpret, or remember information. But the ways in which they do so may not all be positive, as implied by some of our work.
And, of course, there’s yet another a catch, which brings me to your second question. There is some evidence that Charismatic Leadership Tactics have the greatest effect when the follower’s and leader’s values align (Wilms et al., 2025). So, yes, at least to some extent, charisma seems to be in the eye of the beholder. Intuitively, this makes a lot of sense. Would you even listen to someone, if this person does not stand for the values that are important to you (e.g., sustainability)? I guess it’s like it is with many things in science: It depends. In the case of charismatic leaders, whether you are susceptible to their charisma or not likely depends on your values, too (for the interested reader, also see the signal definition of charisma; Antonakis et al., 2016).
Lara
Lara Engelbert’s question is for Leon Hilbert (Work and Organizational Psychology):
Dear Leon,
Students often have to balance the workload of their studies with a job to finance their education and sometimes even face financial uncertainty. How do financial pressures affect people, and are there effective ways to help?
Lara
