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Charisma: Get What the Greats Have Got
Public speaking, communication and presenting with power can all be terrifying prospects however experienced you become, and cultivating a charismatic persona in our working lives is a priceless skill.
This book is a humorous and incisive piece of observation by Dave Gillespie and Mark Warren which demonstrates the right and wrong level of status to adopt for our business lives. Whilst remaining fun, Charisma shows the reader how to tap into their own personal charisma and communicate with maximum impact.
It studies a range of great communicators, from historical figures to modern day greats and highlights how their skills translate into what we call charisma. Everyone from Franklin D Roosevelt, through Steve Jobs to Joanna Lumley is covered.
A series of fun but practical exercises will help you to build your communication skills and use body language effectively.
This book is a humorous and incisive piece of observation by Dave Gillespie and Mark Warren which demonstrates the right and wrong level of status to adopt for our business lives. Whilst remaining fun, Charisma shows the reader how to tap into their own personal charisma and communicate with maximum impact.
It studies a range of great communicators, from historical figures to modern day greats and highlights how their skills translate into what we call charisma. Everyone from Franklin D Roosevelt, through Steve Jobs to Joanna Lumley is covered.
A series of fun but practical exercises will help you to build your communication skills and use body language effectively.
- GenresBusiness
256 pages, Paperback
First published February 25, 2011
9 people want to read
About the author
David Gillespie
45 books98 followersDavid Gillespie is a recovering corporate lawyer, former co-founder of a successful software company and investor in several software startups.
He is also the father of six young children (including one set of twins). With such a lot of extra time on his hands, and 40 extra kilos on his waistline, he set out to investigate why he, like so many in his generation, was fat.
He deciphered the latest medical findings on diet and weight gain and what he found was chilling. Being fat was the least of his problems. He needed to stop poisoning himself.
His first book, Sweet Poison, published in 2008 is widely credited with starting the current Australian wave of anti-sugar sentiment.
He is also the father of six young children (including one set of twins). With such a lot of extra time on his hands, and 40 extra kilos on his waistline, he set out to investigate why he, like so many in his generation, was fat.
He deciphered the latest medical findings on diet and weight gain and what he found was chilling. Being fat was the least of his problems. He needed to stop poisoning himself.
His first book, Sweet Poison, published in 2008 is widely credited with starting the current Australian wave of anti-sugar sentiment.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 28, 2014
I like business self-help books. There is a rich vein of comedy in their cliché-ridden pomposity and general awfulness. From the appalling garishness of its cover and the flat banality of its early pages, Charisma promises to be every bit as ghastly as the worst of the genre.
And yet, when Gillespie and Warren get into their stride, they come up with something genuinely interesting and useful. Their book won't give you any more charisma in real life, but you weren't really expecting that, were you? It's more about how to keep your audience awake while giving a presentation, and the authors' claim to competence in this field is that they are theatre people who run courses, which is why you don't get all the answers by reading the book. But there is sound advice on narrative structure, presentation and the need for story-telling, and the different techniques of rhetoric get a good airing. The chapter on status - applicable to relationships in general - is also good.
The style is irritatingly chatty, and it's clear that much of the text is transcribed from their presentation notes. This is surprising: they point out that a written report doesn't work when read aloud, so they should have known that vice versa doesn't work either. It might be acceptable to punctuate your spoken commentary with with "Atrocious!" and "Yuk!", but on the printed page it reads like a 10-year old girl's diary. I presume the authors want to be taken seriously, but their gushing prose - sugar-coated with clichés and sprinkled with exclamation marks - makes that impossible.
You finally lose hope when you read, in reference (yet again) to Bill Clinton: "This is a man who does exactly what it says on the tin!" Not only is it a cliché, not only is it twisted out of all recognition, but it's also completely meaningless in the context where they've used it.
You might hire these people to tell you how to speak, but they desperately need to hire someone to tell them how to write.
And yet, when Gillespie and Warren get into their stride, they come up with something genuinely interesting and useful. Their book won't give you any more charisma in real life, but you weren't really expecting that, were you? It's more about how to keep your audience awake while giving a presentation, and the authors' claim to competence in this field is that they are theatre people who run courses, which is why you don't get all the answers by reading the book. But there is sound advice on narrative structure, presentation and the need for story-telling, and the different techniques of rhetoric get a good airing. The chapter on status - applicable to relationships in general - is also good.
The style is irritatingly chatty, and it's clear that much of the text is transcribed from their presentation notes. This is surprising: they point out that a written report doesn't work when read aloud, so they should have known that vice versa doesn't work either. It might be acceptable to punctuate your spoken commentary with with "Atrocious!" and "Yuk!", but on the printed page it reads like a 10-year old girl's diary. I presume the authors want to be taken seriously, but their gushing prose - sugar-coated with clichés and sprinkled with exclamation marks - makes that impossible.
You finally lose hope when you read, in reference (yet again) to Bill Clinton: "This is a man who does exactly what it says on the tin!" Not only is it a cliché, not only is it twisted out of all recognition, but it's also completely meaningless in the context where they've used it.
You might hire these people to tell you how to speak, but they desperately need to hire someone to tell them how to write.
Displaying 1 of 1 review