Cory

A little robotic

Reviewed: 12-17-12

What did you like best about The Charisma Myth? What did you like least?

I feel as though some of the information in this book is a little robotic and unnatural. I fully admit that doing any kind of new activity is going to feel a little unnatural at first but this is to a strange extreme. For instance the author suggests living life at times "method acting". This is where a person thinks of a scene which brings up feelings that you want to convey. For instance, if you want to convey warmth, think about something before hand that makes you feel the feelings of warmth. This to me is phony.

There are however very good and extremely practical applications which can be easily done without feeling fake. An example would be to take a full second or two before speaking to ensure that you absorb what the other person is saying. That isn't being fake, that is just good, common people skills.

For the reason that the book is scattered with some hints of genuinely good advice and applications, I don't give the book a terribly negative review. This book however is by no means perfect. I don't like criticizing but if you go to the books website and watch the author speak, she kind of lacks the very same warmth she purports to be able to project. I think this has to do with the fact that in the book she talks about deciding which kind of charisma to turn on and which ones to turn off. She was probably trying to turn on the "authority charisma" and turn everything else down... but I just don't buy it. I didn't see it working from her and I frankly can't see it working for me. The most charismatic people are the ones who are most interested in other people, genuinely. That in mind, go read the go-giver or the go-giver sells more. Not as much science, not as many hours but all of it is solid, good, applicable advice.

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