Executive Charisma: Six Steps to Mastering the Art of Leadership

Customer Reviews

As a practicing executive, I witness first-hand how top leaders relate to others on a daily basis. Those who know how to access and apply the 'soft' leadership skills are the winners, period. No matter how bright and classicaly educated a leader is, those who rise to the top have mastered the art of charisma.

Read Benton's book and learn how easy it is to turn up the juice on your executive charisma.

Everyone knows that recovering from addiction requires 12 steps, but Benton has reduced being an effective corporate leader to just six. As you read Benton's research and real-life anecdotes about such steps as, "stand tall, straight, and smile," or the slightly more challenging "slow down, shut up, and listen," you might constantly find yourself thinking, "I already know all this; this is common sense; or, this is too simple to be of any value to me." Just wait. By naming and then re-framing certain key success behaviors in a totally non-threatening way Benton's book may subtly change your perception of yourself and others. Suddenly you will notice these key behaviors everywhere; or perhaps worse, you will notice their absence everywhere. Most importantly, you may find that her key ideas are like cheerful pop songs, once you've heard them you can't get out of your head. They may actually start helping you remember to change the way you behave - which is the point after all.

This is a great book to share with leadership "high potentials," or to give people struggling with particular success behaviors. Especially useful in our Turkish business context is Benton's step two : "expect and give acceptance to maintain self esteem." This advice alone is worth an entire volume. Readers in Asia and the Middle East also need to take some of Benton's suggestions with a grain of salt. Her experience is almost entirely grounded in the American business culture, and as a result, some of her suggestions -- such as "ask questions and ask favors" -- may have slightly different impacts for us than they do for her target audience of American middle managers.

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