Gravitas & Charisma: The Dual Power of Effective Leadership

A note to young leaders. On gravitas and charisma.
Gravitas is the ability to make others feel they are in the company of someone important. Charisma is the ability to make people in your company feel important.

Both are very powerful in business, but charisma even more so than gravitas.

The late, great John R Caldon – former Deputy MD of Macquarie Group – was one of only a handful of people that I knew that had both, in spades.

Most people with gravitas don’t try to be charismatic, because they fear it will demystify them and detract from their power and mystique.

The irony is the more gravitas you have, the more charisma you can exude – because you cannot make people feel important if you yourself don’t feel important.

Gravitas and charisma – think “and”, not “or”.