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NELSON MANDELA has it. Richard Branson has it. Aung San Suu Kyi has it in her own quiet way. Steve Jobs had it, although he used tricks to enhance it. Barack Obama has it 鈥� or at least he used to. Charisma is one of our most prized personal qualities. But what exactly is it? Are you born with it, or can you learn it? Why are we such suckers for it? And, most importantly 鈥� for US president Obama at least 鈥� can you lose it?

Although we know it when we see it, charisma is a rather slippery concept. To the ancient Greeks, it was ethos, meaning persuasive appeal. Japanese playwright Zeami, a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer, called it hana, the highest level of which he called the 鈥渇lower of peerless charm鈥�. In dictionaries, it still carries magical connotations as a 鈥渄ivinely conferred power or talent鈥� that makes one individual capable of influencing or inspiring others.

Modern-day psychologists cannot agree on a definition, but they are starting to understand what charisma is and just how far it can get you. The good news for anyone who aspires to revolutionise a nation or just hold dinner-party guests in thrall is that some aspects of charisma can be learned. Perhaps this should make us question the value we place on this most alluring of personal qualities.

In our media-saturated, globally connected, 24/7 world, charisma is more important than ever, particularly for anyone in the spotlight. Actors have to be charismatic or they will struggle to find roles, says , a theatre historian at Yale University who has written a book on charisma called It (University of Michigan Press, 2007).

Being perceived as charismatic is crucial for leaders too, says of Columbia Business School in New York. And it is not just world leaders who benefit. Charisma is an important tool for uniting a group and raising expectations, so it can be invaluable for anyone who has to lead a team or convince others of a new idea. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not necessary to be charismatic to be a good manager, but it is very useful to be perceived as charismatic when trying to start an organisation or change one,鈥� says Morris.

So what makes some people charismatic and others not? Genes may play a part. , a social development researcher at the University of Maryland in College Park, has studied social functioning in young children and found that some can be classed as socially outgoing from as early as 4 months old, interacting with adults and peers and being generally exuberant in their temperament (). They may be more likely to grow into charismatic adults, but they need other qualities too. 鈥淚 would imagine charisma is a function not only of social competence, but positive self-image as well,鈥� says Fox, pointing out that this tends to emerge in middle childhood as a product of innate temperament and a child鈥檚 circumstances and environment.

Roach takes a different view. 鈥淭he key is an enigmatic attractiveness that persuades others to subject themselves to the enigmatic person,鈥� he says. He believes that contradictions are vital. Obama, for example, is warm and tough, black and white, from tropical Hawaii and gritty Chicago. Likewise, he argues, the actor Julianne Moore is fascinating because she manages to convey both strength and vulnerability. Certain circumstances may cause charisma to emerge or develop. Roach points out that 鈥淪hy Di鈥� at the time of her marriage to Prince Charles eventually became 鈥淭he People鈥檚 Princess鈥�. Princess Diana had to dig deep to find the charisma she had always carried inside, he says.

In Roach鈥檚 view, charisma is a sort of X factor that some people are lucky enough to be born with. He likens it to perfect pitch: if you have it, it can be cultivated, if you don鈥檛, it鈥檚 hard to improve and you will never fully attain it. Others, however, see it as a suite of characteristics that may come more or less naturally to different individuals 鈥� although not everyone agrees on what these characteristics are.

Based on more than three decades of research, , a psychologist at Claremont McKenna College in California, has identified six traits or skills that he believes are essential: emotional expressiveness, enthusiasm, eloquence, self-confidence, vision and responsiveness to others. To be perceived as charismatic, it is vital to have a balance between these components, he says. A surfeit of emotional expressiveness, for instance, can detract from personal charisma 鈥� think comic actors Robin Williams or Jim Carrey.

The idea that charisma comprises a combination of qualities is also reflected in the Conger-Kanungo scale of charismatic leadership, one of the most popular and strongly validated measures of charisma. It consists of 20 statements designed to assess strengths in five areas: vision; responsiveness to others; responsiveness to opportunities; risk-taking; and unconventionality.

The implication of this modular view of charisma is that aspects of it can be cultivated. Eloquence improves with practice. Enthusiasm can be faked. People can learn how to be more responsive to others. Even emotional expressiveness can be improved, says of the University of California, Davis, in his classic book Why Presidents Succeed (Yale University Press, 1987). He found that the most successful US presidents used language rich in words conveying basic emotions that connect with an audience, such as love, hate or greed. Any would-be charismatic should use a phrase like 鈥淚 feel your pain鈥� rather than 鈥淚 can relate to your viewpoint鈥�.

鈥淐harisma can be cultivated: eloquence improves with practice, enthusiasm can be faked, responsiveness to others can be learned鈥�

Vision, or the appearance of being a visionary, can also be acquired or enhanced. Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, spent up to 10 hours practising for apparently off-the-cuff 10 minute presentations that were central to his reputation as a visionary, charismatic leader, says Morris, who published a paper on the subject last year ().

Visionary leaders

Obama has also sought to boost his 鈥渧isionary鈥� status. After the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the founder of Al-Qaida, 鈥淥bama announced that the intelligence was only 50 per cent certain the site held bin Laden, but he had a feeling about it, so he rolled the dice鈥�, Morris says. 鈥淚t seemed to me that the intelligence was more like 99 per cent certain. However, his version makes him look more visionary.鈥�

Leaders who can move an audience with their oratory, who are comfortable with theatrical events and who are willing to express a vision of the future can trigger our subconscious, in the way that shamans do in some traditional societies, says Morris. These are things he thinks can be taught: Morris runs courses at Columbia Business School that aim to improve performance in these areas.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology also offers training programmes for business executives who want to enhance their charisma. Instead of teaching them to be more visionary, emotionally expressive or eloquent, however, Sandy Pentland and his colleagues take a different approach. Using gadgets including electronic badges that record information such as tone of voice, proximity to others and gesticulations, they have identified four types of non-verbal social signal that they believe underpin charisma.

First there鈥檚 mimicry: interactions involving a charismatic individual tend to include more unconscious copying of body language such as back-and-forth of smiles and head nodding. Second, charismatic people display high levels of activity 鈥� for example, they seem bubbly rather than listless 鈥� signalling their interest and excitement. Third, their speech and movements show more consistency and fluidity. Finally, a person鈥檚 influence can be gauged by the extent to which they cause others to unconsciously match their speech patterns.

By analysing these signs alone, Pentland can predict which executives will be most successful at selling their business plans to a group of their peers. 鈥淲hat counts may not be what you say, but rather how you say it,鈥� he says (). These kinds of social signals are hard to fake, Pentland adds. Nevertheless, his team is currently working on a tool called the 鈥渕eeting mediator鈥�, which collects audio and motion information from each member of a group and provides real-time feedback about their interaction patterns, with the aim of improving the social signals they display, and so the outcome of the meeting.

Aside from providing clues about how to enhance charisma, Pentland鈥檚 findings could also shed light on its origins. If charisma鈥檚 key components are pre-linguistic social signals, that suggests it is evolutionarily ancient, he says. In general, social signalling tends to encourage consensus between individuals, so it may have evolved to help create stable social groups. But human societies must not be too stable or they will never make the kinds of strides that have led to technological and social revolutions 鈥� and that鈥檚 where charismatic individuals come in, says Pentland. It takes someone charismatic to change a culture.

Pentland is not alone in believing that charisma seeds revolution. Others argue that only leaders who generate radical change can be deemed truly charismatic. One proponent of this idea, at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, says that Steve Jobs falls into this group, as do Charles de Gaulle, Margaret Thatcher, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. As some of the names on this list attest, true charisma can be very powerful and its use can have highly divisive or even disastrous consequences. Democracy provides checks and balances to limit abuses of power by charismatic revolutionaries, but charisma can still be a malevolent force (see 鈥淐ult of personality鈥�).

There is another reason we should be wary of charisma: it may not be backed up with real ability. Rakesh Khurana of Harvard Business School has found that US companies looking for a new leader seek charisma above all else, but the . In uncertain market conditions, a charismatic CEO can boost a company鈥檚 stock price, but this can be short-lived because that individual may be better at conveying an image than running a business, says Khurana. Although more able executives can learn to be more charismatic, the fact that charisma is now being taught in business schools could actually compound the problem.

Besides, if we put our faith in charismatic leaders there is always the chance their charisma will evaporate. It happened to Tony Blair and Bill Clinton. Both are generally thought to have great personal charisma, but while they were in office unpopular policies or personal weaknesses saw their leadership charisma slip. Obama may be suffering a similar fate. In the early day of his presidency, he was hailed as an icon of hope. More recently, he has been criticised as condescending, self-interested and detached. He is still the same man, of course, but perception is what matters. 鈥淧art of his charisma was in the eyes of his followers,鈥� Joseph Nye of Harvard University鈥檚 John F. Kennedy School of Government said earlier this year (). 鈥淗ard economic times make it hard to maintain charisma,鈥� he added, noting that personal charisma also depends on the situation.

Even Roach accepts that a politician鈥檚 charisma can diminish when he is linked with unpopular policies. 鈥淏ut I imagine if Barack Obama walked into the room right now you wouldn鈥檛 say he had lost his charisma,鈥� he says. How he performs in the US presidential election in November will be a crucial test. 鈥淭here has never been an incumbent re-elected in an economy this sour,鈥� says Roach. 鈥淚f he is re-elected, it will be a tribute to his personal magnetism 鈥� to his charisma.鈥�