Late Apple CEO Steve Jobs: Developed an "almost messianic aura". Late Apple CEO Steve Jobs: Developed an "almost messianic aura". Photo: Reuters


IT'S a rainy, midsummer evening. I'm standing in a hall, holding a glass of cheap, white wine and staring at a middle-aged man as if he's the Messiah. ''In my view, the problem with Britain today …'' he drones.
A group nearby laughs uproariously. It's too hot, my shoes pinch. The people here are acquaintances rather than friends, and this is one of those social functions I'm attending out of duty. Normally, I'd be appeasing this gasbag with the occasional ''Oh?'' Meanwhile I'd be eavesdropping on the fun gang.
But tonight is different. Tonight, rather than sinking in discomfort, I decide to bask in it. Dispassionately, I analyse the sensation of sore toes. I objectify the uproarious laughter by dismissing it as just another sound, rather than a siren call. When the man pauses, instead of interrupting, my eyes remain fixed on him. I pause two seconds, then ask a question. He runs a hand through his hair. I run a hand through mine.
Am I attempting a seduction? Heaven forbid. Do I care what he thinks about me? Not particularly. No matter. For I have just obtained the latest American must-have, a charisma coach, and tonight I am practising my new skills.
Until I encountered Olivia Fox Cabane, whom US executives at companies such as Google, Deloitte and Citigroup pay up to $100,000 a year to help boost their X-factor, I would have naively believed charisma was an intangible, magical aura.
The word comes from the Greek ''gift'', befitting the notion that allure is something you're born with, and can't earn. It's the ''It'' that differentiated Baroness Thatcher from John Major, George W. Bush from John Kerry, Lady Gaga from her hundreds of imitators.
But, as Fox Cabane points out in her new book The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism, it was also the difference between Marilyn Monroe and her alter-ego Norma Jean Baker.
In 1955, the film star rode the New York subway, unnoticed by her fellow passengers because, she explained, she had chosen to adopt ''Baker'' mode. But when she emerged onto the city pavements, she asked an accompanying journalist: ''Do you want to see her?'' She fluffed her hair, struck a pose. Suddenly, onlookers reported, magic seemed to flow from her.
''That shows that charisma isn't innate...'' Fox Cabane says.
The idea that it can be taught is hardly new: Dale Carnegie's 1936 manual, How to Win Friends and Influence People, has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. But now Fox Cabane is transforming what was considered an art into a science.
''It's all about learning to play chemist with your brain,'' she explains. ''If you're able to flood your body with oxytocin [the love hormone] whenever you want, your body language will be transformed. People will want to be near you.''
Fox Cabane estimates that three sessions of around a couple of hours can transform a reasonably personable person into someone magnetic.
Dr Nicole Gehl, a psychotherapist, is cynical, saying what Fox Cabane offers is little more than a gimmick. ''Charisma is a personality characteristic and personality traits are moderately to highly heritable. Truly charismatic people genuinely like other people … that is really hard to fake.''
Fox Cabane has no problem with that. ''Most of us learn these behaviours early in life, as we try them out, see the results and refine them,'' she explains from her office in Palo Alto, California, the heart of Silicon Valley, the legendary habitat of brilliant, but charmless, geeks.
''Eventually the behaviours become instinctive, without the learner having ever been aware of the process.'' she says. The techniques she uses to teach emotionally illiterate clients to read body language are the same as those employed by the CIA and FBI.
''By observing people's micro-expressions, they really do learn to read people like a book, which makes them more empathetic,'' Fox Cabane says.
Steve Jobs, the late CEO of Apple, was renowned for his almost messianic aura, yet Fox Cabane says it was manufactured.
''If you watch videos of Jobs speaking from 1984 onward, you can see him gaining confidence, poise, warmth in his voice,'' she says. ''My guess is that he took some lessons from a professional magician. He uses theatrical techniques in his speech, he dresses all in black against a black background, before pulling something white out of his pocket, he speaks slowly, isn't afraid to pause.''
Fox Cabane speaks from experience. Now 33, she was ''your typical nerdy kid, socially awkward, introverted''.
In her teens she resolved to conquer her insecurity by gleaning tips from psychological and neurological research into human interactions.
''I just took the best bits out of some rather arcane data to help me … to be one of those normal human beings who can make people like them.''
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