It ain't just Svengali tricks.

Is charisma something that can be learned?

Pow!

5 ways to be more charismatic

3 quick tips for being more charismatic

Next question: Is there a difference between Charisma and Power?

Powerful people can be rude and difficult. With charisma you still like/appreciate the charismatic person. Charisma might be a subset of power. I think you can have power without charisma but not the other way around.

Charisma involves influence which recognizes the other person; power is often defined by ignoring or minimizing the other person. In fact one might go so far as to say charismatic people are not *that* powerful because if they were they would not need to be charismatic, they could do whatever they wanted without regard for others.

I don't mean to paint such a bad picture of power but this is the way much of the literature analyzes it and, to some degree, how our brains process it. We are obsessed with it to some degree and, sadly, the ability to abuse power and get away with it is one of the few undeniable signs of true power. Though we may profess not to like it, we know it to be true and recognize the signal's value -- thereby encouraging others to take this route to being seen as powerful. We are complicit.