Congratulations, you’ve just achieved a lifelong ambition and received 00 agent status. Your hard work, dedication, and ingenuity have not gone unnoticed by your boss M and rest of the leadership of the British Secret Service.
The good news is you are battle-hardened and ready to tackle any number of dangerous assignments.
- Infiltrate an international crime syndicate? Check.
- Uncover a terrorist cell? Done.
- Stop a military coup? Bring it on.
The bad news is, for your first mission none of this really matters. Instead, you will face a mission of unimaginable difficulty — navigate and succeed in Corporate America! You have heard from your fellow agents across the pond that in the history of the world, few organizations have been more complex and opaque. On top of that, it will take all the willpower you have when you go undercover as an American employee to say “zee” instead of “zed” and change all your s’s to z’s.
In order to accomplish your mission, you will need to gain the trust and support of several influential people in the organization. The problem is you’ve spent so much time training for combat that your interpersonal skills leave a lot to be desired. You have just seven days to learn everything you need to to tackle this mission or it will be the sharks (the kind with lasers on their heads) for you!
What would you do? Where would you even begin? And is it even possible to learn in just seven short days what others have not been able to do in seven long years or more?
Up against it, you do what all the 00 agents that have preceded you have done before embarking on a difficult mission. You consult with Q, who provides all the gadgets a secret agent could possibly need. Except this time instead of handing you a watch that turns into a saw, he hands you a top secret Charisma manual. As luck would have it, it only requires seven days to complete. He guarantees that if you complete the training, you will have unnatural levels of Charisma within a week.
It’s no time to die, so let’s begin.
Instructions:
Begin each day by memorizing the following ground-breaking definition that reveals how Charisma is actually generated:
Charisma is the ability to sense, and ultimately deliver, exactly what is most needed from an emotional perspective in a given moment.
Then, follow the training regimen for each day and practice your skills to upgrade your Charisma so that you can successfully complete your mission with style.
Day 2: Combat Jujutsu
Have you ever tried to force someone to engage in conversation or demanded, “You will enjoy speaking with me”?
It. Doesn’t. Work.
Jujutsu is a martial art that is based on using an attacker’s energy against him, rather than directly opposing it. Charisma flows from moving with the partner’s energy, rather than forcing them to be drawn to you.
Technique #1: When in flow, just let them go.
Resist the urge interrupt so you can one-up, get a laugh, or say something clever. When conversation is flowing like water, just ride the wave and see where it takes you.
When you interrupt it’s like you are erecting an impromptu dam that prevents all the best connection from happening naturally. Instead, give your counterpart space to exhaust what they are saying and you’ll be surprised at how much better the conversation flows.
Practice: Whenever your counterpart is sharing, let them come to a complete stop before you engage.
Technique #2: Lift before you move.
Ever participate in a tug-of-war? Remember how difficult it is to move someone who does not want to be moved? Ever notice that tug-of-wars never recruit prima ballerinas? There’s a reason why.
When you drop your center of gravity, you become very difficult to move. Think of a child plopping down when he doesn’t want to move. In contrast, when your center of gravity is lifted higher, you become much easier to move. Think of a prima ballerina on her tippy toes.
To move your counterpart, you need to lift them up. This means getting them emotionally engaged.
Telling a story is one proven way to do this. Other ways include saying something unexpected or that piques their interest. If your counterpart is not emotionally engaged, it will not matter what you say — your words will have no impact.
Practice: Get your counterpart emotionally engaged before trying to move them.
Rest up 007 and prepare for more training tomorrow!
Click here to find the rest of the Training Manual.