To manage people well, you need a splash of charisma.

Don’t worry. It’s not a rare gift that only a few lucky people possess.

You want it? It’s yours—with a bit of effort.

Armed with charisma, you can mobilize people to do what they didn’t think they could do. That requires three steps:

1) Get people excited about your goal. Cite what’s in it for them, why they should care and why it matters in the larger scheme of things.

2) Align your actions with your words. Walk the talk and you gain credibility—a necessary element of charismatic speakers.

3) Listen intently. It’s a mistake to assume charismatic charmers regale us with spellbinding speeches. In fact, they capture our imagination and make us believe in them because they know when to keep quiet and pay attention to us.

None of these three steps is particularly hard. So what’s stopping you?

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Last week, I was coaching a chief executive to prepare for media interviews. Just before our session began, his communications director said to me, “Morey, don’t mention our latest quarterly results. And don’t bring up the sexual harassment lawsuit.”

“But the media will raise these issues,” I said. “Wouldn’t you like me to prep him for these types of questions?”

“Trust me, he’s tired today,” she replied. “You don’t want to get him angry and distracted.”

Longtime readers of Managing People at Work are surely thinking, “Hey, that’s a reflection of poor leadership.” And you’re right.

If your staff tries to protect you from doing your job—and they see you as a frail sleepwalker or an easy-to-ignite hothead—then you’re hardly in a position to command their respect.

When you face your least favorite parts of your job, say to yourself, “Bring it on.” Welcome adversity. Withstand the urge to gloss over unpleasantness; instead, address it head-on.

Your employees will admire your fortitude. Rather than protect you from what you don’t like, they’ll work harder to please you.

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Employees like to work for someone who’s calm, composed and professional at all times. Fiery hotheads who suddenly morph into teddy bears (and then back again) tend to intimidate and alienate underlings.

You know that. I know that. So why are so many managers such moody, emotionally volatile volcanoes of anxiety and anger?

The shaky economic recovery may have something to do with it, as more of us are on edge at work. Our personal and job-related worries can leave us in an emotionally fragile state.

But the problem of bosses behaving unpredictably and showing a dark side is hardly a 21st century phenomenon.

In the new book “The Man Who Sold America,” authors Jeffrey Cruikshank and Arthur Schultz discuss the remarkable career of Albert Lasker, a prominent advertising executive in the early 20th century.

“To his subordinates, [Lasker] could be alternately inspirational, baffling, and demoralizing. He could be cheerful, playful, irascible, generous, or petty—and he could shift from mood to mood with bewildering speed,” the authors write.

Sound familiar?

Moodiness is among the least appealing, most destructive characteristics of a manager. If people don’t know what to expect from you, hour to hour, I guarantee they’re spending too much time analyzing your demeanor and less time producing actual output.

Find a healthy outlet for moodiness outside of work. If the problem is more serious, seek appropriate professional help.

Bottom line: Effective leaders at any level control their moods.

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The BP oil spill reminds me of another oil spill 21 years ago.

When the Exxon Valdez oil tanker gushed oil into Alaskan waters, Exxon CEO Lawrence Rawl insisted he was “too busy” to fly up to Alaska ASAP to inspect the mess. His inability to focus on the unfolding disaster tarnished his reputation. When he died in 2005, the headline was, “Exxon CEO Faulted for Exxon Valdez Spill Dies at 76.”

Ouch. Not an especially rosy way to memorialize the guy.

Rawl’s experience reminds us about the cardinal rule of crisis management: Treat it seriously from the get-go.

When you’re confronting the incipient stage of a crisis, harness all your energy to focus on what matters most. Prioritize. Think ahead. Stay fully engaged. Urge your team to take contingencies to mitigate the damage.

While you don’t want to assume the worst case, communicate the potential severity of the situation and formulate strategies to minimize ripple-effect problems.

When you rise to the occasion during a crisis, you reassure others that you’re a stand-up leader. A bad event can give you a chance to showcase your steadiness under pressure.

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Layoffs never boost morale, right?

Well, maybe. Layoffs can work wonders if they’re perceived as fair by the rank-and-file.

Most layoffs hit worker bees disproportionately. A few higher-level executives might be reassigned or demoted, but the majority of people who lose their jobs tend to be folks on the lower end of the food chain.

That’s often a recipe for disaster. Surviving employees think, “Those do–nothing execs with their plush offices go unscathed while the skilled people who do real work get canned.”

Occasionally, a company understands the lasting scars that such actions leave. Consider how Chrysler is fighting its way back from the brink. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal (July 3-4 issue, p. A9), Sergio Marchionne says that soon after he arrived at Chrysler a year ago as its CEO, he refused to follow the usual blueprint of shutting factories and firing assembly-line workers.

Instead, he terminated 18 of his 22 direct reports.

While it’s too early to say whether Chrysler will survive long-term, you can bet that its employees are breathing a sigh of relief that their new CEO “gets it.”

When you’re willing to go against the grain and make hard choices (like getting rid of the execs who report to you rather than canning nameless, faceless folks five layers down), you earn credibility. And that’s a leader’s secret weapon.

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Recently, I advised a company on how to preserve morale amid layoffs. Its CEO is a thoughtful, salt-of-the-earth type who didn’t want the survivors to fear or resent senior management for its actions.

Here’s how the CEO communicated the layoffs to surviving employees. First, everyone had known for months that head-count adjustments were in the offing. Something had to give—and the numbers didn’t improve in the first half of 2010. So the news didn’t come as a surprise because everyone was kept informed.

Initially, the CEO was going to e-mail surviving employees to explain the reduction in force. But we agreed that such news is best presented face-to-face.

As a result, the company held a kind of town hall meeting (with off-site workers participating via webcam) so that staffers could hear directly from the CEO. And he didn’t disappoint. He summarized the financials and explained how the status quo wasn’t tenable. He assured employees that the firm would support the terminated individuals and help them find new jobs. And he outlined the methodology that he and his senior management team used to decide who was let go—and how they imposed across-the-board cuts so that some highly paid execs lost their jobs as well as support staff.

By presenting the facts in a forthright manner, the CEO made sure the workforce heard the same message at the same time. This prevented rumors from spreading and addressed the questions on everyone’s mind: Why? and Am I next?

It’s a case study in how to do something unpleasant in a stand-up manner.

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Sometimes, for fun, I flip through transcripts of CEO speeches. Top executives rarely speak in plain English. Instead, they obfuscate and replace clear communication with acronyms and buzzwords.

To take one example, the CEO of a major beverage company recently filled a speech with phrases such as “We articulated three planks which together laid out the roadmap for…” and “The only way to reconnect with people is to offer leadership that is authentic…”

Why waste lots of syllables that signify nothing when you can say, “We have three guiding principles…” And just skip the cliché about authentic leadership; instead, describe it in action.

Strip away fluff when you speak—and you’ll sound more powerful. Rather than trying to evade accountability, you’ll come across as a take-charge leader who’s not afraid to be blunt.

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I interview dozens of successful executives every week. But it’s not often that one of them makes me cry.

Recently, I spoke with H.N. Shrinivas, senior vice president of human resources for Taj Hotel Group in Mumbai, India (owner of the Taj Mahal Hotel).

Perhaps you remember the Taj? In November 2008, televisions around the world broadcast horrifying images of smoke billowing out of this famous hotel in the heart of Mumbai.

Terrorists killed 166 people across Mumbai in a series of coordinated attacks. At the Taj Mahal Hotel, 12 employees and 20 guests died.

In our interview, Shrinivas discussed how he responded to the tragedy by supporting his employees in their effort to cope with unimaginable fear and grief. Excerpts from the interview will appear in the July 2010 issue of Managing People at Work.

What struck me about his comments was his commitment to Taj employees. The hotel’s management declared immediately after the attacks that the hotel would reopen as soon as possible and everyone’s job was secure. Still, employees were understandably traumatized. Some were planning to leave Mumbai for what they perceived as safer rural areas of the country.

But Shrinivas, an experienced HR executive, knew that people needed a healthy outlet to persevere and bond with their peers. So he assembled a team of counselors and social workers to meet with employees in small groups. The trained facilitators invited participants to share their thoughts and voice their fears.

Through this process, many employees grew closer than ever to each other. And instead of facing an exodus of frightened workers, Shrinivas found that almost no one quit. They felt luckier than ever to work for the Taj–and they concluded they were duty-bound to stand by their colleagues and help the hotel regain its footing.

All of us who’ve spent time in HR know that people come first. The real key, however, is treating them with such respect and compassion that they cannot help but excel in their role. Even after terrible tragedy.

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