How To Develop Your Executive Presence
Most people are familiar with the concept of executive presence but have a hard time articulating what it is. If you ask around, some will describe it as gravitas. Some think of it as the ability to command a room and get people to listen. Others may define it as the professional “it” factor that gets people promoted and paid.
There’s an element of truth to all these characterizations. But here’s the most important thing to understand about executive presence - it’s not a trait the lucky few possess. There’s nothing mystical about it. It’s an outcome that occurs when a person develops specific skills and uses them consistently over time. In other words, it’s something that can be learned.
What is executive presence?
If we go beyond how executive presence manifests itself and look at what really is, it’s ultimately about your ability to inspire confidence in 3 specific areas.
Confidence in your expertise
To develop executive presence, the people around you need to trust that you have the expertise in areas critical to your organization’s success. To be clear, it’s not sufficient that people believe you have certain skills or intellectual horsepower. They need to believe that you know how to use them to get important things done.
Confidence in your leadership abilities
Leadership takes many forms, official and unofficial. People who are great at mobilizing others in pursuit of important outcomes tend to develop executive presence quickly. This applies to people who lead teams as well as ICs who are great at influencing their peers, manager, and other team leaders in their organization.
Confidence in your ceiling
Companies invest in employees they believe have a high ceiling that will enable them to take on bigger and more important responsibilities over time. And people listen to colleagues who are going places. If you’re perceived as someone on an upward career trajectory, your opinions and preferences will carry more weight.
Where to start
Building executive presence is an investment in learning that doesn’t stop, but it’s one worth making for anyone looking to advance their career. There are a number of skills that will enable you to inspire more confidence and develop your executive presence.
Some are simpler to learn and start using, which means that they can have a shorter-term impact. Others will take a while to develop because they are more complex, involve significant mindset work, and, essentially, require a rewiring of how we respond to certain situations and triggers.
Achieving short-term impact
Task prioritization
While task prioritization is a skill that’s mostly discussed in the context of productivity, it’s also critical for developing executive presence. In this context, it’s less about efficiency and more about learning how to prioritize tasks that matter to your organization’s success. And more importantly, doing it proactively and consistently. Essentially, it’s about developing sound business judgment, which will build confidence in your expertise and leadership abilities.
Keeping your word
Yes, keeping your word is a skill! People who fail to deliver what they’ve promised rarely do it because they’re “bad people”. They usually do it due to a combination of being reactive, poor at time and expectation management, and bad at saying no. This is one of the reasons why professionals with people-pleasing tendencies often struggle to develop executive presence. Those who master the skill of keeping their word often experience increased confidence in their expertise and readiness for bigger responsibilities.
Personal branding
To develop executive presence, it’s not enough to just do good work and hope for the best. It’s your job to make others aware of your achievements. We all have personal brands, whether we like it or not. But the most successful professionals have a strong awareness of how stakeholders and gatekeepers perceive them. They have clarity on their strengths and improvement areas. And they have a strategic communication plan that they execute consistently to inspire more confidence.
Non-verbal communication
It’s no secret that our physical appearance, body language, mannerisms, and meeting habits have an impact on how colleagues perceive us. And it’s an unfortunate fact that many great professionals experience a decrease of confidence in their abilities (especially leadership abilities) due to their non-verbal communication. The good news is that it doesn’t take a lot of effort to improve your non-verbal communication once you’re aware of what you need to work on.
Achieving long-term impact
Verbal communication
Verbal communication is a very important tool for developing executive presence, especially in a remote working world. It’s a big indicator of our leadership abilities because great leaders know when to speak and when to listen. They know how to vary their speech speed and voice pitch to deliver their points across effectively. And when they’re able to speak about a topic succinctly and confidently, they are also increasing confidence in their expertise.
Composure
When it comes to developing executive presence, the biggest strides and setbacks happen in times of crisis. Many people can be great when they’re flying with a tailwind. But nothing tests our expertise, leadership abilities, and ceiling quite like a situation dominated by stress and profound uncertainty. Professionals who have the mindset and mental toolset to manage their reactions to stress triggers, remain calm under pressure, and be clear-headed enough to make good decisions usually benefit from a vastly expanded executive presence.
Consistent leadership style
Many of us have been in situations where we were expected to lead but didn’t know what to do. Transitioning from ad hoc leadership to relying on a set of principles and best-in-class methods is a great way to develop your executive presence. Professionals who make that journey are perceived as more reliable and prepared, which increases confidence in their leadership abilities. And as leadership becomes more effortless, it also creates a sense that their professional ceilings are higher.
outcome mindset
As any C-suite executive will tell you - B-Players do things, while A-Players achieve outcomes. As you start rising through the ranks, your ability to achieve tangible business objectives will increasingly be scrutinized and evaluated by your manager and peers. Successful professionals turn that scrutiny into confidence by developing an outcome-focused mindset and putting it at the center of everything they do. This leads to a virtuous cycle. Outcomes lead to an expanded executive presence, which leads to bigger responsibilities, which in turn leads to bigger outcomes.
If you need help accelerating your career by developing your executive presence, book a free 30-minute call with us to explore how we can be of help.