Executive presence is a skill that can be difficult to describe, but you know it when you see it. It’s that intangible quality that exudes confidence, gravitas, and authority while inspiring trust and respect in others.
Cultivating executive presence is a crucial skill for professionals aiming to advance their careers, especially in a hybrid environment where face-to-face interactions are less frequent. There are several areas you can focus on to cultivate presence and build confidence:
🪞Self-awareness: Before you can inspire confidence in others, you need to hone that confidence in yourself. Understanding your working style can help you to collaborate better with your team.
- Take the time to understand your strengths, weaknesses, values, and beliefs. If you don’t know what your values are, we suggest completing this exercise.
- Reflect on your personal and professional goals, and align your actions with your values. Sharing these goals with a peer or a manager can help you stay accountable!
- Embrace your unique qualities and leverage them to your advantage.
💭Clear and compelling communication: Pay attention to your verbal and non-verbal communication.
- Speak with clarity and confidence, avoiding filler words (um, uh, so, etc.), hesitations (well…), and disclaimers (This might be a bad idea, but…).
- Maintain eye contact, use hand gestures purposefully, and practice active listening to show you value the opinions of others.
- Stand tall, maintain good posture, and move with purpose. Even if your meetings are virtual, we recommend standing up and using big gestures to command attention.
🎢Adaptability: Being able to adjust to new conditions is a crucial aspect of executive presence. Leaders who are perceived as rigid or unapproachable may struggle to inspire confidence.
- Self-coaching questions can help us navigate challenging situations with more adaptability. Use future-focused language to think positively about the uncertainty:
- “Is there any possible scenario in which this could actually turn out to be a good thing someday?”
- “How can I grow from this?”
- Don’t react, respond. If you need time to adapt to bad news or unpopular opinions, take time to gather your thoughts before responding.
👍Empathy and Authenticity: People are more likely to trust and follow someone they perceive as genuine.
- Show empathy and understanding towards your team and colleagues by validating their experiences, making reasonable accommodations when necessary, and respecting their boundaries.
- Authenticity is often contagious and can inspire others to be more open and real as well.
🗣️Gravitas is the intangible quality that commands respect. It involves a combination of confidence, decisiveness, and an assured demeanor. Leaders with gravitas have the ability to remain composed under pressure and make well-informed decisions.
- Prepare for the worst, expect the best. Objections are often inevitable, but your response makes all the difference. When faced with a challenging situation, keep your cool, endorse the person who is objecting, and delay if you need more information before responding.
- Big decisions, like approving revenue projections, to small decisions, like what’s for lunch, all need to be made with strong and reasonable decisiveness. The key is to have a point-of-view while being willing to compromise.
By mastering these elements and continuously working on your personal and professional development, you can inspire confidence, gain the trust of your team, and become an influential leader in your organization.