EXECUTIVE PRESENCE: What’s the secret sauce?

You know that feeling when you walk in the room and everyone knows you’re the leader? Even if they don’t know your name, people gravitate to you as if by instinct. They want to be around someone who is confident, focused, and most of all authentic and engaging. It’s like they can sense the vibe.

People are drawn to leaders who have a strong sense of self-awareness. This quality makes them more accurate in assisting others. It also makes them more relatable while inspiring people. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in learning more about, then let’s talk about EXECUTIVE PRESENCE.

What is it and how can you leverage and embody it?

Why is it important to have executive presence?

Executive presence isn’t new. However, it’s one of those things it’s hard to define for a lot of people and has become a hot topic, yet mystical topic. What exactly is executive presence?

It’s the ability to present the image of yourself in a way that inspires trust, credibility, and poise. It’s the “it” factor, a potent combination of confidence, authenticity, and having influence that convinces others that they are in the presence of someone who is going places that you have what it takes to be a leader in charge, and the way that I define executive presence is how will you signal leadership and cultivate leadership to others.

There’s actually three compartments executive presence: how you act, how you look, and how you speak and communicate.

Executive presence is a broad skill that takes years to develop. However, you can start cultivating your executive presence right now, no matter what position you hold.

One of the key strategies I work with clients around is when communicating with team members. It’s important to develop and nurture self-awareness, to become mindful of your energy and intentions. What do I mean by that? Being more mindful, more present and intentional, which influences people to feel like they’re being led in the right direction.

A great technique to have in your leadership toolkit to take a moment to check in with yourself, to think about the vibe, the energy, being intentional of the message and interaction that you are creating. Some great questions to ask yourself when you are communicating is, “What do I want this person to perceive or to experience with me?” Even if you were only talking for five minutes. “What do I want them to feel if they are interacting with me? How am I signalling leadership to them?”

The biggest key to being a successful and inspiring leader is in your communication skills. Are you speaking with confidence? Do you feel engaged or intimidated by words? What energy do they receive when interacting with you? When you speak, your voice and tone is actually signalling to your team what they should be feeling.

It’s important that we consciously check ourselves before taking the next breath so that we can become more mindful of our words and how others might perceive them. So, ask yourself, “What am I trying to communicate here? What vibe am I sending out there? What would I like my employees to take away?” Employees prefer to follow leaders who cultivate acute self-awareness.

The next time that you’re having an interaction with team members or co-workers, just take a moment to check your executive presence and ask yourself what messages are you signalling that they are receiving from you. This will help them understand your intentions better and increase their confidence while interacting with you. At the same time, you’re engaging and inspiring people and effectively increasing productivity, performance, and profits.

It’s important to be mindful of the subconscious messages and signals that we send out when we are communicating with teams and employees.

I hope this has served you well today. If you want more information on how we can work together and develop what you’re signalling about leadership, click here or send me a direct message and I look forward to connecting with you.