The First Step Towards Executive Presence

Domain: Self-Awareness - Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

The idea of executive presence sometimes comes up when I'm explaining to someone what I do.

When people hear executive presence, they often think of a poised leader commanding a stage. Sharply dressed, standing tall, a confident and charismatic communicator.

And those things do play a part in executive presence, but they are the superficial components. They are the outward manifestations of deeper qualities.

When I'm working with a client on executive presence, the first thing we work on is self-awareness.

That's because, in really simple terms, executive presence is just behaving like the type of leader people trust and want to work with. This requires authenticity which requires a lot of self-awareness. Most people have a strong ability to detect when someone is being insincere or putting on an act and that quickly hinders trust.

If we want to be the leaders that people trust and want to work with, then we need to connect with them authentically.

Here are a few areas of self-awareness that I explore with clients when we're working to build their executive presence. While you can certainly do these action items on your own, it's no surprise that I recommend using a coach here (even if it's not me). Coaches can provide insight, help you navigate blind spots and ask questions that help uncover insights you might not have found on your own.

Perception

When a client wants to work on their executive presence, two of the questions I'll ask in that first meeting are….

"How do you want to be perceived?"

"How do you think you are being perceived today?"

Of course, there's a deeper conversation that follows both of those questions. It's really difficult to develop the self-awareness that is foundational to executive presence if you don't know where you stand today and where you want to go.

There's also no guarantee that their answers are 100% accurate. Often times I find that clients have a harder perception of themselves than others. It's also not uncommon for a client to shift how they wish to be perceived after we've done work on their strengths and personal values…

Strengths

Think of your strengths as the brains of the operation. The skills for which you are naturally gifted. I'm a firm believer in strength based development because it is much more effective to build upon your strengths than it is to chip away at your weaknesses. When you are good at something, you usually enjoy it to a certain extent which means you are more inclined to put in the effort to further develop that skill.

When you struggle with a skill, however, you are less likely to enjoy it and so developing it can feel like a chore. This is a large part of the reason that so many New Year resolutions don't stick. Because people are focusing on things that are not in line with their natural way of operating in the world.

This doesn't mean we ignore weaknesses, we just don't overinvest our time on them. We address our weaknesses to the point where they are not hindering us and then spend our remaining time further building our strengths.

Values

If your strengths are the "head" of your leadership than your values represent the heart. They are the "why" of what you do. Leading with your values is a powerful intrinsic motivator that makes you more effective at work. They also help fuel the authenticity that helps you connect with people.

This is the biggest area of opportunity for most leaders I work with. Very few leaders have spent much time considering their personal values, let alone challenging themselves as to whether they are living those values. This is not a one-time exercise either. Some of the strongest leaders I know regularly revisit their values to challenges themselves and refine them.

With that said, we don't want perfect to be the enemy of good. I typically spend a couple sessions helping clients narrow down to three to five values. That doesn't mean they are set in stone. It's just a strong starting place from which we build.

Thank you for reading. My hope is always that you've found something helpful and easy to implement. If you have feedback, suggestions or questions, please reply to this email.

If you are interested in exploring one-on-one coaching to transform your leadership, email me at [email protected] and we’ll coordinate a free, one-hour discovery session.

This week’s action items:

1. Schedule a decent block of time to reflect on these self-awareness questions.

2. Write down how you feel you are perceived today vs. how you want to be perceived. Include any feedback you've received from others for more subjectivity.

3. Next, write down what you feel are your top five strengths.

4. Finally, write down three to five core values that you prioritize above all else.