To catch the attention of the individuals that matter, develop your confidence and trustworthiness and communicate them effectively.
Executive presence is a difficult-to-define but potent quality. Those who have mastered it draw attention as soon as they step within a space. From the outside, executive presence appears natural, yet it takes hard cultivation to achieve.
High-ranking executives typically exhibit executive presence, but obtaining this strong characteristic takes more than just a position or title. Few leaders and Executives can compete to the presence of leaders like Tim Cook or Ralph Lauren, who have profound affect in the corporate world due to their charming demeanor.
What exactly is executive presence? Even if we aren’t aware of it, each of us already gives off a specific presence. Your peers form a perception of you depending on how you interact socially, communicate, think, and look. Executive presence refers to someone who is conscious of their presence and consciously crafts it to show seriousness, which is an aura of confidence, knowledge, serenity under pressure, and strong leadership.
How does the great players do it, you ask? What follow is a look at how the most reputable executives have developed their executive presence, along with advice on how to do the same for yourself.
Step 1: Examine yourself
Examining your motivations is the first step in figuring out what executive presence might look such as for you. Your strategy will depend on whether you desire a stronger executive presence for good reasons, business reasons, or personal reasons.
Get specific:
The most effective communicators are masters at distilling and expressing a strong vision, purpose, or passion. This conveys confidence and security to others who are following you. The more uneducated you are about your goal, the more challenging it will be to inspire others. Additionally, being sincere and true are essential for increasing influence. People can tell when you aren’t confident of your own motivations, and they won’t be likely to respect and trust you for it.
Choose a starting point: Take an honest inventory of the influence you now have when you have a clear understanding of your goals and your mission. Don’t only estimate your social media presence or the number of people that report to you. Analyze how regularly others go to you for guidance, advice, or leadership in order to assess your impact. Are your peers absorbing your ideas? Are you recognized and listening to for your expertise?
Step 2: Increase your Influence
Recognize the driving forces behind the individuals you want to influence in order to develop a powerful presence that commands respect. People are instinctively drawn to follow those that make them feel good, whether that means try to make them feel safe, understood, or appreciated.
Clarity in communication Developing a strong relationship with the people you wish to influence rewards back. Spend time listening to and understanding the culture of your followers so that you can interact with them. Effective communication increases your charisma, confidence, and competence while also making others feel seen, understood, and accepted.
While good communication is crucial to executive presence, there are specific levels of data you should not share. It’s tempting to always be heard (to be “loud and proud” or “big and in charge”), but intentional quiet can often be a more effective way to project a dominant presence. When you have anything important to say, save your voice. People will be more inclined to listen to your opinions if you do this.
The key is consistency:
We talked about becoming more aware of your motivations. Once you’re knowledgeable of your goals and objectives, make sure you are staying true to them in the present. People feel at ease around you because they know what to expect from you. Because of this, everything you say, publish, create, wear, and do should be congruent with your ideals and aspirations.
Take tiny steps: Begin with modest steps if you want to establish lasting effect. Building an executive presence takes awhile. Do not speed up the process if your influence is now low or if you anticipate taking the stage tomorrow. Going large too quickly can across as unoriginal and repels the same individuals you’re trying to impress.
Step 3: Recognize your restrictions
Although these suggestions can assist you develop executive presence, it is true that some executives are even more naturally endowed with this attribute than others. It requires mix and nurture, like many other qualities. Others are more reserved executives who value their alone moment, while some people are inherently influential figures who can make friends with everyone.
Make it your own:
Fortunately, executive presence may be displayed in a variety of ways. Despite having very distinct vibes and personas, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Morgan Freeman both have the power to command a room. Their gravitas—the serene assurance they have in their own distinctive perspectives, knowledge, and competence, as well as in how they show up authentically—is the crucial characteristic they have in common. If you don’t get confident in your tone, you won’t be able to express executive presence.
The non-verbal components of executive presence, such as body language and image, can significantly influence how your message is perceived. The objective is always for verbal and non-verbal communication to be consistent with one another because people prefer to place more trust in what they perceive than what they hear. Imagine if I shook my head side to side while telling you I was eager to work with you. You would doubt my remarks and cast some doubt on my thoughts.
Keep to your natural tendencies: It’s crucial that you do what comes naturally to you. Don’t try to put on an act if you don’t have a charismatic personality. People can immediately tell when you are acting dishonestly because they can smell it a mile away. Keep in mind that consistency is key in all aspects of presence, voice, and image. Do not strive to maintain a façade if you are unable to do so constantly.
Think about your personality and your inherent tendencies. Then become confident, peaceful, and at ease with the qualities you currently possess. Your executive presence will be more effective the more comfortable you are speaking.
Despite being invisible and intangible, executive presence has a significant impact on your legacy and career. Executive presence makes up 26% of what it takes to progress within a business, according to a 2017 study by the Center for Talent Innovation.
In the end, executive presence has the authority to choose who performs and who watches from the crowd. Those who are deliberate about developing their presence will advance to the front of the stage, speak up, and perhaps shift the narrative.