Executive Presence
Jeff Bezos has it. Sheryl Sandberg has it. Steve Jobs had it. So did Lee Iacocca, Michael Dell, Jack Welch...the list goes on and on. It has become one of the top leadership traits that companies consider when hiring or promoting employees at the executive level. If you have “IT,” your path may well deliver you to the C-Suite. If you have “IT,” you can help raise capital, grow your company, and inspire your staff to seize upon new strategic opportunities. But, what is “IT?” Is it listening skills? Public speaking skills? An ability to be concise? “IT” is all these skills and more that make up “Executive Presence.”
Executive Presence is an essential aspect of being a great leader. But defining the specific skills and attributes that make up executive presence can be difficult. While experts continue to debate the exact ingredients of executive presence, they all agree that exceptional and commanding communication skills are essential.
In particular, the key communication skills necessary for C-suite level executive presence include:
Listen: Being a great listener and being present in the moment is one of the most important aspects of executive presence. This includes making meaningful eye contact, acknowledging a speaker, and genuinely listening to them without interjecting the ideas that immediately come to mind. Listening in one-on-one conversations, listening to feedback from your staff and team, and listening to the strategy of your directors, is critical to your executive presence.
Be Concise: Efficiency without sacrificing effectiveness is the epitome of being concise. It’s delivering a complete message in an engaging manner. It is including sufficient information to illustrate an idea without drowning your audience in detail. It’s painting a vision without making your listener see every brush stroke. It’s using storytelling to balance information with an emotive vision. Being concise is one of the key ingredients of executive presence.
Be Purposeful in Your Non-Verbal Communication: How you present yourself at work plays a large role in building your executive presence. How you dress, how you sit at the conference room table, how you stand and carry yourself at company meetings, and how you interact with your collaborators, all advertise your confidence and competence--two other ingredients of executive presence. Be mindful of your body language and the message it broadcasts into your environment.
Build Credibility Through Your Language: If credibility and competence are essential ingredients in executive presence, then signs of uncertainty and hesitation are bad. Nothing sends signals of uncertainty more than filler-words-- the “ums”, “so”, “ah” and similar that signal to your audience that you are searching for what’s next. Whether you are speaking extemporaneously in the conference room, one-on-one in your office, or formally presenting at a conference, strong use of language without filler-words can go a long way to building executive presence.
These are just a few tips to help you enhance your executive presence. Of course, there are other aspects to executive presence like being emotionally steady, being present, being informed, and being a relationship builder, but start with these four essential ingredients and pave your professional journey to the top.