Building Executive Presence
You may have heard the term “executive presence.” Perhaps it was mentioned within the context of your professional development, or maybe you heard about it from a colleague or peer. But what is executive presence, and why does it matter? Executive presence is about your ability to inspire confidence, which is crucial to your career. Your team wants to know that you’re the leader they want to follow, your peers want to see that you’re capable and reliable, and, most importantly, senior leaders want to know that you have the potential to achieve great things. The fact is that once you reach a certain level, results alone do not cut it. Do you want to lead a team to achieve success on highly visible initiatives? Do you want a seat at the table (literally) where important decisions are made? Do you want to improve your management style and inspire your team to believe in your vision? Then you need executive presence.
We all have known executives who lack this presence. They bark orders and demand compliance and obedience. They don’t want you to come to them with problems, only solutions. They are not interested in developing people. And, even though they may deliver results, the cost of doing so can be insurmountable. Hitting a deadline at the expense of your team’s mental health, for example, is going to have far-reaching repercussions, from burnout to a lack of trust, to a decline in productivity. Building executive presence requires self-awareness and a willingness to change.
Author and economist Sylvia Anne Hewlett, a noted thought leader on this topic, identifies the three pillars of executive presence: gravitas (how you act), communication (your manner of speaking and your body language), and appearance (how you look and how you are perceived.) Of these, the core characteristic is gravitas; it trumps all others. Gravitas is impossible to measure, but it means carrying yourself with seriousness and importance of manner, which engenders feelings of respect and trust. Executive gravitas is best served authentically. It immediately crumbles when people feel you are wearing a mask instead of authentically embodying that gravitas. We know that people want empathy and authenticity from their leaders; gravitas is a key part of making people feel seen and heard in a genuine way.
When we think of the great leaders of history—Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Churchill—we associate them with humility and confidence, knowledge, and credibility. They exemplify executive presence. Those with executive presence influence their leadership strategy and impact their personal journeys, building their capacity to seek opportunity and stand out among leaders. True leaders do not solely focus on results. True leaders build on their knowledge and leverage their credibility to make lasting, positive changes.
Executive presence requires developing competencies and investing in yourself to empower and expand your career potential. Change and growth happen when individuals seek to learn, lean into their leadership journey, and open themselves up to becoming a better version of themselves.