Cultivating Executive Presence and Why it Matters

Originally published in the Amex/Time publication Executive Travel Magazine May/June 2011.

Executive presence compels others to listen and act, and the lack of it can hold you back professionally.

How can you consciously cultivate it?

Youthful, blond and reminiscent of model Claudia Schiffer, Michelle Gloeckler addressed 800 at a leadership conference. She had the audience laughing as she shared stories of what she’d learned about business from her mother, a veteran sales rep. Unexpectedly, she invited a special guest onto the stage: her mom, who proceeded to demonstrate where Michelle got her sense of humor from.

Gloeckler, a senior vice president at Wal-Mart and incoming president of the Network of Executive Women, wasn’t überformal in communicating. Authentic and playful, she engages with her vulnerability and builds a powerful experience of community in the process. Watching her celebrate her own professional lineage with a group founded to nurture the success of women leaders was touching and powerful. At least one executive new to the group called it the highlight of the day-and-a-half meeting.

Executive presence establishes credibility and engages others through how you communicate, hold yourself and connect with and treat others. Gloeckler has cultivated an extraordinary executive presence. She said later that her intent had been to make an emotional connection with the audience and leave them with the sense that her industry is a great place to build a career.

Mike Wadden, a partner at Accenture, says executive presence inspires trust and generates excitement about you, your mission and what you can do for the other person. People hear the opportunity you present and want to be part of it. He uses executive presence to establish powerful relationships and cultivate enthusiasm, which results in meetings and deals.

What has your executive presence done for you lately? To cultivate a more powerful presence for yourself or your staff, consider the following.

• Compelling authenticity makes it easier for people to relax around you, as well as trust and be candid themselves. Aloofness and pretense are distancing.

• Grace in how you hold yourself, speak, respond and move physically—and in how you are with others and under pressure—sets a tone that is calming and impressive. It communicates intelligence and power. Harshness and volatility suggest imbalance or a lack of self-control.

• Active listening, including the questions you ask, is often what people remember most.

• Taking initiative by reaching out, saying hello, making a good point, holding your ground, and making requests and offers raises your visibility. When Gloeckler joined Wal-Mart, she expanded her executive presence by volunteering for high-risk assignments, such as live television and board presentations, that supported her business goals and credibility. She was promoted not long after she arrived at the firm.

• Clarity in your speaking and listening communicates seriousness and respect, and it saves time.

• Superior speaking skills are vital if your role requires speaking to groups.

• Impeccable personal presentation is a fundamental. Good grooming shows that you respect yourself and others.

Where might you develop stronger executive presence? Mastery of any area involves continuous learning.

Contact us for more on cultivating executive presence for yourself, your team or colleagues.

Jackie Sloane specializes in coaching and consultant leaders in transforming themselves, their teams and organizations. Her firm provides Transformational Leadership Retreats and Interventions, and custom leadership development experiences and programs . She is founder of Sloane Communications and has a cat named Nyx.

Transformational leadership, focus, and the power of conversation

In more than twenty years of collaborating with leaders to transform themselves, their teams and their organizations, it’s so apparent what a powerful tool conversation is. Conversations can be transformative.

Conversation, and how a leader is being are probably a leader’s most powerful tools. Conversations can open opportunity and possibility that had not existed. And, we have all been in conversations that shut everything down.

We can think of transformational leadership as an approach, or way of being that produces sustainable, positive, inspired change in others and systems.

In working with clients at global organizations, at privately held firms and at academic institutions, I have seen over and over how the types of conversations a leader is having, and how the leader is being has profound impact on what’s possible and happens in the team or organization.

Often, I have found that a leader’s focus may be important to discuss. This may seem obvious, but when focus is clear and all actions, practices, conversations and people are aligned, amazing things happen. Exponential shifts in productivity, dramatic sales increases, and, greater well-being. Energy can be high. Too often, specificity about what we are all working to accomplish may not be clear. We may think it is, but we can see by what is happening around us when it is not. Meetings, practices, conversations then don’t accelerate what we are up to.  Confusion, gossip, turf jockeying will waste time and energy.

Abe Ankumah, chief executive of Nyansa, the rapidly growing software firm calls this focus “first principle” thinking. Quoted in an interview in The New York Times, he says, “it’s all about making sure that everyone understands the problem we’re trying to solve. And to do that, you have to maintain a broader perspective and listen very carefully to people.”

I spoke with Katy Lynch Ulliott, co-founder of Codeverse. You may know her as the former CEO of Techweek, or from the first business she founded, Social Katy.

Katy founded Codeverse® to bring more girls and minorities into tech and STEM fields overall. She says Codeverse is “the world's first fully interactive coding school and educational tech platform that teaches kids as young as 6 to learn to code.” The curriculum introduces all the foundations of computer programming while incorporating common core subjects including art, history, science, and math.

Katy credits focus with her successes, and says without clear direction and communication, leaders often stumble.

To engage others in achieving transformational goals, she says, “First and foremost, a leader needs to align everyone in the organization with the mission, vision, and values – what the company stands for and doesn't’ stand for. These serves to guide making decisions.”

In addition to focus, transformational leadership requires courage and skill. People also have to be willing to address what is out of alignment, and doesn’t work.

“People have to be willing to challenge, and look at even why a great idea may not make sense.”

This is an occasional blog about leadership and transformation. Let’s have a conversation. Please share your experiences, thoughts and ideas.

Jackie Sloane specializes in coaching and consulting with leaders to bring out the best out of themselves, their teams and organizations. Her firm offers Transformational Leadership Retreats and Interventions and customized leadership development experiences and programs. She is founder of Sloane Communications and has a cat named Nyz. Contact her.