Executive Presence
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
What can you do to evaluate yourself (or have others evaluate you) for your executive presence? Let me walk you through a few ways.
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The more you step up in an organization, the more you put yourself out front and an organization, the more likely it is that people are going to evaluate you not, just simply for what you can do, but for the presence that you carry, the executive presence that you present yourself with, that’s going to allow you to stand out from others.
Now, let me give you the example of the non-executive presence. Underdressed. Poor use of oral communications. Things along those lines that just cause people to remember you in a negative way.
You know, the classic story from years ago was wearing flip flops to work. How do you get seen as an executive in flip flops? Now, I know some of you’re going to say, “In our organization, the owner does,” or, “the president . . . ” You’re not them. You’re still in the aspirational phase. And, if you are them, you know that it’s easier to present executive presence differently. So let me just give you the baseline for doing a self critique qnd, if you’re not sure, consider it a thumbs down on your part. Ask for input from others just to be on the safe side. Okay?
So, the first thing I want to encourage you to do is evaluate your appearance. Yeah. Do you appear sloppy? Is your clothing 10 years old, outdated? Worn? Do you frequently get a haircut or your hairstyle or not, is the style that you used from 25 years ago, versus something more current? Now I’m not suggesting for men that you shave your head; you know what makes you look great. The idea is you want to be seen as “World Class.” Is this the best appearance that you can present with? That’s, ultimately, the benchmark. Is this the best appearance that you can present with.
Second thing I want you to do is to start thinking in terms of is how you present in public. Now, this isn’t about necessarily public speaking, although that’s the great practice place for going to a Toastmasters meeting and learning to speak there. I’ve done other videos about this. So, watch some of my stuff related to Toastmasters. It is a great practice place but, any place where you can practice public speaking away from your office, away from impact, if you do a poor job, we get good feedback, is useful to you. Thus, put yourself in the position where you have a chance to give a speech or a presentation.
Get in front of a group and see how you’re recognized, which involves learning a skill that I think is very important for executive presence. That involves learning to read a room When you’re speaking, you’re starting to notice how people see you, how they respond to your ideas. Are they connected with you or are they starting to tune out. Little things along those lines become very important skills for how you manage and how you lead groups.
The presence that you carry yourself with. When you speak, don’t read it The notion of being at a podium or a lectern, and staring down at your notes– Wrong! What all you want to have in the way of notes, at most is the framework reminders. Like think in terms of a PowerPoint.
If you’re doing a PowerPoint presentation, it’s really an outline of your speech, right? It’s really an outline of what you’re presenting to people. And you can reference it by looking back at the screen. Ultimately, all the words that you’re about to say, aren’t there, right? Well consider your speech and having really PowerPoints with you. Not real PowerPoints, but just the framework for the speech, and you know what needs to be covered within each item, right?
Maintain eye contact with people. Look for folks to connect with. That can be very simple. It can be as simple as, as you’re speaking, you’re talking to individuals and holding eye contact (I’m trying to illustrate how you can do that), really look at them, and speaking with them.
Another thing that I think is very important for developing an executive presence is how you share your ideas and opinions in meeting situations. Things that appear too cutting will come back and bite you because you wind up developing adversaries. People with a great presence learn how to give constructive feedback.
It’s almost like a sandwich, you talk in terms of the praise, on the one hand, a suggestion in the middle and, again, praise on the bottom of the sandwich. Well, if you give feedback that’s purely designed to crush someone in their, quote unquote, stupidity, you’re going to wind up having an argument with someone and you’re gonna have a fight. Now, is that really what you want?
Leaders don’t create the arguments. They’re there to solve them. They’re there to lead a group or organization and presence goes a long way toward contributing to the success or failure of your ideas. Ignoring that simple fact and pretending as though you can make a big jump in your leadership in your organization. without addressing your presence is foolish on your part. You will get maxed out at manager levels at best and miss on the bigger opportunities until you address that.
Now I’m going to raise one sensitive subject for some of you and that is weight. For some of you, the pounds have come on over the years and where you can get rid of them, it really will serve you better. Take the time now to gradually make changes to your diet. You can lose weight.
The more you step up in an organization, the more you put yourself out front and an organization, the more likely it is that people are going to evaluate you not, just simply for what you can do, but for the presence that you carry, the executive presence that you present yourself with, that’s going to allow you to stand out from others.
Now, let me give you the example of the non-executive presence. Underdressed. Poor use of oral communications. Things along those lines that just cause people to remember you in a negative way.
You know, the classic story from years ago was wearing flip flops to work. How do you get seen as an executive in flip flops? Now, I know some of you’re going to say, “In our organization, the owner does,” or, “the president . . . ” You’re not them. You’re still in the aspirational phase. And, if you are them, you know that it’s easier to present executive presence differently. So let me just give you the baseline for doing a self critique qnd, if you’re not sure, consider it a thumbs down on your part. Ask for input from others just to be on the safe side. Okay?
So, the first thing I want to encourage you to do is evaluate your appearance. Yeah. Do you appear sloppy? Is your clothing 10 years old, outdated? Worn? Do you frequently get a haircut or your hairstyle or not, is the style that you used from 25 years ago, versus something more current? Now I’m not suggesting for men that you shave your head; you know what makes you look great. The idea is you want to be seen as “World Class.” Is this the best appearance that you can present with? That’s, ultimately, the benchmark. Is this the best appearance that you can present with.
Second thing I want you to do is to start thinking in terms of is how you present in public. Now, this isn’t about necessarily public speaking, although that’s the great practice place for going to a Toastmasters meeting and learning to speak there. I’ve done other videos about this. So, watch some of my stuff related to Toastmasters. It is a great practice place but, any place where you can practice public speaking away from your office, away from impact, if you do a poor job, we get good feedback, is useful to you. Thus, put yourself in the position where you have a chance to give a speech or a presentation.
Get in front of a group and see how you’re recognized, which involves learning a skill that I think is very important for executive presence. That involves learning to read a room When you’re speaking, you’re starting to notice how people see you, how they respond to your ideas. Are they connected with you or are they starting to tune out. Little things along those lines become very important skills for how you manage and how you lead groups.
The presence that you carry yourself with. When you speak, don’t read it The notion of being at a podium or a lectern, and staring down at your notes– Wrong! What all you want to have in the way of notes, at most is the framework reminders. Like think in terms of a PowerPoint.
If you’re doing a PowerPoint presentation, it’s really an outline of your speech, right? It’s really an outline of what you’re presenting to people. And you can reference it by looking back at the screen. Ultimately, all the words that you’re about to say, aren’t there, right? Well consider your speech and having really PowerPoints with you. Not real PowerPoints, but just the framework for the speech, and you know what needs to be covered within each item, right?
Maintain eye contact with people. Look for folks to connect with. That can be very simple. It can be as simple as, as you’re speaking, you’re talking to individuals and holding eye contact (I’m trying to illustrate how you can do that), really look at them, and speaking with them.
Another thing that I think is very important for developing an executive presence is how you share your ideas and opinions in meeting situations. Things that appear too cutting will come back and bite you because you wind up developing adversaries. People with a great presence learn how to give constructive feedback.
It’s like a sandwich, you talk in terms of the praise, on the one hand, a suggestion in the middle and, again, praise on the bottom of the sandwich. Well, if you give feedback that’s purely designed to crush someone in their, quote unquote, stupidity, you’re going to wind up having an argument with someone and you’re gonna have a fight. Now, is that really what you want?
Leaders don’t create the arguments. They’re there to solve them. They’re there to lead a group or organization and presence goes a long way toward contributing to the success or failure of your ideas. Ignoring that simple fact and pretending as though you can make a big jump in your leadership in your organization. without addressing your presence is foolish on your part. You will get maxed out at manager levels at best and miss on the bigger opportunities until you address that.
Now I’m going to raise one sensitive subject for some of you and that is weight. For some of you, the pounds have come on over the years and where you can get rid of them, it really will serve you better. Take the time now to gradually make changes to your diet. You can lose weight.
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