Welcome to episode 280 on the topic of executive presence and how it is the invisible force for your career.

Here are the two questions. This podcast answers. One, how do you successfully transition into your first official leadership role? And two, how do you keep climbing that leadership ladder and continuously get promoted, 

although the competition and the expectations get bigger. This show with a manager track podcast will provide the answers. I’m your host, Ramona Shaw. 

I’m on a mission to create workplaces where work is seen as a source of contribution, connection and personal fulfillment. And this transition starts with developing a new generation of leaders who know how to lead. So everyone wins and gross. In the show, you’ll learn how to think, communicate and act as a confident and competent leader. 

You know, you can be. 

Welcome back to another episode of The Manager Track podcast. This is where we dive deep into the leadership skills that actually matter. Now, today specifically, I’m gonna talk about something that can really change the course of your career and it may not be so obvious ’cause a lot of our attention tends to go to our technical expertise, the professional expertise that we have, and maybe the leadership skills, but less so executive presence.

And the further up that you go in your career, the higher up that you climb. The more this part starts to matter and it can really make a difference. But before we jump into it, let me paint you a picture with two fictional, this is made up, but two stories that might sound familiar. And while they’re made up and fictional. This is what, as an executive coach, I see all the time and what you probably observe inside of your organizations or in your own career as well.

So let’s imagine there is Sarah and then there is Mike. Both of them are mid-level managers at. A Fortune 500 company.

Both of them have post-graduate degrees from solid schools, both consistently hit their numbers in their different roles and have been sort of climbing the ladder at least, and had seen an increase in responsibilities over time. So on paper they both look kind of like equal candidates for a promotion. They both have metametrics, they are performing on track. They have increased their responsibilities and so forth.

But let’s look at where the path between Sarah and Mike start to diverge. In team meetings, Sarah speaks with conviction, right? When she presents, let’s say quarterly results, she maintains clear eye contact. She uses very powerful, purposeful gestures.

Her voice carries across the room. She’s okay with silence and pause, and when challenges come up, she acknowledges them directly. She might say, yes, we missed our target by 3% this quarter. Here is what happened, and here is our recovery plan. Now, Mike, equally intelligent, equally competent and hardworking In those sort of higher stake situation, he tends to fit it with his pen. During a presentation, he often starts sentences with, you know, I think maybe we should, or this might not be right, but. And then when discussing a similar 3% miss, he might respond with, well yes, we didn’t quite hit the numbers, but it’s probably due to, you know, market conditions and, you know, I’m confident that next quarter will be better.

In the grand scheme of things, small differences, both of them are actually doing the job well. So you might question like, okay, what’s the point? They’re both doing well, but here is what happens over time with the two different approaches in those high stake situations, in client meetings, clients or even prospects gravitate towards Sarah’s confidence.

They may ask her more follow-up questions. They lean in when she speaks, they trust her more with Mike. Conversations might feel a bit tentative or they’re feeling a bit unsure of what the response was. What the actions were. They start to pick up on the The lack of confidence or maybe assertiveness, and then.

They start to question what is actually going on. In a broader room. Mike’s voice may not even be heard enough, so they may actually be looking to others in the room for confirmation on his recommendations.

They may quickly glance over at Mike’s manager. Or someone else who seems a bit more sure and more confident on whether they’re nodding along and or assuring that what Mike is saying is accurate. So they wanna almost validate that. And then they go back to work and they keep doing what they need to do, and then the annual leadership retreat comes up. Sarah volunteers to present the team strategic initiative to the C-suite. Mike prefers to support from behind the scenes, right?

He knows he’s not great with presenting. He also feels like too occupied with his day-to-day work where thinks I don’t have the capacity to take that on. Now, Sarah’s presentation leads to a one-on-one coffee with the vp. Mike’s behind the scenes work goes fairly unnoticed. Then they go back to work

a little bit later, a major client threatens to leave crisis moment. Sarah steps in, she says, i’ll handle it. I’ll recover this relationship. Here is my plan. Here’s what they need to hear.

Mike also offers valuable input, but frames it as well, maybe we could try this. Or when he’s being challenged as to what happened, who is to blame? He doesn’t fully take responsibility because he’s worried about his reputation and his potential promotion.

So he’s being a bit w wishy-washy, or worse, may even actually try to find blame in other circumstances or other teams for themselves in their own roles. They’re both competent and solid performers. But in each of those interactions I just mentioned, in each meeting, in each presentation, in each sort of crisis moment,

sarah has a reputation as someone who has what it takes for that next level. She’s like, she’s ready. She’s eager, she’s prepared. Mike, not sure. Yeah, he’s solid on sound, but I’m not sure if he can project that kind of confidence in crisis moments or as the company’s going through change, does he have what it takes to be that person in a room that others will listen to, to steer a team in the right direction, to motivate and inspire others to follow the company vision or strategy. Then a few months later, a director role opens up and in fact asks you who gets the promotion.

We would all probably agree that’s very likely that Sarah’s gonna get that promotion. And again, it wasn’t about whether she was smarter or more qualified in her field of expertise. It was about who projected the confidence and authority that made others believe that Mike or Sarah could handle the bigger challenges.

And Sarah wanted this. And Sarah’s ability to demonstrate executive presence, confidence to jump in and handle difficult situations effectively and articulate herself well is what made the difference. Now this was in regards to a promotion, but the same could happen.

When it comes to looking for a new job, specifically a while back, a client shared the story with me. Her company was hiring for a senior role during a major organizational transformation, and they had two final candidates.

Candidate a had a great resume, top tier education, stellar track record, glowing references in the interview, she was well prepared.

She was competent. She was well articulate, but she was also measured in her responses. She was careful not to overstep. She was being very diplomatic. Now, candidate B had a messier background.

A few chop changes. Some we would say like questionable career moves and what might, some might, and a bit more of a colorful personality. Something that you could see, ugh. They may ruffle some feathers. They may bump into some other personalities that are currently on the team.

But in interviews that candidate commanded the room. He had opinions. He wasn’t afraid to share them. He didn’t really care if the IUI liked it or not. When he was asked about the company’s challenges, he said, well, sure, here’s what I see. Here’s exactly what I would do about it. Very confident and very assertive, and so as we were debriefing the two experiences.

Again, both of them were in the final round, so they were clearly qualified. It was more so how they presented themselves in that final round, and my client said, look, we’re going through massive changes right now. We need someone who can walk into a room full of skeptical stakeholders and confidently assert their vision.

We can’t afford to have someone who second guesses themselves. We can’t have someone who needs consensus for every decision who goes by the book, who wants to do the appropriate thing. The thing that is low risk, like we’ve done it in the past, we need to take a whole lot more risks. We need to do so with confidence and project that outwards.

Now, without that additional part of context, just you hearing me talk about candidate A and candidate B. We would probably all agree, well, okay, candidate A seemed like a better bet. Candidate B, we’re not sure where that’s gonna go.

It could go well, but there’s also a lot of risk involved. But then hearing them talk about the context of the organization, what’s currently going on. We understand why they went with candidate B, and so I’m sharing this because while you may think in an interview, it’s all about your competence to do your job.

You are also going to be assessed on whether or not you are going to be able to lead the team into this next phase, the next era. And so be on the lookout of what they’re looking for.

In a leader in an interview. They’re going to assess your performance, not just by

how much you know and how you answer those questions, but also how they think based on how they perceive you to what degree you’ll be able to lead and carry that team into this next phase. That is about assertiveness, that is about your ability to make decisions even when you receive pushback.

It’s about being able to take measured risks. And again, it depends a bit on the company culture, the stages, the company’s in of how much risk. But be aware that in an interview, your executive presence, all the things that fall under that will be just as important, if not more important. Then your competence and your qualifications, and what I’m saying here is not, oh, your competence, qualifications don’t matter.

But you are in an interview. You are getting invited because they looked at your resume and you’re like, yeah, she’s checking the box. Now we’re looking at how she shows up in the interview. So you’ve already checked the box on a competence. Now they’re gonna look at. Do they fit the company culture?

Do they have the level of leadership and qualifications and, and principles that we’re looking for? So it’s a lot more of the intangible stuff that they’re going to assess you on in and interview. Then your track records, that’s already on paper,

so these stories illustrate that crucial point. Executive presence isn’t about being the loudest person in the room or putting on some kind of act. It is about how others experience your leadership, your ability to project confidence, credibility, and authority in a way that inspires trust and action in others.

And yes, some people more naturally walk into a room with the sense of gravitas and others don’t. But for all of us, what’s true is these are specific skills that we can learn. Executive presence is the combination of qualities, behaviors, and characteristics that allow leaders to project that confidence, the credibility, and the authority.

And again, if you break it down into behaviors, these can all be learned.

So now that we’ve looked at some stories of how this shows up I’m gonna talk a little bit more about what the most common obstacles are that I see

through coaching leaders one-on-one and working with leaders in our programs that they struggle with. And I’m going to be concrete here because when you understand what you are sort of up against and what may be coming your way, you can do something proactively.

So when it comes to executive presence, here are the biggest challenges I see leaders struggle with, or gaps that are missing. The first one is a self-awareness gap. Most leaders have a disconnect between how they see themselves and how others perceive them.

And I’m not talking about a little gap, you know, small changes in perceptions. No, I’m talking about a bigger gap. Like a leader thinking that their collaborative, when their team sees them as indecisive, sure they’re collaborative, but it’s not helping.

In fact, their collaboration is the problem. ’cause it makes them indecisive. Or leaders who think that they’re being thorough and detailed when others see them as lacking conviction and clarity. Two things might be true, but the problem is that what you think is an asset as a strength is actually perceived by others as a problem.

And those are the huge awareness gaps. And so without understanding this gap in perception. It’s a little bit like you’re flying blind. You might be working really hard on the wrong things. You might emphasize the things that you are so comfortable with that you think are important and you’re unaware of how these habits may undermine your authority. And then, sure. I don’t wanna dismiss the smaller things. If you say every third word or you fidget in meetings or, you know, women would sort of play with their hair or their nails, or you are distracted in meetings, in, you’re multitasking or you start sentences with, you know, I think maybe we should versus being more assertive and clear.

These little things can add up and together people start to perceive you not in a way that you wanna be perceived, so that awareness gap, that self-awareness gap is one of the first and biggest issues.

Then there is sort of the imposter syndrome trap. That’s the second struggle leaders often have when it comes to their executive presence. And just to be clear. Even senior leaders, and I’m talking VPs, C-suite executives, battle self-doubt. They worry that they’re not good enough for their role, that their success was kind of just luck. That someone’s going to find out that they’re not quite ready yet for this role that they took on too much, they can chew, and this internal struggle, if not managed well, can show up externally in ways that undermines their presence. Again, it could be hatching statements like, Hey, I could be wrong, but, or might not be the right approach, or then they overexplain their decisions because they’re trying to prove that they have all the facts.

That’s when they get verbose and they can’t abstract even when presenting to a board or to the C-suite, they feel like they need to give all the different details to let other people know that, that you know what you’re doing.

This overdoing is because of the deeper insecurities. They may also avoid taking strong positions in meetings or controversial positions because they’re afraid of being wrong. This by the way, also shows up if it’s an ambiguous decision that you need to make meaning.

It’s not a clear cut or it’s not an 80% I know I need to do this. There might be a little residual risk of 20%. It’s when it’s like a 40, 60, or 50 50 kind of decision, and you don’t wanna be wrong. Like what are the behaviors that you’ll engage?

When you realize you have to take a risk and you don’t wanna take that risk, because you worry that if you make the wrong decision, the ramifications, the external consequences of how people would church you and the internal dialogue of beating yourself up.

It would be too big. And all of this comes across ultimately as a lack of confidence. Which actually erodes credibility. So notice how, and this by the way, the vast majority of us fall into this trap where we are a little bit insecure and instead of like owning that insecurity, we overdo it on the other end because we’re trying to project that we actually know for sure this is when we don’t ask for help, we can’t say.

I don’t know, I have will have to get back to you and many other different behaviors that pain point to this. So not knowing when this comes up and where the self doubt might be coming from is the second challenge and struggle that leaders who wanna elevate have to address and overcome.

And then the third one. Let’s call this the authenticity paradox. So how do you project confidence and authority while also you know, staying true to who you are? Because what happens is that leaders feel pressure to conform to, you know, this idealized executive image.

Maybe they think they need to be a bit more aggressive or be more formal, or they need to speak in a certain way. And then when they try to put on this act, it actually comes across as inauthentic. And there is a learning curve for this. If you learn a new skill, you’ll always feel unsure, and it feels a bit like an act, right? If we try to if we, let’s say I recently found my roller skates from, oh my gosh, decades ago. If I were to put those on, I would feel like a clown on the road.

Yes, uncomfortable. Like I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m learning or relearning a new skill. And so as we’re developing our executive presence, yes, we may need to do something that isn’t sort of genuinely who we, how we wanted to show up. That is different then having this idealized image of what a leader is and what a leader does, because we ourselves haven’t actually developed the skill and we don’t see that.

Us projecting this to the outside world is demonstrating, oh, we’re, we’re having to build this skill if we think projecting this inauthentic image is good enough. That’s sort of the end of the story. That is the problem. Now, also on the other side, when leaders swing sort of too far into the other way and they make the mistake of being too authentic.

And they actually use this really important term a bit as an excuse to not grow. They say things such as, well, this is who I am. That’s always been me, when really what they mean is, you know,

no, I don’t want to do the work to develop these skills. So true. Authenticity is about being both genuine while also being willing to grow and adapt. If we can all agree that the reason why we would do this is to achieve a better outcome. If you prefer to be authentic and you are okay sacrificing an outcome or a result, that’s a different story.

But if you say like, no, I wanna be the most effective and, and best leader I can be, and so you have a clear outcome in mind, that may mean you have to adapt, learn new skills, and. Be genuine, but also not use authenticity as a way to hold you back and, and keep you in this sort of identity that you’ve developed and formed over a long time.

That may no longer serve, you may actually no longer give you that outcome and result that you are going for. So the next struggle after the awareness gap, the imposter syndrome challenge, and the authenticity paradox is.

When communication breaks down or communication isn’t evolving along with the evolution or the growth of the role. So your communication is sort of stuck at a lower level, the way that you communicate, when in fact you are trying to have a bigger role and a bigger responsibility.

Executive presence is closely tied to how you communicate. And there are multiple areas in which leaders struggle. There’s sort of this traditional public speaking piece,

like delivering a presentation in a monotone voice or being nervous, not making eye contact, reading too much of your, from your slides, not being structured enough, and then the brilliant ideas that this leader may have may totally get lost because the delivery is flat, so that’s one. Then there’s also clarity, like leaders assume their teams understand their vision and their goals, but.

Typically the reality of it is there’s often a whole lot of confusion and disengagement and like I don’t understand the vision. I remember this one client saying to me, I don’t understand how in this engagement survey, people are still saying they don’t understand the vision. I’ve literally done nothing else and explained the vision for the last six months.

I don’t know how else to say it. I don’t know what else to do. Is it that they still don’t get it? Yeah. Communicating visions, goals, strategies, change it comes with this side effect of people being confused or actually disengaging.

They may also use GaN or they speak in abstract concepts. They, they then don’t check for understanding along the way and get people involved in the process and then they wonder at the end of it, like, why isn’t the team executing?

Why isn’t the team aligned? What happened along the way? Well, we didn’t check in if our communication is actually landing. And then of course, there’s also the other side of the actual talking, which is listening skills. And we’ll bundle that into communication skills as well, , which is about leaders who are so focused on.

What they’re going to say next, that they’re not actually hearing what their team members are telling them. And then it comes across as sort of like uncaring. It can damage trust and relationships. And last but not least as it comes to struggles related to executive presence.

I wanna talk about emotional volatility. The ability to remain calm and composed under pressure is a non-negotiable for executive presence, and I get it.

Leadership is stressful. This is not always easy to do for most of us, this is a lifelong effort. There are high stake situations, difficult conversations. Competing priorities that drawing your attention. But when you lose emotional control, like the visible frustration, anxiety or anger or the passive aggressive comments that you might make or emails that you send, it actually under, it undermines your credibility.

People need to feel safe around their leaders for them to show up as their best selves over sustainable long time period.

Yes, you can leave with fear and and anger for a short time period, but it’s not sustainable. So they need to know that you can handle whatever comes your way. And when you are reactive or emotionally volatile, it creates an environment where people are walking on eggshells and that is not conducive to high performance and not helping executive presence.

Right? It can also be in this nonverbal communication actually where your body language and your posture and your appearance are sending messages. That aren’t helping, like slouching may make you seem disengaged.

Crossed. Arms make you seem closed off. Fidgeting makes you look nervous or unprepared. And whether you are in fact or not, we don’t know. Just because someone’s crossing their arms doesn’t actually tell us whether they’re closed off or not. That’s not the point. The point is that other people will look at you and they will perceive you a certain way.

That is what we talk about here at Executive Presence. And even if you now say like, sure, I get it, but people should focus on my ideas, not how I look and how I behave in a meeting or on a virtual call. But again, reality is that people are making touches about your competence and your credibility based on visual cues. It could even be the way that you look on a screen. Do you have good audio quality? Do you have a good visual or is it all blurry or dark?

Those things do matter whether we like it or not. Okay. So these were a number of key struggles and challenges that leaders tend to face when it comes to their executive presence. And it actually is often the case where they’re totally fine, they’re kind of coasting, and then they reach a point where they realize, Hey, to get to this next level, I have to level up not just in my capacity, but also in my executive presence.

And so fundamentally understanding that the skills that got you to your current level may not be enough for the next level. Your executive presence has to evolve . As your role becomes more complex now, day in and day out through the different assignments that you have and work that you do, you get better at managing the complexity.

You learn more, you refine the skills, but when and how often and how intentionally are you actually investing in developing your executive presence? If you were great at managing a small team, but now that you need to influence across departments. Different skill.

You were successful in a technical role, but now you need to communicate with non-technical stakeholders. Different skill. Maybe you thrived in a startup environment, but now you’re in a formal corporate setting with a lot of hierarchy in place. It matters. Your presence needs to adapt. Now if you think, okay, all sounds good, but also it sounds like a lot of work then fair enough there is work involved. That’s what I mean with you have to actually invest in it. It doesn’t just.

If you just rely on doing the reps, you’re gonna slow yourself down. Especially because most of us go through the reps without enough reflection and taking time out of our work, our busy schedules, to actually learn the lessons we should be learning through doing the reps. And so when you start being more intentional about developing your executive presence, then you wanna start to address these different areas systematically.

Doing so will accelerate your growth. So you might then find yourself walking into a room with this quiet confidence. You are delivering a presentation where people lean in instead of checking their phones.

You have difficult conversations where other people trust your judgment and will commit to it even if they don’t agree with your position. This is not about changing your personality. It is really about developing the skills and awareness to show up as the leader that you want to be and other people need you to be.

So if this resonates with you, I do wanna share something that might help. We’re reopening registration for our executive presence Intensive.

This is a program designed to help leaders develop this powerful presence that drives results. This is not about surface level tips, or generic advice. We dive into the specific challenges and your personal goals and your personal situation.

You get individual feedback, practical tools and the ability to develop your skill as part of the program. we’re starting this class in October, and the registration is open now, now we do keep these groups small to ensure that everyone gets individual attention. So none of our programs are sort of mass programs because we like to work and get to know our leaders individually because. Leadership is not cookie cutter.

There’s not one size fits all, including your executive presence is very much based on your starting point, your natural sort of personal tendencies, and then what are the shifts that you need to make. Based on your own goals, your own sort of let’s say default setting to executive presence. And that’s what we’re gonna work with you together.

If you’re ready to invest, not just in the learning of your technical skills and your on the job competence, but your executive presence, which will become increasingly important as you elevate as a leader, then check out the details linked in the show notes below. Let’s not have another year pass by where you wished you had more influence.

Where you get annoyed that other people don’t hear your voice in a meeting, or that you don’t get a response in an email that you were hoping for, or that you’re being challenged in whether or not you’re ready for a promotion. The leaders who invest in

developing these particular skills are the ones who set themselves up for success in the future ,

I hope to hear from you, even if you’re just curious to learn more. Check out the links below and if you’d like, we can hop on a quick call as well to see if this program is truly the right fit for you. Thanks so much, and I’ll see you next week with another episode of The Manager Track podcast.

If you enjoy this episode, then check out two other awesome resources to help you become a leader. People love to work with. This includes a free master class on how to successfully lead as a new manager. Check it at archova.org/masterclass. 

The second resource is my best-selling book, the confident and competent new manager, how to quickly rise to success in your first leadership role. Check it out at archova.org/books or head on over to Amazon and grab your copy there. 

You can find all those links in the show notes down below.