Executive Presence

Hello. Hello, this is Jacqueline Twillie and you're listening to power banking the podcast for women who work in male-dominated Industries today. We're talking about executive presence. So a lot of times is term is thrown around when you see people moving up in the ranks. Are you see a leader being analyzed?

The term executive presence is often interjected and it's used in terms of like this. Mystical Magic. That leaders have, you know, people will say you either have it or you don't but it is something that you can enhance and that you can home just like negotiation. It's a muscle the stronger. You work out the more you work out, the stronger that muscle becomes.

So I know a lot of people will say executive presence is just Charisma or it's just the X Factor and I challenge you to think Beyond a quote-unquote X Factor our Charisma because it's Hard to teach someone how to have Charisma. And when we get into different personality types and personality Styles, I think that it drives you away from being your authentic self. So today I want to talk to you about how to use your uniqueness and to enhance your executive presence that way. So I looked up a definition online from a leading communication website and they say that executive presence is blending of temperament and competencies and skills and that.

Choose to send the right signals. And it also says going on further with their definition, that leaders know that they must embody executive presence to get ahead to influence others and to drive results. So before we happen to some factors that you need to enhance your executive presence, putting your unique spin on it. I also want to talk about gravitas for just a brief moment. So, gravitas is another one of those terms that is thrown around.

Really vaguely and it's hard to understand what exactly is this gravitas? So again, I looked up the definition for you all and it comes from a Latin root word, meaning heavy and its associated with ideas and influence and authority and really the topic of this podcast. The whole theme is power banking. How can women uncover the power that they already have within them and use that to live their best lives to be effective in? Thing that they do.

And so when you look at the word gravitas and that Latin root word, meaning heavy, it really gets to the point of you all have power. And when we talk about executive presence and we talked about gravitas Charisma, The X Factor, it's all about using your personality and your unique skills to highlight who you are to be effective in getting things done. So as we happen to it, I've said this a couple of times already embrace. Your uniqueness. If you think about the most effective leaders, the ones who really Captivate you, and you look at their personality style.

There is something distinctly different about them, then the other people around. And so, when you're thinking about what's different from this person versus other leaders, may be in this organization or other leaders that I've been around, you can pretty quickly point out one or two things for me. I think of a leader that I worked with that. I absolutely adored. Who is just a people person when you were talking to her, you felt like you were the most important person in the room and she made everyone feel like that.

I don't care if it was someone in the c-suite or if it was the doorman outside. She just had that type of personality and so they're different skills that each leader has. So I encourage you to take a few seconds and think about what is it that makes you unique and how can you Embrace that? If you're Being and nothing comes to mind, right away. I have a challenge for you.

I use this with the clients that I coach especially new clients. I tell them email 10 people and ask them to describe you in three characteristics. What you'll see is that and that all 10 people will email you back but you'll probably get five or six folks to respond and you're going to see some overlapping themes there. Going to be some people who say things maybe a different way, but it means the same thing. That's one of the ways where you can begin to home.

In on your uniqueness. All right. Now the second part of that is being self-aware. There is a motivational speaker that I love to listen to on YouTube. His name is Eric Thomas and he really hones in on this concept of being self-aware.

If you really want to enhance your leadership profile and take it to the next level. You have to be aware of not only your strengths but your weaknesses as well. And the thing with executive presence. When you know what, you're really good at, you can double down on those things and you can go deep on it. When I say go deep on it.

I mean, once you know that you're an excellent Communicator, once, you know that you're a great Storyteller, you're able to get in front of a group of people and really walk into that lane. So you can take online courses are go to conferences and seminars where you can hone that specific skill and get better at it. A lot of times. We think that Add, we will reach a certain point where we may not need that assistance, and that coach to push us further. But I challenge you to think about the sports grades.

Think about whether it's soccer, basketball, football, swimming, tennis, whatever it is, all of the greats. They have a coach even at their highest level. Even at their Peak, they still have a coach, they're not going it alone. So, when you're going getting into that area, where you're learning, how to be selfish. We're definitely dive into the concept of getting somebody to coach you on your strength so that you can become even better so that you can be more aware of your blind spots and you can fill in the gaps around you.

Whether it's hiring team members or whether it's finding a different way for you to bridge the gap, on the things that you're not as strong in. Now next, when it comes to Executive presence. I've read a lot about pause the power of a pause. And in Brunei, Browns work brene, Brown is a researcher out of Houston, Texas, at Rice University. She talks about how there are certain people who have this pause when they talk.

Now, if you've been following me or listening to this podcast for a while, you know, I do not have the gift of the pause. That is definitely a skill that I'm working on. But using a pause can be very, very powerful tool in helping you to. Gain, that Moment of clarity or to get people to stop and pay attention to you. I think this is one of the things that's very much underestimated when I teach negotiation strategy, this is definitely something that I touch on the power of a pause can invoke an awkward silence.

It'll make you and someone else want to jump in and say something. But if you sit there in the moment and you just give it a give whatever you said or whatever, question you ask a chance to sit out there, you're going to uncover more information. Let me give you an example of this when you're at a store and you want to buy something and you already know you want to buy it and the salesperson just keeps going on and on and on and you're like, okay, that's good. Like, I'm ready to buy you, give them these pauses these cues to let them know you're ready to move to the next stage. But by learning how to interject a pause into your conversation at certain times.

It's really going to help you to command that power going. Back to the definition of Gravitas and the core definition of executive presence of how to embrace that power silence is a very powerful tool to command attention. So you don't always have to be the loudest person in the room. Oftentimes. You can just say something and then Simply Be quiet and that will speak volumes for you.

All right, so as we get into my last couple of tips here, a lot of folks say that in order to have executive presence. You need to be witty and you To be a comedian for me. Naturally. I am not a comedian. I know other effective leaders who exude executive presence who are now comedians as well.

So if that's a natural skill that you have where you can tell a joke and it comes off, authentic, go right ahead. But if it's not your core skill, don't try to embrace things that are not. You now going into the part of Confidence because this is a huge part of executive presence. When you know that, you know that you know what you're talking about. You're able to exude a confidence level that is above anything else.

Now what helps you get that confidence? I'm not talking about. What do they call it? The Imposter syndrome battling with that. I'm talking about, you know, your area of expertise really well and you need to be able to speak to it.

So if you're in a meeting, make sure. Well prepared to speak to All Points in that meeting so that you can exude that level of confidence because that is a huge part of executive presence. Another part of it is how you dress. Now. It doesn't matter if you have one a business suit or if you're wearing a hoodie because in different Industries, the tire doesn't matter.

But it matters that how you dress in terms of how confident you are when I was coming up in the ranks early in my career. I used to hear people say just for the position. You want not the position that you have and I really appreciate that. The tech sector has really ushered in a new definition of what professional attire is. So whatever it is in the environment that you're going to be speaking in or talking in definitely dress One Step Up Above the position that you're in, you know, if you're wearing slacks, maybe just wear some different shoes.

Polished shoes, ladies, we get scrutinized extra hard on our appearance. So just make sure Whatever you're wearing, you feel confident? And I'm not going to tell you that you need to wear heels or you need to wear a certain level of makeup or things like that. It's up to, you know, what clothes? Look well on your body and for me, I've hired stylist in the past to help me dress, my body style in my shape so that I looked confident and I felt confident in the clothes that I wear.

So it's not one thing or another. It's just making sure that you're addressing your body in a way that you feel most confident. And I think that's really key for Ian to do that. Now the last thing I want to leave you with is Clarity, so to exude your presence and for you to communicate really effectively, you need to have Clarity. You have to have the intention of going in, whatever you're doing whether it's running a team meeting or giving a presentation or talking one-on-one with the client or a fellow colleague.

You have to ask yourself. What am I going in here for? What is my intention? And if you can articulate that to, So you're ready to communicate with others and when you have that level of clarity and that intention behind you, that's kind of help boost your executive presence. So I want to thank you all for joining me today for the power banking podcast.

We're right in the middle of July for the next 30 days. I will be coming to you with at least a 10 Minute Podcast episode on a different topic to help you elevate your leadership profile. And I appreciate you again spending your time with me. Please head over to the Apple Store. If you haven't leave us a 5-star review that helps more people find us and get the information that you're learning today.

Until next time, keep emulating excellence and eliminating excuses.