Category Archives: Executive Coaching Articles

Executive presence will benefit everyone who has reached a certain level in their career. In fact, it’s hard to move up to the highest levels of leadership without it. But for women, executive presence is especially crucial. Executive presence will be your secret weapon that allows you to break through the barriers you may face on your journey to success.

How executive presence for women will benefit their career

Why is executive presence important to your career success? When you have executive presence, your company will trust you to lead high-level teams and prestigious projects.

Executive presence is crucial for women at every career level:

If you’re an up-and-coming leader, having executive presence will ensure others view you as a strong leader. If you’re a mid-career leader, executive presence will help you secure and excel in the high-level position you deserve. If you’re … Continue reading Executive Presence for Women Leaders: How to Get it →

You’re already a CEO. Why do you need to focus on executive presence? As the top leader in your company, you’ll accomplish much more when you radiate a strong executive presence with charisma. The higher you rise in the ranks, the more you need a strong presence to back up your formal authority. Leadership doesn’t emanate from a title—it comes from your ability to take charge of tough situations, influence people, and communicate effectively. As CEO, executive presence will imbue you with all of these qualities and many more.

Why do CEOs need executive presence?

As a CEO, you probably spend much of your time in meetings—where you need to influence people and drive change. If you’re not leveraging a strong executive presence, you’ll be less equipped to spearhead innovation and guide the organization in promising new directions.

As … Continue reading Executive Presence for CEOs: Why You Need It →

Are you a leader with executive presence, or a person who lacks it? Take this executive presence assessment & evaluation to learn how you’re showing up at work.

Are you beginning to realize that to reach higher levels of leadership—or to excel in your new position—you need a new skill set? It’s normal to realize, at this stage, that you’re lacking certain qualities of executive presence that would make you a much more effective leader. Rather than focusing on your technical skills, which you’ve already mastered, you need to develop a new toolkit. You may have a strong set of people skills, but you now need to be more than a good team player—you need to become a strong team leader.

Acting as a bold, confident, and commanding leader doesn’t come naturally to most people. Making good decisions, influencing across functions, and communicating articulately in high-pressure situations takes … Continue reading Executive Presence Assessment & Evaluation →

Have you realized you need executive presence to reach the next level, but you aren’t sure where to begin? That’s the position most leaders start from when they realize they need executive presence.

To build executive presence, you need a strong framework to lay the foundation for all of your efforts. Choosing the right executive presence framework will shape your success on your journey to becoming a leader with executive presence.

The importance of an executive presence framework

Executive presence comprises a number of qualities that all work together. In other words, it’s complex. Using a solid framework for your executive presence allows you to organize and triage your efforts with the help of a clear structure. You’ll identify the most critical concerns and the hidden weaknesses you need to play up.

Without a framework, it’s tough to conceptualize executive presence and fully grasp … Continue reading Executive Presence Framework: Key for Success →

What qualities have you spent time developing up to this point in your career? You probably have an impressive range of skills and some substantial accomplishments under your belt. You’ve consistently demonstrated a strong performance, building up a track record of success. You’ve accumulated credentials that speak to your knowledge and competence. You have an incredible work ethic and prioritize good teamwork. And you reliably produce results. Others have affirmed that you possess these qualities. You know you’re good at what you do and have been perceived positively thus far. But those qualities alone can only take you so far. As I often say to my executive coaching clients, what’s gotten you this far in your career won’t bring you to the next level.

Why Executive Presence is Important to Career Success

This realization comes as a bit of a surprise to many leaders. … Continue reading Learn How To Have Executive Presence: 3 Steps →

Perhaps you’ve recently learned that to advance in your career, you need executive presence. But what does executive presence look like?

Learning what executive presence looks like will allow you to create a plan for cultivating it. Developing 9 core competencies will shape others’ perception of you as a leader with a strong executive presence. Understand what each of these 9 qualities looks like so you can begin displaying it in your daily interactions.

To develop executive presence, you need to understand the goal you’re aspiring toward. You need to be able to visualize what a leader with executive presence actually looks like in action.

Here’s how we describe a leader with executive presence: Confident Commanding Charismatic Decisive Bold Influential Vocal Insightful Clear

A leader with executive presence exudes these 9 key qualities, which together act as the foundation of executive presence. In … Continue reading What Does Executive Presence Look Like in Action? →

“I wish I could promote you, BUT you lack executive presence.” It’s a phrase all too often heard in most companies. The boss may not always use the words “executive presence” specifically, but it’s frequently implied. The boss believes the employee brings many strengths and has a high level of commitment but displays a poor executive presence. As a result, the boss (or other senior leaders) doesn’t feel confident that the employee could succeed in a leadership role.

Talent Review Meetings – How a Poor Executive Presence Negatively Impacts You

In talent review meetings, senior leaders often utter similar phrases while debating who deserves a promotion. During these closed-door meetings, an advocate may speak up for you, voicing your greatest strengths. Then, another leader may follow up with a critique: Despite your key strengths, you come across as having a poor executive presence.

If you’ve heard this … Continue reading Poor Executive Presence? What’s Holding You Back? →

How do you undermine your executive presence? A survey we conducted at GEC Research Center determined 8 key ways in which leaders sabotage their own executive presence. These executive presence behaviors are based on research conducted with 1400 workers.

Acting indecisive Being timid Lacking confidence Rambling Being too quiet Being disorganized Having a laidback demeanor Seeming unimaginative

8 behaviors that can undermine your executive presence, survey research shows

These are all surefire ways to undermine your executive presence. Let’s take a closer look at how each of these behaviors harms your executive presence. We’ll also examine how to change them, starting now.

Acting indecisive.

Being indecisive will present you as insecure and unable to trust your own judgment. If you’re indecisive, you probably overanalyze things indefinitely, not wanting to make a choice until you have 100% of the information or get everyone on … Continue reading Executive Presence Survey & Research: Top 8 Behaviors →

Very few leaders were born with executive presence—most need to grow executive presence, research shows. Every leader needs to build executive presence and display it across 10 key work contexts. Are you currently showing up with more executive presence in some than in others? Consider where you excel and where you need to cultivate a more powerful presence.

10 Circumstances Where Building an Executive Presence Matters

Where does executive presence matter at work? And would you show executive presence in every context where it matters?

Building executive presence will make you a more effective leader across a broad range of contexts—both in-person and virtual. Let’s explore the main situations where you need executive presence at work to get ahead.

The Main Contexts Where Building an Executive Presence is Needed Delivering a presentation in a team meeting where you need … Continue reading Building Executive Presence: Where Executive Presence Matters →