As you move into more senior leadership roles, expertise is only one part of how you’re perceived. The way you communicate, handle pressure, make decisions and build relationships influences the confidence others have in you as a leader. Executive presence requires a combination of skills and behaviours developed over the course of your career – not changing your personality or trying to become the loudest person in the room.
Read on to find out what true executive leadership presence is, how to nurture your skills, and how executive leadership coaching can support you.
What is executive presence?
Executive presence is the combination of qualities and behaviours that influence how you are perceived as a leader. Your communication style, confidence, credibility, composure, and self-awareness can all play a part in developing leadership presence, as well as your ability to positively influence others.
Executive presence is also different from simply being confident. Where executive leadership confidence is about having belief in your own abilities and judgement, executive presence is broader, considering how that confidence works alongside your communication and behaviour to make you a leader that everyone trusts, from business stakeholders to internal teams.
Remember, there isn’t one personality type associated with strong executive presence: you don’t need to be extroverted or forceful. The most effective approach is one that feels authentic to you, allowing you to build strong relationships in your team and effectively champion your business goals.
Why is executive presence important for leaders?
Executive presence is important to develop as you move into leadership, as you will likely find yourself communicating with and influencing people across the business, including people you don’t regularly work with. You may need to gain their support for an idea, or talk through a difficult decision. When representing your business, your attitude and communication style will make all the difference.
A strong executive presence helps leaders to approach situations with greater confidence and credibility, making it more likely others will understand your perspective and trust your judgement.
Developing your executive presence skills can help you to:
- Communicate ideas and decisions more clearly
- Build credibility with senior stakeholders
- Stay composed when dealing with pressure or uncertainty
- Influence others without relying on authority
- Handle challenging conversations more effectively
- Build stronger professional relationships
- Feel more confident in senior leadership situations.
Key executive presence skills
Executive presence isn’t based on a single skill. Several different qualities contribute to how you come across as a leader:
1. Confidence
Confidence allows you to communicate your ideas and decisions with conviction. This doesn’t mean having an answer for everything or never showing uncertainty. In fact, being comfortable acknowledging what you don’t know can be an important part of credible leadership. Executive leadership confidence develops through experience, preparation, self-awareness and a willingness to step outside your comfort zone.
Top tip: If confidence is an area you’re looking to develop, explore our confidence coaching services.
2. Communication
Senior leaders need to communicate with a wide range of people – whether that’s their own teams, boards, clients or other stakeholders. To do this effectively, you need to be able to adapt your communication style to suit different audiences, without it seeming inauthentic. Take the time to explain your thinking clearly and give people the information they need to make decisions.
Listening is equally important: strong executive communication means taking the time to understand different perspectives, whether you’re responding to a question from an investor or speaking with someone with less seniority or experience.
3. Authenticity
There’s no need to create a leadership persona that doesn’t feel natural to you. Trying to behave like another leader will feel uncomfortable, especially if their leadership style is very different from your own. Focus on understanding your strengths and using them effectively. Authenticity will help you build trust because people are more likely to respond positively to communication that feels genuine and consistent.
4. Composure
Senior leaders have to make difficult decisions when oftentimes there isn’t an obvious solution. Staying calm and collected when faced with challenges not only influences how other people perceive their leadership, but will also help to inspire their performance under pressure.
It’s important to note that having composure doesn’t mean hiding your emotions or pretending that difficult situations don’t affect you. Instead, take the time to think and respond thoughtfully rather than reacting immediately.
5. Credibility
Credibility is perhaps the hardest feature to develop on this list, as it can’t be achieved overnight. True credibility often comes with a track record, but you can begin to build credibility from day one, even if you’re transitioning into a leadership role for the first time or moving to a new business. People are more likely to trust your leadership when you show that you understand the issues and deliver on what you say you will. Being able to explain your thinking and stand behind your decisions can also help reinforce your credibility, particularly when you’re communicating with people at a similar or more senior level.
How to develop executive presence
There are several practical steps you can take to become more aware of how you lead and strengthen your executive presence:
- Understand how others perceive you: There can be a gap between how we intend to come across and how other people actually experience us. Ask trusted colleagues, peers or coaches for honest feedback about your communication and leadership style.
- Identify your strengths and development areas: Think about the situations where you feel most comfortable and those where you tend to hold back. Understanding these differences can help you identify where to focus your development.
- Practise communicating with clarity and confidence: When you’re communicating with senior stakeholders, try to focus on the information that matters most. If you tend to over-explain your ideas, practise getting to the point more quickly. If you tend to speak quickly, giving yourself a little more time can help you communicate more confidently.
- Become more comfortable with challenging conversations: Think about what you need to communicate, what you want the other person to understand, and how you’ll respond if the conversation doesn’t go as planned.
- Look for opportunities to increase your visibility: You don’t need to seek attention for the sake of it, but showing up can help you feel more comfortable being visible when your role or expertise calls for it. Attending non-compulsory meetings and making time for small touchpoints with colleagues can make all the difference.
How executive presence coaching can help you
Leadership coaching can help you to develop your executive presence by allowing you to explore how you approach leadership, understand how others may perceive you, and work through situations that you find challenging. Executive leadership coaching can be particularly useful if you’re preparing for a promotion, stepping into a new leadership role, or looking to increase your impact at a senior level. Leadership coaches provide a structured space to work on confidence, communication and other areas of your leadership approach.
Developing executive presence with agp
At agp, our executive coaching services are designed to help executives and senior leaders to develop their leadership presence. We take a personalised approach that allows you to explore your strengths and understand areas for development to work towards your goals.
Whether you’re looking to build executive leadership confidence, strengthen your communication skills or prepare for a new leadership challenge, coaching provides the support and perspective to develop your technique. Our coaches bring extensive business and leadership experience alongside a practical, individual approach, giving you space to discuss your objectives and outlining how coaching sessions will be used to develop your leadership skills.
Get in touch with the team at agp today to book your discovery session.
