It is challenging to place an exact definition of leadership presence. Some people might even refer to it as “executive presence.” If you were given feedback about your leadership and were told, “You should work on your leadership presence,” what would you say? Most leaders would say, “How do I do that?” or maybe, “What is leadership presence?”
Not to worry – maybe it’s for this exact reason that you’re here. You want to develop leadership presence…if only you could figure out what that is…and how to grow in it. Let’s dig into it and see what we can find out.
What Exactly is Leadership Presence?
The definition of ‘presence’ all on its own in the context used here is the impressive manner or appearance of a person. Synonyms include magnetism, poise, attraction, demeanor, posture, self-possession, self-confidence, and others.
The Harvard Business Review published a book on leadership presence in 2018. It offered a synopsis that describes the book as a resource to craft the charisma, confidence, and decisiveness often found in top leaders. When you think of leaders with fantastic charisma, confidence, and decisiveness, you likely consider them to have magnetism, poise, and a fantastic demeanor.
This is leadership presence.
Leaders with leadership presence can communicate better than most people in a large room – and more than the speaking component of communication. Leadership presence means they command the room while listening to what other people say. It’s the leader who is active in their listening and sharing their own thoughts. Leadership presence is complex and a potentially daunting quality to build, but it matters.
Why Do Leaders Struggle with Presence?
Leadership presence is such a challenge because it can be difficult to determine the perfect mix of humility and confidence, speaking and listening, being friendly and firm, and many other paradoxical components. How do leaders know when to share their ideas and when to listen to others? How should they mix humility and confidence? What’s the best way to remain friendly while being firm?
The struggle is in the contradictions which make these leaders so attractive. People want to follow them, listen to them, and get an audience with them. It can be a struggle to figure out how to improve one’s leadership presence without tipping the balance.
Another area for improvement in developing a leadership presence is the commitment it requires to truly make a change. You might take an online course intended to increase your executive presence, but if the course is completed in 6 weeks and the leader fails to continue growing on their own, leadership presence will not be hugely impacted.
Developing leadership presence is a long-term, goal-oriented, life-changing process that cannot be completed in a few weeks, no matter how great the course is. The commitment required to alter your leadership presence is significant. It might be daunting. That’s why leaders often struggle to improve in this area.
Why is Leadership Presence Essential?
If you don’t have a leadership presence, it will be far more difficult to inspire, motivate, and drive people toward a common goal. This isn’t to say it isn’t possible because leaders with little presence exist and sometimes succeed. However, the most influential leaders have a leadership presence. Leadership is about making others better because of your presence.
Working toward improved executive presence is not a waste of time when you start seeing the tangible changes.
How Can You Develop a Greater Leadership Presence?
As mentioned above, before developing a greater leadership presence, you must commit to doing so. Increasing presence requires a long-term goal you may not check off for some time. To combat the lack of progress toward your increased leadership presence goal, you should define several smaller goals that aim toward your primary target.
There are many smaller goals to include, but these 11 elements of leadership presence are ideal places to start.
1. Find a Mentor
A mentor can help you develop your presence in leadership by sharing their own tips and tricks on the matter. So, you must choose a mentor who has a leadership presence. When you come across someone with a fantastic leadership presence, ask them if they can meet for coffee sometime to chat. Prepare questions in advance and be ready to learn with a notebook and pen handy.
If the process the first time goes well, ask them if they have time again in a couple of weeks. If you feel this person would make a good mentor, ask if they would be interested in a mentorship! It sounds a little intimidating if you’ve never had a mentor before – but you’ve already engaged in mentorship activity by asking questions over coffee.
Just know that you can learn more from someone interested in being your mentor as much as you are interested in being their mentee.
2. Bring All of You
Have you ever decided that your emotional self doesn’t belong in the workplace? I know I have! As a female, I sometimes feel that if I share too much emotion at work, I will fall into a statistic or be judged because many believe that feelings don’t belong in the workplace.
But guess what?
Leadership presence involves real, honest people who feel things and are smart, and live real human lives in and out of work. I’m not saying you should be airing your dirty laundry to the whole office to have a greater leadership presence – that is not ideal. I am saying that if someone is struggling, it is okay to share in their pain. If you are struggling, it is okay to say, “I’m not doing well right now.”
Be you. Be authentic. Don’t fake it or save face when being a human being feels inappropriate.
3. Share Your Passion
Have you ever noticed that those who are essentially swimming in genuine leadership presence are just on fire for their work? They have such passion it is hard not to want to get involved. I love this about passionate leaders. Passionate leaders have a leadership presence.
So, if you are not passionate about your work, you need to discover what sets your soul on fire. I’m not suggesting that you quit the job you enjoy, even if it doesn’t cause you to light up every day and feel the wind beneath your wings. Dig deep and discover the parts of your work you love the most.
Maybe you work as a sales representative for a pharmaceutical company. You hate striving for quotas, but you love communicating with doctors about the wonderful things your product can do for patients’ quality of life. That love – the love of communicating and sharing good things – can sustain your passion. Dive deep into that area of your work and share your passion for this one part with others on your team.
That’s where you start. Don’t ever begin with the stuff you hate sharing – you’ll lose interest from your audience faster than you can say, “leadership presence.”
4. Be Relatable
Have you ever scrolled through social media and seen a meme that made you comment, “Relatable!” These memes are usually truths about real people. “I am evil without coffee before 9 am,” or “I made such an error in that last meeting,” tells people, hey, I’m just like you! I do human things, too!
If you’re afraid to admit your mistakes or act like a robot, people aren’t going to relate much to you. They will likely think that you’re perfect and that any colors outside the lines are inexcusable. Don’t pretend to be perfect, leaders. It isn’t relatable.
5. Craft a Tale
Listen to some people with excellent leadership presence speak. They often have a story to tell – sometimes true, sometimes obviously fiction – but there is a narrative that captures your attention. To develop leadership presence, you must know how to craft a tale and tell it well.
Leaders with poor leadership presence will get in front of a group and say, here is the data: point 1, point 2, and point 3. That’s all!
Snore.
Leaders with presence are captivating, remember? Tell an engaging story before diving into the data. People like stories.
6. Develop Physical Awareness
Did you know that the way your body is positioned influences others’ perceptions of you and even how you feel about yourself? Next time you communicate with someone, be aware of your physical self. How are you standing or sitting? Are you hunched over or straight-backed? Is your chin up or down?
These details can be revealing, even subconsciously. When you’re hunched over with your chin down, you will feel less confident than when you’re standing up straight with your chin jutted out slightly. Fortunately, developing physical awareness doesn’t mean you have to awkwardly practice your posture and poses in the company of others.
Before you enter a meeting or give a speech, stand like a superhero for a few minutes. Feet apart, chin up, and arms up like you’re Superman about to take flight. It sounds silly and looks even more laughable – but your confidence will soar like Clark Kent himself.
7. Be Still
Have you ever noticed how some speakers walk the stage back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, without ever stopping? It reads like anxiety – and it likely is anxiety. While anxiety is a natural response to public speaking, you can develop leadership presence by taking a breath before you begin and remaining still for several moments.
Before you speak, before you start pacing, just follow the Bible’s instruction: be still. Take a few moments to gather yourself before you just dive into speaking a mile a minute or getting your step count in.
The audience waits in anticipation, like you’ll say something life-changing and extraordinary. That pause gives you a touch of leadership presence you don’t want to miss out on. Try it. Be still.
8. Encourage Curiosity
A leader who “knows everything” is a leader lacking presence. Consider how curiosity might change your leadership presence. If you’re coming up short, let’s think about children for a moment.
As a mother to young kids, I know a thing or two about curiosity. My day typically starts with questions. There are questions about the time, the sun, breakfast, clothes, the weather, our plans, and more before the clock strikes 7 am.
I get asked, “Why?” nearly to the end of my patience on a daily basis. Why? (ha!) Because kids are curious. They feel a desire to know things that they don’t know. And when you’ve been around for just a few short years, there’s a lot that you don’t know.
Leaders, there’s a lot you don’t know, too.
Engage your curiosity. You’ll ask more questions than you answer and find unexpected things in unexpected places. You’ll listen more to what others share and express genuine interest in their passions.
Curious leaders have a leadership presence.
9. Listen More than You Speak
A lot of leaders know a lot of things. But as I mentioned in the previous section, there’s a lot you don’t know. There’s so much to learn. You can learn about people, what they know, and what they want to share. You can learn and learn and learn – but only if you shut your mouth!
Leaders who truly want to develop leadership presence must focus on learning to listen. Actively. Intently. Intentionally. Listen.
Listen to your team. Listen to your competitor. Listen to your boss. Listen to your neighbor. Just listen.
You might be shocked at how much you can learn when you aren’t speaking.
10. Be Open to Opinions and Feedback
Sometimes when you spend so much time listening, as one with leadership presence does, you hear a lot of opinions that you disagree with. Someone might say, “Our organization is a tough place to work for women,” and you might think that’s not true. Whether it’s true or not, it is their experience. You must open yourself to listen to why this person believes it.
You might even hear harsh feedback about yourself. “You just…don’t listen when I tell you what I need to improve.” Of course, I do! Do you really, though? Or is there some reason this person feels you aren’t listening to their needs? Open yourself to things that are hard to hear or that you don’t agree with or see.
An open-minded person is far more likely to have a leadership presence than someone who refuses to entertain the ideas, thoughts, and opinions of people who differ from themselves. Be open. Again, listen.
11. Build Good Habits
If you know anything about me, you know I love habits. I’ve read so many books on habits it’s a little embarrassing – mostly because I still have some bad habits (Little Debbie, anyone?). Nonetheless, leaders with leadership presence have crafted good habits in their lives to develop themselves.
Imagine a leader with a presence who stumbles. They mess up. Everyone knows about their big mistake, and they don’t know what to do about it.
Leadership presence says they admit the mistake and move on. But what if their habit is to wallow in the error and drag it out? They stumble and spend the next month on the couch eating pints of Ben & Jerry’s (The Tonight Dough, please) and binging Netflix. That’s a terrible habit – one that continued leadership presence does not thrive on.
So, if you want to have a leadership presence, you must develop good habits and break bad habits. You might develop a habit of practicing your superhero pose before social events. Or, you could create a habit of asking good questions and actually listening to the answers.
There are so many habits that could help your leadership presence! Find one that works for you and start it today – then start another when you’ve got that one down. Then another. And another. Always improve.
Put Your Presence to Use
When you develop leadership presence, you can’t hide it in your desk drawer and expect to only pull it out at the annual Christmas party. It doesn’t work that way.
Develop your leadership presence and use it daily. Chatting with a coworker in the break room? Listen to them speak. Giving a presentation in 10 minutes in front of the board? Superhero pose. Spilled your coffee? Relatable!
Leadership presence is a gift. Don’t develop it and put it away until you’re ready to use it. Use your leadership presence well and watch your influence soar, Superman.