Insights / Professional & Executive Communication
What is executive presence, and how do you build it?
Executive presence is the experience others have of your clarity, composure, judgment and follow-through when the situation carries consequence. People can follow your thinking, hear a steady response and know what should happen next. It can be strengthened through practice. It is not one personality type.
The situation
A new role and the pressure to know everything.
A learner had moved into a leadership role while still learning the product and the business. She was putting pressure on herself to have all the answers.
Executive presence is not loudness, status or a rehearsed persona.
The breakdown
Presence shows in what you make easier for others.
Presence becomes visible through what you make easier for other people: understanding, decisions and action.
It weakens when the point arrives late, when pace and tone tighten under challenge, or when nobody knows what should happen next.
What I work on
Updates and pushback, practiced.
With that learner, I practiced team updates and responses to pushback. This was role-play in our sessions, not a report from her workplace.
I worked on the structure of her message, her tone and her body language: stating the point early, keeping pace and tone steady when challenged, and closing with an agreed next step.
Practice
Rehearse one update and one challenge.
- Write the point of your next update in one sentence.
- Say it aloud, then add only the context that matters.
- Ask someone to push back. Answer the concern before defending.
- Close with the decision, owner or next step.
More questions
More about executive presence.
Can executive presence be learned?
Yes. Many visible behaviors can be developed through diagnosis, simulation, feedback and repetition: concise framing, steady pace, relevant evidence, active listening, response control and clear follow-through.
How is executive presence coaching different from public-speaking practice?
A presentation is one setting. Executive presence also shows up when you explain a decision, respond to disagreement or give a short update. Professional & Executive Communication coaching practices these exchanges. C-Suite Communication focuses on board, investor and senior stakeholder conversations.
Keep going
Related reading.
Arjun Lyngdoh · Founder and lead coach of NESkills, with 21+ years of communication training. About Arjun
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