Finally, an Actionable Definition of Executive Presence

TLDR: You must have and demonstrate Business Savvy (business, financial and strategic acumen) if you want to be perceived of as having the elusive quality of "executive presence." It's the message that makes the difference.

The important thing to realize and understand is what is executive presence? Most of what's written about it will not serve you because there's no differentiation between skills and abilities that are needed for a preacher or a doctor or a politician and an executive.

Defining Executive Presence

That's why, when I decided to help women work on their executive presence, in my nerdy way, I had to come up with a definition that was actionable. So here's my definition. Ambitious women like you have found useful as they work on this skill set and how they're perceived.

Executive presence is the ability to comfortably draw and hold attention while delivering a business-savvy message.

Most all of the advice about executive presence is all about the first part of that definition, the ability to draw and hold attention and nobody in my research has talked about executive presence being differentiated from any other kind of presence by virtue of having to include business savvy messaging.

And this is where the very important tie between executive presence, The Missing 33% and Business Savvy comes in.

Business Savvy and Executive Presence

It's only possible to deliver business savvy messaging if you are adept at business, strategic and financial acumen. All of the other advice about posture and tone of voice and gestures mean nothing in if you can't deliver a business savvy message.

On the other hand, there are many women, Fortune 500 CEOs who have not had the polish that one would expect, but could credibly speak about the business of the business, its financial story and strategy.

So while both are important, if you had to choose one, I would go for business savvy messaging.

Luckily you don't.

You can work on your ability to comfortably draw and hold attention and your ability to deliver a business savvy message.

Speak to Your Audience

Another key component is the ability to shape that business savvy message to your audience. So a quick example, tapping one of my favorite quotes by anonymous. (No, not the internet hacking group.)

" No one cares the storms you encounter, they only care did you bring in the ship."

What I mean by that is no one cares about how hard you work or all the details that you considered. They care about how what you say means to them.

That's why if you're trying to deliver a business savvy message, you have to pitch it to the lens through which your audience is looking.

For example, if the audience is your boss, the lens is, how does this help me be successful in the broadest and best meaning of that phrase. How does this help me move my teams and the organization forward? And then the further up you go in the organization, the more the meaning shifts to what's the impact of this on the organization? What's the impact of this on its financials? What's the impact  of this, on its strategy?

Let's Recap

So executive presence, three major elements.

1. The ability to draw on hold attention -that touches on all the conventional advice about posture, attire, tone of voice, eye contact, et cetera.
2. Delivering a business savvy message, which reiterates yet again the importance of The Missing 33% business, strategic and financial acumen.
3. Pitching the content to your audience and the lenses through which they are looking.

#ExecutivePresence

Catch you next time

Susan

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