The Executive Presence Wheel

Make executive presence specific enough to improve

If you've been told you need more executive presence, ask for an example. Which meeting? What did you do? What would the person have needed from you to make the decision easier?

A broad judgment leaves too much room for guesswork. The Executive Presence Wheel gives you eight components to examine, grouped into how you show up and what you deliver. Choose the component that is getting in the way of your work and practice a specific change.

I've sat through conference talks where the content was useful and the delivery made it difficult to take in. The speaker used a monotone, put too much text on the slides and turned away from the audience to read them. The material deserved a clearer presentation.

That is a practical place to begin. Help the people in front of you understand your thinking, make a decision and know what happens next. You can improve those behaviors without trying to become someone else.

At a glance

• The wheel breaks executive presence into eight components, grouped into how you show up (Be) and what you deliver (Do).
• Assessments of presence reflect expectations in a particular setting and can carry bias, so use the wheel for development with specific examples and more than one observer.
• Choose the one component that is getting in the way of your work, practice a specific change and get feedback before adding another development goal.

Understand the wheel's origin and limits

The wheel builds on Sylvia Ann Hewlett's work on executive presence. Her research with the Center for Talent Innovation, now Coqual, described gravitas, communication and appearance. My teaching expands that into the eight components shown here.

In CTI's 2013 report, 67 percent of the 268 senior executives surveyed chose gravitas as the core characteristic, reflecting their judgments within a corporate-sponsored study fielded in 2012. The report also described contradictory feedback and pressures on women and people of color to conform.

Use that history carefully. Assessments of presence reflect expectations in a particular setting and can carry bias. I would use the wheel for development, with specific examples and more than one observer, and keep promotion decisions tied to the requirements and evidence of the role.

Look at the eight components together

The wheel puts four components under Be, which is how you show up, and four under Do, which is what you deliver. The sections below take each one in turn.

Bring useful energy to the conversation

Energy means visible interest in the work and the people involved. If your delivery sounds detached from a decision you consider important, make the importance clear in your words and attention.

You can do that quietly. Explain why the issue matters, look at the people you're speaking with and vary your pace enough for the key point to be heard. Ask a question that shows you want to understand their response.

Prepare for the setting. If you're presenting after a long day of meetings, rehearse the opening aloud and remove material the audience doesn't need. Give yourself enough time to arrive ready to engage.

Be clear about your judgment and its basis

Confidence means you can state a view and explain what supports it. Remove habitual phrases that obscure a recommendation, while keeping uncertainty that genuinely affects the decision.

If the forecast depends on an assumption, say which assumption matters and how you'll check it. Then recommend the action you think the business should take. Your audience should be able to distinguish your judgment from the evidence behind it.

When you don't know an answer, identify who can resolve it and when. If you get something wrong, correct it directly. Composure includes being able to update your position without treating the correction as a threat.

Take a position when the work needs one

Assertiveness means contributing your view and making a decision when it's yours to make. If you've been asked for a recommendation, give one before walking through all the possible alternatives.

Explain the trade-off. Tell the group which option you recommend, what it costs and what would make you reconsider. Invite a challenge while there is still time to use it.

In a group, make room for other views without withdrawing your own. If someone interrupts, finish the point calmly and return to the question. If the decision belongs elsewhere, say who needs to make it and what you need from them.

Make remote participation easy

Appearance in this wheel has a practical emphasis on video meetings. Check that your camera, lighting, sound and background let other people follow you comfortably.

Test the setup you'll actually use. Listen to a short recording, check that your face is visible and put the material you need where you can reach it without disappearing from the conversation. Choose a setup that supports the kind of meeting you're leading.

Keep feedback in this area connected to participation and the job. A request for clearer audio is specific and useful. A vague preference about how a leader ought to look needs much closer examination.

Explain the decision in language people can use

Communication begins with knowing what the audience needs. Are you asking for approval, giving direction or exploring a problem? Say that near the start.

Organize the material around the decision. Give the recommendation, the reasons that matter and the trade-off. Put supporting detail where it can answer a question without crowding the main explanation.

Check understanding before you finish. Ask someone to describe the next step or the decision in their own words. If the answer differs from what you intended, clarify it while everyone is still present.

Show the wider business judgment

Strategic thinking means considering how a decision affects the business beyond the immediate request. Ask what you are choosing to prioritize, what you'll stop doing and which assumptions make the plan workable.

When you present a departmental proposal, explain its effect on the other teams that must deliver it. Include the constraint they are likely to raise and the decision you need to resolve it.

Protect time to examine those questions before urgency fills the meeting. A useful contribution may be identifying that the team is solving a symptom or committing resources without agreeing which outcome matters most.

Deliver through clear ownership and follow-through

Execution is part of presence because colleagues experience your leadership after the meeting. They need to know who owns the work, what authority they have and when a problem should come back to you.

Delegate the outcome with enough context for the person to make decisions. Agree the checkpoints and leave room for them to choose how to do the work. If you retain an approval, respond in time for the commitment you've asked them to keep.

Run meetings so that decisions survive them. Record the owner, the next action and the date. Review the commitments that need attention and resolve the obstacles within your authority.

Build relationships across the business

Relationships help you understand what other people need and how your decisions affect them. Make time to learn the pressures on colleagues outside your immediate function.

Keep your commitments, share relevant information and raise concerns with the person who can address them. Give credit when their work improves your result. If a decision benefits your area at someone else's expense, discuss that openly.

You don't need to agree on everything to work well together. You do need a way to challenge a proposal, understand the response and continue cooperating after a difficult decision.

Choose one component and practice it

Try this

1. Ask two people who have seen you in relevant settings for examples. Give them the wheel and ask which component would most improve your effectiveness in those situations. Request a description of something you did and a practical alternative.
2. Compare their answers with your own view. If they disagree, examine the settings before averaging the scores. You may communicate well in a small meeting and struggle when presenting to a larger group.
3. Use these questions to choose your practice:
   • Where does my audience have to work too hard to understand me?
   • When do I leave my recommendation unclear?
   • Which commitment needs better follow-through?
   • What useful behavior have observers seen me repeat?
   • Which change can I practice in the next two weeks?
4. Pick one upcoming meeting. Prepare the change, ask someone to observe it and get specific feedback afterwards.
5. Repeat the change in the next relevant setting before adding another development goal.

Sources

• Executive Presence: Key Findings

  Center for Talent Innovation, now Coqual, 2013. Survey fielded in 2012; includes senior executive perceptions and findings about unequal expectations.