The Executive Presence Wheel

Executive presence breaks into eight components you can work on separately

Executive presence has a reputation for being unteachable, a quality people either walk in with or spend a career approximating. That reputation survives mainly because the term is used as a single undifferentiated thing. When you are told you need more of it, there is nothing specific to go and do.

Breaking it into components fixes that. The wheel below builds on Sylvia Ann Hewlett's work on executive presence and splits it into eight, grouped into how you show up and what you deliver. Eight named components give you something a single verdict never does, which is a place to start.

How you show up

Energy. Bringing authentic energy and visible interest in the thing you are talking about. The common failure is a flat delivery of material you actually care about, which reads to the room as indifference you do not feel.

Confidence. Steady composure and a clear voice, and the removal of hedging. Most hedging is habit rather than genuine uncertainty, and it costs more than people realize because listeners cannot tell the two apart.

Assertiveness. Taking a position. Holding strong opinions loosely, and being willing to give a decisive answer when one is needed rather than convening further discussion.

Appearance. In practice this is now mostly about remote presence. Camera at eye level, light on your face, audio that does not tire people out, and a backdrop that is not doing any talking of its own. This is the least interesting component and the cheapest to fix.

What you deliver

Communication. Being clear enough that people can act on what you said. Cutting the buzzwords, and staying connected to the audience in front of you rather than delivering the version you prepared.

Strategic thinking. Leading rather than managing. Zooming out far enough to see the shape of the thing, and resisting urgency well enough that the important work gets attention.

Execution. Delivering through other people, applying leverage rather than effort, and running meetings that produce decisions.

Relationships. Built on trust, and built with the organization's interests ahead of your own, internally and externally.

Reading your own wheel

The two halves fail differently and are worth diagnosing separately. Someone strong on what they deliver and weak on how they show up delivers a great deal and is repeatedly passed over, usually with feedback so vague it cannot be acted on. Someone strong on how they show up and weak on delivery carries a room and does not survive contact with the second year of a job.

The gravitas-related components, meaning energy, confidence and assertiveness, tend to carry more weight in how senior people are assessed than communication does, and considerably more than appearance. That is worth knowing when you decide where to spend your attention, because appearance is the component people reach for first, being the one you can fix on a Saturday.

One thing to try this week

Score yourself out of ten on each of the eight, then ask one person who has seen you in senior settings to score you on the same eight without seeing your numbers. The gap between the two sets is more useful than either one alone, and it is usually largest on the components in how you show up, which are the ones you cannot observe yourself.

Pick one low component and work only on that one. Trying to raise all eight produces a general intention to be more impressive, which changes nothing. If you are not sure where to start, start with the hedging, because it is the most visible, the most fixable, and you will have several chances to practice before Friday.