Success is an achievement of something you planned to do. Though it differs from person to person, no one wouldn’t want to be successful. In our previous blogs of this series, we’ve already come across what success means to people and how to achieve it. We also briefly covered the steps and strategies one should adopt to succeed in what one does or achieve what one wants. We also had a quick glance over the PIP way toward success, which is presence, influence, and persuasion.  This week, we’ll look into the concept of presence more deeply. By the end of this article, you’ll have good information about what it is and how useful it is.

P in PIP doesn’t just stand for presence but executive presence. Executive presence has been a tough word to be defined in simple words and has been confused with leadership styles by quite a lot of people. The term initially emerged in Sylvia Ann Hewlett’s book, The Sponsor Effect. Executive presence is actually the inspiring quality- making your co-workers confident and be the leader they want to follow. It is the ability to act effectively while incorporating prototypical elements of leadership. Think of a leader, who inspires the employees and gains their trust with very minimal effort. That’s exactly what happens in executive presence.

 Though it might seem like an ability that one’s born with, it’s an important skill that can be achieved with hard work. When a leader implements his executive presence, the people are likely to listen, inspire and know their authority in the room. It is like the aura that drives people toward you. The one with signifying executive presence quality implements quality work in the workspace and has little stress during tough times and is confident in his/ her own personal aura. With executive presence, you are able to reflect on yourself. It gives you a sense of fulfillment and strength in your inner being. As we are connected to our inner being, strengthening our inner being directs our aura to a more positive one thereby affecting or contributing to changes in people around us too.

According to research conducted by Gavin R Dagley and Cadyren J Gaskin in  2014, it was found that characteristics such as status and reputation, physical appearance, projected confidence, communication ability, engagement skills, interpersonal integrity, values-in-action, intellect and expertise, outcome delivery ability, and coercive power, etc affect the Executive presence of an individual.

Do you think it’s very important to have an executive presence or will it be okay even if you don’t possess those qualities? Well, if you ask me, I’ll definitely say yes. Be it natural, born with or acquired, or learned, the conceptual understanding of executive presence and its effective implementation is defined as necessary for both personal and professional success. 

Sylvia Hewlett strongly opinions that a leader without this quality will definitely have a hard time acquiring attention and may struggle to progress in their career despite having achieved the necessary qualifications. It had been an important prerequisite for an important position in an organization, as a leader with the qualities of executive presence can truly inspire the people and lead the organization towards success. The leader will have the magical power to transform self-doubts into self-assurance, morale, and the ability to level up the organization. Suzanne Bates in 2019 suggested that to lead an organization effectively executive presence isn’t a nice-to-have, but a must-have quality. 

The three main dimensions of executive presence according to her are 

1. Character: character is the foundation of every person’s inner core. As a leader in an organization, it’s not just your personal values you should discover, but also of the members whom you’re leading, and should have a characteristic equilibrium so that malfunction is reduced.

2. Style: Style is the observable characteristic one notices of you. It’s basically the first impression people have about you regarding your way of talking, acting, mannerisms, way you dress, etc. If the ones you lead discover a dissonance between these factors, they may doubt your efficiency and find it hard to follow your orders.

3. Substance: It refers to the internal qualities one must possess as a leader. As a leader, he/she is expected to be wise, confident, composed, and strategic as well as attuned to the needs and concerns of their stakeholders

But, how do understand if you have some or all qualities of a person with EP, that is executive presence? If you have some of them how do maintain and develop the executive presence in oneself? Take a look at the following qualities or characteristics of executive presence and analyze yourself.

1. Composure

Composure comprises qualities like self-awareness and discipline. Self-awareness is the ability of the individual to have awareness and control of one’s own actions, thoughts, and emotions.

2. Confidence

Only the person confident in oneself can lead other individuals toward success. To be able to inspire and motivate others, one should rely on self and be confident about it. You should be able to make wise decisions and should have risk-taking qualities at vital times

3. Connection

It basically addresses the interpersonal and intrapersonal connections you make. Interpersonal relationships in the workspace encourage productivity, foster teamwork, and also promote effective communication

4. Credibility

Now that you’ve established quality relationships with your coworkers, credibility is how you communicate with them or the method you adopt for effective communication. Language, resources, and be specific and certain about the information you pass on are very important factors to be considered in credibility. People are less likely to listen to an employee when if he adopts the correct method of communication due to a lack of specificity or language.

5. Character

There’s an old saying which says, ‘ If wealth is lost, nothing is lost. ‘ ‘If health is lost, something is lost. ‘ ‘If a character is lost, everything is lost. ‘ character refers to the inner traits of an individual. It also includes his/ her values and beliefs of himself, others, and the world around him. High emotional intelligence in leaders ( Look into our previous blog, to get a deeper idea about emotional intelligence) paves an easier way for them to connect with employers and influence their work.

6. Command

It refers to the ability of the person to lead the team efficiently. From making decisions to executing plans, a leader definitely plays a vital role. With good commanding skills, every person in the room will listen to you and pay attention to things you address which adds up to better functioning of the group.

7. Charisma

Charisma is the ability to be enthusiastic, optimistic, and appealing to others so that you encourage them toward your goal and you inspire them to achieve what they should actually do. A charismatic personality may help the workers do the work without much pressure and with a lot of involvement.

After analyzing the above topics, have you found out the qualities you possess for being an effective executive presence? Don’t worry if you lack some of them. With constant efforts and practice, one can earn these qualities. Now. You’ll probably be looking forward to the steps to achieve those right?

 You can cultivate the same with training and practicing the below-mentioned criterion.

1. Look for a wider perspective 

Being an individual aimed at mastering executive presence, you should be ready to think out of the box. You should be able to think big and wide and should be able to take into consideration the 

perspectives of the whole organization.

2. Be ready to take risks

Taking risks doesn’t mean taking risks without thinking about them or without planning. All the risks taken should be strategically planned. Be ready to break the shackles of self-imposed limitations and move out of your own comfort zones.

3. Start developing stable interpersonal relationships 

It’s very important to establish strong interpersonal relationships with people around you, especially co-workers, bosses, leaders, etc. This lets you understand others more and helps you in taking a wise decision that benefits you and other people.

4. Constantly seek to improve yourselves 

No individual is perfect and everyone’s constantly trying to improve oneself day by day. You should be proactively open to feedback both positive and critical. You should invest yourself in trying to improve yourself more and more every day

Well, these might not be the actual steps that you should follow to master the skill of executive presence but these are the steps or the tips that you should keep in mind while trying to acquire or master the same. Executive presence can play a major role in the success of your career. As to be an effective leader of the organization, it’s imperative to cultivate the right skills. Now that we’ve discussed the first factor, P which is executive presence, you may have obtained a clear idea of the same. In the coming week, we’ll be discussing the second factor, I, Influence. We have just started our journey to success and we have a long way to go, aren’t you all with me on this journey? 

Key takeaways

• Executive presence is that inspiring quality that an individual possesses so as to inspire people toward the desired goal
• The three dimensions of EP according to Suzanne abates, 2019 are character, substance, and style.
• Qualities necessary for executive presence are the 7 C’s, composure, confidence, connection, credibility, character, command, and charisma.
• Steps involved in developing EP include,

 a) Looking for a wider perspective,

 b) B ready to take risks,

 c) developing stable interpersonal relationships 

d) constantly try to improve yourself