Bernadette BoasExecutive Leadership Coach, Trainer and Speaker, Ball of Fire Coaching · Become the Leader Everyone Wants to Follow and No One Can Overlook.

Effective Leadership Beyond Tasks, Focus on Presence

6 May 2026 · 2 min

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2:04

In this segment, the speaker explores the concept of "showing up" as a leader, clarifying that true presence means being proactively available to team members even without explicit requests. He emphasizes that leaders should offer guidance, coaching, risk mitigation, and motivation while allowing autonomy, and must also be responsive when team members do reach out. A key nuance highlighted is the need to discern whether an employee's outreach—via email, text, Teams, or phone—actually requires a response, ensuring that leaders respond appropriately to genuine follow‑up requests rather than every contact.

Chapters

I'll often be asked about presence, about showing up, being there for a team, trying to break down the confusion that one has about what it truly means, not to them, but actually to the people around them when someone says you need to show up. So what does it mean to show up? Think about that. What do you think it means to show up and be present for your team? Well, for me, it means that you are there for your people, even when you're not asked. And what I mean by that is, even though they can work independently, even though you give them an assignment and they go off and they know what to do and how to do it and when it's due and whatnot, you are always letting them know that you're there for any issues, any problems, any risks. Any advice, any guidance, any coaching, any development, any motivation, you know, basically anything that you're there for them without them having to be the ones to initiate that request. At the same time, you're also responsive to them when they do reach out. Now, this is a really big stickler for many people and for me as an executive coach. I'll often be told that an employee will reach out multiple times via email, via text, via Teams, via phone call, and they won't hear back. They won't get a response from their leader. And at first, trigger is that that is very unacceptable, but Before I get there, I have to be sure that that individual is asking for a response, is requiring a follow-up, and has something in the context of what it is that they're looking for to trigger a response from their leader.