In this leadership coaching video, the speaker addresses managers who have been told to "elevate their executive presence" and clarifies what that truly means. Executive presence is framed not merely as a polished outward appearance but as a combination of mindset, behavior, and leadership style that empowers, inspires, and builds trust. The speaker emphasizes that confidence is the foundational trait: a confident leader knows their strengths, projects belief in their abilities, remains teachable, and handles conflict, decisions, and communication in a way that instills confidence in others. The talk also contrasts effective executive presence with negative examples—senior managers who talk down, create drama, or disengage—showing how such behavior erodes respect, trust, and willingness to follow. Throughout, the speaker promises practical tips and strategies to develop these qualities, positioning executive presence as essential for both career advancement and effective leadership at home and work.
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When a manager receives feedback that they need to elevate their executive presence, the first question that they come to me for and ask is, what does that mean exactly? More often than not, they're viewing it solely as the ability to gain respect from others, influencing others to follow them, or being actionable and results-oriented. Some view it from a single lens of it. It's all about how they present themselves physically and emotionally. Now, it's all of that, but it's also so much more. It's all about the mindset, behavior, and leadership style of an individual. It's about their ability to empower, inspire, motivate, and influence trust, engagement, and ultimately outcomes from those around them. So we will be diving into all of it so you're focused on the right thing before you even receive feedback that you need to elevate your executive presence, or maybe you've received it and you wanna understand exactly what you need to be doing in order to address it and be successful in your work and in your life. If you were to witness a senior manager talking down to their people, maybe creating drama in meetings, or completely tuned out from the conversation you're trying to have from with them, what whether that's one-on-one or even in a group, would you have a lot of respect for them? Would you trust them? Would you want to model that for yourself as an example of strong leadership? Would you follow them into a burning building feeling confident that they have your back, they're going to know how to get out of that situation and even support you on the other side? Well, probably not. And so I really wanna walk through what it means for you and for others when it comes to executive presence. And if you have ever received feedback as far as you need to elevate your executive presence and it, if you wanna move to the next level, or that's the reason that they're giving you as far as why you're not elevating up, well, you wanna know for sure. Exactly what does that look like? What does that mean? When you say elevate my executive presence, Mr. Boss, Mrs. Boss, what exactly do you mean by that? Can you paint me a picture? So I wanna paint you a picture. I wanna paint you a picture of someone who exudes executive presence. And so you can take on these traits and qualities and kind of get rid of that reasoning. For you not being elevated or advanced or given opportunities. At the same time, I think that there are strong traits and qualities for just being a leader in your work and life. So let's look at it for both the reason of career advancement, but also let's look at it as these are traits and qualities that any leader should have in their home and in the workplace. All right, so let's start kind of summarizing what they are, and then I wanna give you some tips and strategies for what you can do about it. All right, the first one would be confident. Someone with executive presence is confident. They know themselves well enough, uh, to project the fact that they believe in their skill, they believe in their intelligence, they believe in their capability, they believe in their talent and expertise and experiences, and they feel very self-assured that even if they don't, and even if they aren't an expert and they don't know everything, that they're confident that they can learn it. They're confident that they're teachable, coachable, and, and they convey that very easily just by the way they go about dealing with issues, uh, handling conflict, making decisions, communicating. Opportunities or challenges and also inspiring confidence in others. So confidence would be kind of the foundation for me when it comes to executive presence.
