Strong & Wise

Those timid, docile, or even fearful in business settings will have a tough time climbing an organizational hierarchy or earning a seat at a boardroom table. These adjectives are not the characteristics of someone strong, wise, or commanding leadership.

The adjectives, strength, composure, and presence, however...

Those who have worked for organizations with a sense of culture and history have experienced leadership firsthand. What, who, and examples of how to get it. These experiences have led to several observations.

Leadership presence is a blend of skills that encompass perspective, communication, technical competencies, and temperament that encourage a sense of trust in a leader’s outlook and decision-making.

If you are looking to move up the ladder, a leadership presence is an essential set of attributes needed to develop, influence, and achieve success. You will often feel a sense of who is in charge and will be running a meeting as you walk into a room before the conference even begins. That sense you are feeling IS leadership presence.

It can be complicated when mentoring people on building their leadership presence. While similar characteristics make a notable executive, everyone has their unique persona and point of view.

Interestingly, this approach is that developing these skills is not only for those in leadership positions. Every one of us can improve upon each of them now.

Realistically, creating a solid leadership presence may be what separates you from getting noticed and selected for future opportunities.

Here are six basic routines to focus on developing your leadership presence:

Upper management within your company most likely dress with a bit of formality. If they know it or not, they set the standard for their colleagues and employees. Paying attention to these trends and mimicking them is a jumping-off point. Though, it is critical to implement your own sense of style.

Upon entering a meeting room, stop and scan the room before looking rushed heading into the door and grabbing a chair. Take inventory on who is in the room and intentionally choose your seat. It may just be next to the person who will promote or hire you next.

Concentrate on projecting your voice across the room without shouting. If you are a soft talker, making it challenging for everyone to hear, you may be asked to speak up. In specific settings, this can be embarrassing. It also destroys how confident you feel in the point you are making. Body language influences what others think and how secure we feel.

Those in leadership positions will speak up on important topics when the opportunity presents itself. You should do the same. If your style is to put some thought into an issue first, not to worry, form your opinion, and then contribute. However, be sure to conduct a bit of research ahead of time so that your views are productive and ready for dialogue.

Having a reputation for asking compelling questions on how an issue will, or could, change the course of action for clients, facility operators, colleagues, vendors, sponsors, etc., will help you troubleshoot and forecast issues about essential topics. Furthermore, you will also be noticed for having the interests of critical stakeholders top of mind.

Examples are, “I think...” or “You may have discussed this already but... .” Overusing certain qualifiers can make a statement sound borderline sluggish or lazy.

If you are ambitious and seek a promotion at your organization, think about your characteristics, and start building your leadership presence. Having a leadership presence will be a massive advantage in the future.