How to Develop Executive Presence and Command the Room With Confidence

How to develop executive presence and command the room at work. In this video, what I want to share with you are five very practical steps on how you can develop executive presence, no matter what your position is or your job title is in your company. But first let us talk a little bit about executive presence, right? This term is being thrown around a lot, right? We hear it on the internet, we hear it on certain blogs, we hear it inside of our heads as well as feeling the pressure to develop more of that executive presence. But what exactly is executive presence, right? And so I want to give this distinction. When we talk about executive presence, what we're referring to are a set of qualities, right? A set of qualities that you have that signals or illustrates very clearly to other people that you are in charge or at least that you deserve to be in charge, right? That is the distinction of what executive presence means. When it comes to having executive presence, there are two components. There's the outer components of executive presence. It's what people see. And then there is the inner component of executive presence. It's the presence that people can feel, right? So let's talk about the outer component. When it comes to the outer components of achieving those qualities of presence, what we're referring to is the action, communication and impression, right? So action, let's talk about action. Action is how you act. It is how you behave, what you choose to do, the decisions you choose to make. That is action. When it comes to communication, it's what you say, how you say it, right? How persuasive are you? And then finally, when it comes to impression, I'm referring to your poise, your posture, your appearance. Those things factor into your executive presence and those make up the outer components. Now let's talk about the inner components of building executive presence. The inner components include things like confidence, credibility and control, right? So when I'm referring to control, I'm talking about self-control, right? Whereas the outer component of communications is interpersonal skills, self-control, which is the inner component, is intrapersonal skills. It's the skills of managing yourself, managing your emotions, managing your attitudes, managing your beliefs and your philosophies, your personal philosophies, right? So those are the two components when it comes to building your executive presence. You see, when we think of great leaders, right? We automatically associate somebody with humble confidence, natural confidence, but also with the ability to communicate a very deep level of knowledge in a way that comes across very understandable and clear, right? So when it comes to developing your executive presence, it's about being able to communicate and go seven layers deep with your domains of knowledge and being able to get your point across in a way that is persuasive, right? In a way that is clearly understandable. And also, more importantly, in a way that creates buy-in, it gets buy-in from people for your ideas and for selling what you want to sell, right? So that is the essence of how do we achieve and build personal executive presence. So here are five practical steps on how you can develop your executive presence. And by the way, I am starting with and ending with the most important. So step number one and step number five are the most important steps. So make sure you watch until the end. Okay. So step number one, practical step number one is to communicate with authority. This is about mastering your communication skills. It's about being able to speak to command the room, speak to be able to give insight, speak to be able to persuade and to shift their beliefs, but also speak to be able to connect with your audience, right? This is about how do you create great content. It's about how do you bring presence into the room, command the room with what you say. When you master your communication skills, that's what allows you the fluidity and the ability to command the room. So I encourage you first and foremost to watch my video that I created before right here. It's on this card. You'll see a link to my video right here on how to speak intelligently in the workplace. And then once you are ready to master your communication skillsets, this is where I can help you. I'm going to help you to master your communication skills. I'm going to help you to create insightful content. I'm going to help you to deliver that content very effectively and very clearly and succinctly. And I'm also going to help you with the poise, the posture, what to wear, how to show up, how do you develop that presence? If you're ready to take your communications to the next level and develop that executive presence, then I invite you to book a call with me, right? Below this video, their very first link in the description of the video, there is a link to book a call with me and you'll be speaking with me or a member of my team. And this is where you can explore. Is it the right fit for us to work together to help you to take your communications and your presence to the next level so that you can take your career to the next level? This is for you only if you're serious of becoming an executive in your company, of becoming a leader in your industry. If you're serious about that and you're ready to have the help to do so, this is not for you. If you're at the beginning of your career or if you're still a student or if you're a recent graduate, it's not for you if you are at the beginning stages of your career. So if you're serious and you're ready to receive the help to do so, then I'll look forward to see you on the inside. Step number two is to connect to build trust, right? Trust is a very foundational piece. When they trust you, they open up to you. When you trust them, you open up to them, right? It is a very reciprocal nature. Trust is earned, trust is built, but trust is earned within the first few moments of them meeting you and you meeting them. So it's very important when you connect, you are connecting to build trust. So you're setting the intention. One of the best ways to build trust, one of the best ways to connect with an individual to build trust is to ensure that you really connect with them on, first of all, a face to face level. What I mean by that is of course, to have eye contact, right? Oftentimes when I meet with individuals, when I meet with professionals, they have difficulty looking into someone else's eye when they are talking, especially when they want to share ideas, when they want to get buy-in from their ideas, they have a hard time looking at somebody and it feels very uncomfortable. And this is where it is really important that you connect with an individual. They want to know that you're serious. They want to know that you're talking to them. They want to know that this is a dialogue, this is a discussion and that you are comfortable and that you see them as your equal, as a colleague, as a peer, right? They want to know that you are there for them. They want to know that you're actually present. And so when you don't speak with eye contact, it actually feels like there's a lack of connection. It feels therefore immediately that there's a lack of trust and a lack of dishonest, a lack of honesty. Because one of the telltale signs of dishonesty is not being able to look someone else's in the eye, especially when you're sharing recommendations or something as important as a mission, a mission driven idea, right? So when you are, and this is also the same when you are presenting, when you are preparing a presentation, this is your opportunity to lose the script, right? And I get it. Sometimes for some of you who are watching this right now, you need to write everything out. How many of you can relate to that? Comment below. Are you the kind of person who needs to write out the entire script for your presentation, right from hello all the way to thank you for being here? Are you the person who needs to write all the talking points, who needs to have the cue cards in front of you or who needs to read from the podium, from papers? Is that you? So comment below. I want to hear from you. Right? So if that is you, it is very difficult to connect, to build trust. So lose the script, lose the notes, and to speak from the heart, speak from the truth, from the heart in connection with somebody else. So if you want to learn a little bit more how to do that, I've created a video on how to build rapport with your audience. Just watch that video right here. There's going to be a link to that video on how to build rapport, right? And that will give you some tips and advice on how you can connect with your audience. Step number three. Step number three is conduct through poise. So conduct is how you act, conduct yourself, how you present yourself, what you say and how you say it. That's all conducting, right? So conducting through poise. What is poise? Poise is having composure and presence of mind. So when I talk about composure, I'm really referring to how do you project natural self-confidence and how do you project gravitas, project gravitas. And that is in how you act because that's conducting, right? And so you are having composure and you're having presence of mind. Having presence of mind means that you have awareness of what's going on around you. It means that you have the presence to know what is working, what is not working in the moment. You have the presence to be able to flow, to be able to pivot and to be able to sense from your audience what they are sensing from you. Having presence of mind means also understanding how exactly are you reacting to other people? How are you perceiving other people? It's having that level of self-awareness, right? So when you conduct through poise, this will help you to build your executive presence because you are aware of yourself, your strengths, what you are putting out there, right? Your facial expressions, your projections, your beliefs, the way you act through your presence in other people. You are completely aware of that. When you are conducting through poise, it's building your executive presence also because you are continuously taking feedback. You are flowing. You're able to adopt. You're able to adjust based on real time feedback. And that is the mark of a leader to be able to lead and inspire based on what you see, based on your true awareness of what's happening around you. Step number four is to create a polished image, right? Let's face it. We live in a very fast paced world, especially in your industry. And some of you may be in industries that are super fast paced like tech, tech industries, IT, right? Even healthcare. That's a very fast moving industry. And when you are in a fast paced world, which we all are because a lot of it is online and things online are moving, are always constantly changing, are always constantly evolving. And because we're in such a fast paced world, we need to make decisions really quickly, especially decisions about other people, which is why whenever you meet someone for the first time in that first split second, your colleagues are going to be making judgments about you. They're going to be making snap judgments and conclusions about your likability, about your honesty, your level of competence, your morality, right? And your friendliness and trustworthiness. And these judgments are made very quickly because it is so fast paced and people need to adopt, to make decisions very quickly, to see whether or not you deserve to merit their attention or whether or not you have merited their respect or merited their listening, their ear towards you. So if you want to build your executive presence, you've got to create a polished image. This is about your appearance on the outside and no, I am not talking about hair and makeup. I'm not talking about wearing mini skirts or I'm not talking about necessarily the exact fashion statement that you're trying to make. I'm not talking about that. It's more than just that. It is about how do you create an image that exudes confidence. It's about how do you create an image where you give people the rest assurance that you know what you're talking about, that you understand the context of the environment you're in. And it's not about you want to fit in exactly like them, but that you have that natural confidence. So you see, this is not a polished image has nothing to do with physical attractiveness. And that's what we normally think about when we think about appearance. It's not about attractiveness in terms of what you were born with, physical qualities you were born with, or what you do with your physical qualities like putting hair or doing your hair and makeup is not about that. It is about what you do with what you have and how you optimize it. So if you want to learn more about that, I have created a video on how you can always look confident and polished, right? If you want to see that video, just click the link right here on the screen and it'll take you to the video, my video on how to always look confident and polished. Step number five and remember I said that this number five and number one were the most important. And by the way, if you resonate with what I'm saying, if you enjoyed this video, give me a thumbs up and remember to subscribe to my channel. Ring that bell as well, the bell below this video so that you can be notified every time I release a new video every single week, twice a week. So step number five on building executive presence is to conceive an executive identity. You conceive it. What you will imagine, what you will design yourself to become, who are you going to become? You got to believe first of all, that you can have executive presence. You got to believe first of all that you can have that executive identity. Because if you do not believe that, if your personal philosophy, if your expectations, if your identity, your own self identity is different from executive presence, if you don't believe that you can achieve it, then you will not become that which you do not believe you can do. Because we achieve that which we believe and not beyond that. It's kind of like having standards, right? We don't achieve our wildest dreams. We achieve our lowest standards. So what is it that you choose to believe? What is the identity you want to create for yourself? Up until now, most people are living life by default, the identity they've created for themselves. They'd have allowed others to shape that identity. They've allowed their past to be chosen for them for many things and being unaware of what their values are. This is your opportunity to instead of living life by design, instead of living life by default, that you are living life by design, that you are becoming the person you want to become by design and not by default. So conceive your executive identity. Who are you going to become? What does that look like? How are you going to show up? What is your presence? How are you going to speak? What's it going to sound like? How are people going to perceive you? How are you going to perceive yourself? So conceive your executive identity. Now comment below, what are the steps you're going to take in the next month? How are you going to build that executive identity? How are you going to build that executive presence? Which one is the most important one that you're going to work on? You got to start somewhere. I look forward to hanging out with you again in my next video.