What Does Executive Presence Mean For The Modern Leader?

This was the exact question asked by one of my clients a couple of weeks ago, and it got me thinking. When I wrote a book on the topic of executive presence, it was 2015. A lot has happened since then, and my view now is this:

Emotional intelligence is front and centre. There’s a lot within this, but what humans crave more than ever in a post-Covid business world is connection with other human beings. Connection starts with paying attention - being fully present - and I’ve talked repeatedly about the bad habits which exist here. Self-awareness, a willingness to flex our behaviour to serve the discussion or relationship, curiosity, and a growth mindset are all elements of being able to connect with others.

Gravitas. I call that the ‘walking in a room and inspiring that “I’ll follow you anywhere” response in others’. Being credible, being consistent, being pragmatic, optimistic, practical and gracious under pressure all feature.

Exquisite communication skills. Being a translator of technical expertise into a relevant message, being a synthesiser of wide ranging discussion to target the most important components, being concise and compelling, being able to command attention but not demand attention, in any environment and with any size audience.


To find out more about how Sarah helps leaders at all stages of their career strengthen their executive presence, visit the What We Can Help With section on our website.

Written by Sarah Brummitt, Executive Coach and Leadership Development Expert

Here’s What Happens When Leaders Try To Be Influential Across Their Business

Over the past year I’ve been working with smart, engaging leaders who are operating in an environment of relentless change, ambiguity, and commercial pace. They have a lot to do; work across multiple teams and complexities and have little time in which to do it. They are technical experts, hard-working, run teams, may operate in multiple languages and all are certainly passionate about what they do.

So, what’s the problem? In essence:

• We don’t make the time to think through exactly what we’re trying to say to persuade others and be influential.
• We believe we don’t need to really think about it (always a mistake).
• We rely on our natural ability to be articulate (which tends towards talking too much and with the wrong focus).
• We fall back on in-depth technical expertise (which is almost never persuasive of itself).
• We ignore the reality that we go slower as a result, we make life harder for ourselves and our teams as a result, and we may not achieve the expected performance, as a result.
• We blame others, or circumstances (rather exercise sufficient curiosity to hone our own skills).

Being influential is a rich set of technical communication skills which require deliberate consideration and relentless practice to get it right.

And we help leaders around the world with that.

To find out more contact Sarah at sarah@sarahbrummitt.com