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The power of presence

Executive Presence: The Missing Link Between Merit and Success, by Sylvia Ann Hewlett

IS AN executive position part of your career goal? Do you have the necessary skill and experience? Are you wondering why you are not there yet?

The subtitle of this immensely useful book is The Missing Link Between Merit and Success. Based on my 22 years of working closely with people in executive positions, I know she has hit the mark – executive presence (EP) is the missing link.

This is not the first book on looking and sounding like an executive; there have been many before. However, Sylvia Hewlett’s take on this issue rings true whereas other books I have read left me with a discomfort that something is missing from the explanation.

There are two reasons for trusting this book. The first is that Dr Hewlett lived the problem she has tackled in this book. The second is that she has been able to do a piece of credible research that turns the “woolly and elusive concept” of EP into a clear, securely founded, practical model.

“Which is why I wrote this book,” she explains.

Dr Hewlett grew up in a Welsh mining community, had few clothes, no social graces and spoke English with a thick working-class accent. Despite her formidable intelligence, she failed her interview for a place at Oxford University even though she had qualified, because she was so inappropriately dressed for the situation. (Not knowing any better, she had dressed like the Queen Mother!)

She also qualified for Cambridge University and after the interview, at which she dressed more appropriately, was accepted into the university.

She taught economics at Barnard College (associated with Colombia University) where she initially had difficulty convincing anyone she was a professor and not a student, and was not taken seriously by faculty.

Aged 27 - very young for such a position - she had waist-long hair and wore flowing ethnic skirts. “I now understand that my early struggles to command attention and respect in lecture halls and faculty meetings did not centre on content or delivery (I was a clear, crisp speaker and knew my material cold), but rather centred on the way I presented myself.”

If the first reason for trusting this book is the author’s personal experience, the second is the research conducted through the Centre for Talent Innovation, where Dr Hewlett is president and CEO.

Her research team conducted a national survey involving nearly 4 000 college-educated professionals. Included in the cohort were 268 senior executives. The research aimed to ascertain what co-workers and executives look for when they evaluate an employee’s EP.

Without executive presence, no one attains a top position, lands an extraordinary deal or develops a significant following. Executive presence is not a measure of the person’s ability and performance - rather, it is a measure of the image you project - that you “have what it takes, that you are star material”.

Each year the Concert Artists Guild hosts an international competition. From an applicant pool of 350 instrumentalists and singers from all over the world, 12 extraordinary young musicians are brought to the Merkin Concert Hall in New York City where a distinguished jury judges the finalists.

What emerges with regularity is the importance of non-musical factors in the final judgement. Did the musician smile, exhibit confidence, make eye contact with the audience, and so on?

The world of work is no different.

Executive presence comprises three pillars that apply across all industries, all business types and all economies. The specifics differ vastly. What is required in a high-end law firm is not the same as in a chain of supermarkets, a hospital or a marketing firm.

The three pillars are “Gravitas”  - how you act, “Communication” - how you speak, and “Appearance” - how you look.
 
These pillars are not of equal importance. “Gravitas” was identified as mattering most by 67% of the 268 executive in the survey. “Gravitas” implies knowing your field exceptionally well.

“Appearance” might seem to be highly important from my introduction to this column, but it is not, rating only 5% of what makes up executive presence. “Communication” was rated 28%.   

Gravitas is not only projecting intellectual horsepower, but also having the confidence and credibility to get heard and accepted. Gravitas has six components.

Grace under fire
 
The first is confidence and projecting “grace under fire”. It is when under attack that this element of EP shows. We know we are in the presence of a leader when he or she remains calmly in control in the most difficult of circumstances.

Then there is decisiveness, holding to a carefully thought-through position and being threatening if necessary. Behind this is integrity, being able to “speak truth to power”, where others are not.  

While decisiveness and confidence signal conviction, when courage and resolve in a leader are not accompanied by empathy they look like egotism, arrogance and insensitivity.

A leader’s reputation needs to be nurtured and guarded because it goes before one has even appeared.

Finally, leaders need a vision.

Effective communication, the second pillar of executive presence, is critical. As I have written a number of times in the column, a brilliant idea poorly presented sounds like a poor idea.
 
A great comfort emerges form the research conclusions on Appearance, the third pillar of executive presence. Appearance is defined as “grooming and polish” rather than “physical attractiveness” or “body type”, according to the respondents.

These, fortunately, can be corrected where “physical attractiveness” or “body type” usually cannot.

“Crack the EP code (and) you’ll be first in line for the next plum assignment and be given a chance of doing something extraordinary with your life,” asserts Dr Hewlett. To do that, read this book.

It is an easy read full of accounts of familiar business executives and other leaders, and will keep you engaged as you learn this most crucial lesson.

Readability:   Light -+--- Serious
Insights:       High -+--- Low
Practical :      High -+--- Low

*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works. Views expressed are his own.

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