When savvy companies launch new products, they connect those products with likable and respectable figures. This explains why brands enter endorsement deals with popular athletes and actors and actresses. To the extent that the actresses’ or athlete’s brand is strong, they’re able to drive consumers to the company.
Personal finance guru, Dave Ramsey, who helps consumers get out of debt, promotes products by promoting the people connected to those products. Among his many financial management tools is the course, Financial Peace, a mobile budgeting app titled Every Dollar, a podcast, Retire Inspired with Chris Hogan, and a host of books and other resources. Each tool is driven by a Ramsey personality, someone connected to the Dave Ramsey franchise. For instance, the personality connected to Financial Peace, the bread and butter of the business, is Dave Ramsey. The person connected to the Every Dollar mobile budgeting app is Rachel Cruze, and the person connected to the product to help people prepare for retirement is Chris Hogan. Ramsey undoubtedly knows that if consumers connect with a figure they like and respect, then they are more likely to invest in the product.
In the same way that savvy companies connect products to personalities, progressive companies hire executives who can connect with others by demonstrating executive or leadership presence.
Executive presence is clarity of vision and values, conviction and confidence. Leaders with executive presence are both vulnerable and authentic. They self-disclose shortcomings and prior mistakes to help create safe and supportive work environments; environments where people are comfortable making and learning from mistakes.
Leaders with executive presence are self-reflective. They think about how their behavior affects others. They think critically about whether their intentions align with impact. For instance, if their intent is to provide honest feedback to help team members improve, but they share the feedback without careful thought to timing and delivery, the impact could be discouraging the very staff person they intended to help. Leaders with leadership presence spend time in self-reflection, which helps them to better align their intent and impact. They give thought to things such as, “how do my peers, team members, board members and clients experience me?”
Show me a leader with executive presence and I’ll show you a leader who earns adoration from their team. Adoration and respect are the prerequisites for producing sustainable results since many people will execute a leader’s vision if they respect and relate to that leader and believe the leader values their contributions.
It’s incorrect to presuppose someone with a leadership title inherently has leadership presence. There are plenty of leaders who aren’t in touch enough with their own vision and values to live out those values or articulate them to their team.
In the absence of executive presence, it’s difficult to inspire team members to bring their best selves to the work. If they aren’t bringing the best or highest version of themselves to their work, they won’t consistently develop innovative ideas or solutions to challenges. They also won’t be inspired to execute a leader's or company’s vision. They won’t see themselves as the CEOs of their position, and such ownership is required to maintain morale, which then leads to increased productivity.
Executive presence then is the leadership currency that creates the conditions for results and long-term success. Without it, success will be episodic. Team members will see themselves as mechanical cogs on a wheel vs. architects of their fate. And will any of us perform well over the long run if we don’t feel we are making a substantial impact or difference? Probably not.
Clara Conti is a public speaker, leadership development expert and entrepreneur. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ClaraConti.