Developing a Sense of Executive Presence

A Fortune 500 company promoted a seasoned vice president to the C-Suite. How does he transition his leadership style and broaden his messages to appeal to the entire company? 

DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY

A Fortune 500 company promoted a seasoned vice president to the C Suite. The executive had been successful running the sales and marketing division, but he didn't have a lot of credibility in other areas of the company. The corporate communications director wanted to help the executive broaden his reach and gain credibility across all divisions. Within the first six months of his new role, the executive would address several internal audiences. It was an opportunity to broaden the scope of his message and develop a solid presence in his new position.

GOAL

The corporate communications director hired SW&A to help the executive evaluate his style as a leader, rather than a leading sales manager. While he had great energy, he needed to gain more presence on his feet. He would also have to shift his message away from sales tactics to a broader vision that included the entire company.

STRATEGY

Our first step was to define the executive's much broader audience within the company. In order to pull in the entire company with his messages, he need a better sense of key constituents...their priorities, challenges and expectations.

Raise the Bar. He also needed to raise expectations of himself and what he should accomplish in key speaking situations. Within six months, the audiences would be much larger and the impressions more lasting. It would take time and energy to improve his skills, and he needed to see value in commanding a presence on his feet.

Paint a Picture. We also shifted his approach to content. Rather than giving the audience a blueprint to implement ideas, he now needed to create a clear vision for moving forward. For most executives, it's articulating a clear, consistent message over and over again. By defining where he believed the company should go, he set parameters for other managers to develop strategies for getting there.

Share Yourself. We also worked to help this executive find creative ways to connect with his audience. Because he was new in his role, he didn't have personal experience with each area of the company. But, he reached out to people to make connections prior to each presentation, and those connections became the personal points of his message.

Try Again and Again. Once we set goals and began working on personal style and content, we built coaching around all of his communication situations. This gave him a lot of support to integrate new choices and take the risk needed to improve his skills.

RESULT

Within six months, the executive had shifted his overall impression from high energy to settled presence. He commanded the stage and really engaged the group with his ideas about the company's future.