Executive Presence Is a Top Priority for Leadership

High-potential and leadership programs are a top priority as companies focus on succession planning and the development of future leaders. And, as companies define skill gaps, Executive Presence has become a hot topic and an urgent priority.

While it is a part of every assessment and curriculum, many development managers struggle with what it is and how to build it into a leadership program. The concept of Executive Presence is not a new one. People have talked about the aura of leaders and the need for them to have leadership presence for some time. But the gap is wider because future leaders just haven’t followed the same development paths or had the same mentoring opportunities their predecessors had.

Presence isn’t something you give yourself. It’s something you earn from those around you who respect your right to speak and your ability to lead. Some have called it an “earned authority.” It is a combination of behaviors and attitudes that present a sense of confidence, competence, commitment, and authenticity.

Although we’ve coached leadership presence for thirty years, we were intrigued to understand the impact of presence within an organization and to gather perspective through a lens other than our own. So we commissioned a survey on Executive Presence with nearly 400 CEOs, C-level executives, corporate communications executives, and professional development managers. The results were confirming and surprising.

We found them confirming in that senior executives see presence as an essential part of their job. In fact, 89 percent of survey respondents believe that presence helps you get ahead. All of the executives interviewed believe presence can be a differentiator. And 78 percent say a lack of presence will hold you back.

Why? Because while many struggle to define it, everyone agrees presence is easy to spot. Presence fits a person like a well-cut suit. People who have presence fill a room and command attention as if they simply have a right to be there.

Surprisingly, 98 percent of the executives also admitted that their skills were not innate. That’s surprising because most development managers are quick to say that future leaders either have this trait or they don’t. While they definitely value the impact of presence, development managers are skeptical about whether or not it can really be developed.

In fact, the gaps in perspective were highlighted when we asked senior executives and development managers for the most effective ways to develop presence. Executives leaned heavily on three concepts:

1. Observation: 70 percent of the executives observed presence early in their careers.
2. Coaching: 65 percent of executives say executive coaching can help a leader develop presence. Only 20
   percent of the development managers believe this.
3. Training: 55 percent of executives say that leadership programs are a great way to develop presence; only 33
   percent of those who run these programs believe this.

All of the executives we interviewed said they were aware of the impact of different leaders in their organizations and they made note of what set them apart. All of the survey participants felt they had worked on their own presence, and approximately 35 percent thought they could benefit from more work. Most said they think intentionally about how they need to come across, and they work hard to deliver an authentic, succinct, and relevant message. In fact, they believe their ability to do so can calm unsettled issues, inspire unfocused employees,
and convince skeptical audiences.

This strong buy-in to presence by the C-suite explains why senior executives need to be involved in developing presence in others. Some companies do this by rotating a portion of the curriculum among senior leaders; others use executives to set the tone for a program and to offer feedback at the completion of it. Executive participation also speaks to what future leaders really want out of leadership programs, and that’s exposure. Many rising stars believe that if they get exposure to the senior management team, they can create their own fast track and their own potential. The personal stories we heard through our research suggest this may well be true.

We recommend three key elements for a program or curriculum on Executive Presence:

• Assessment: Presence is about perception, and the critical starting point for any future leader is to have a clear understanding of how he/she is perceived. Feedback and evaluation set the stage for where you are today and where you need to be in the future. It’s also the acid test for feedback. The executives we interviewed said feedback was an important part of their own development. They were open to it and sought it frequently.

• Core Skills: There are fundamental skills of presence tied to how you use your body and voice. Every future leader needs to know how to develop and deliver thoughts with confidence and conviction. Our research defined key attributes of presence and revealed that these skills can be developed and fine-tuned in any individual.

• Coaching and Practice: Ultimately, it takes practice to turn initial impressions into lasting ones. Many structured programs use a case study or simulation to give future leaders an opportunity to apply skills to a business situation. This is the point at which existing leaders are willing to engage and support the program with feedback. Coaching
ensures that this high-profile exercise is a high exposure and high payoff for future leaders.

Ultimately, these three ingredients help future leaders develop skills for immediate success and long-term results.

According to senior executives, Executive Presence is a priority because it’s one of the leadership traits that can’t be supported by anyone else. When you step into the C-suite of an organization, you go from being a specialist in an area to being a generalist. Your messages broaden, your audiences expand, and you have to engage and influence every one of them.

We’re here when you need us!

 

Want a free 15-minute consultation with us to see how we can help you or your leaders? Book a call now!

 

The Catch-22 of RFPs – Do you have a blind spot in contract renewals?

Most sales organizations manage sales projections and plans in terms of new business and existing business. It’s a great year when the recurring numbers are a high percentage of your plan. But, those existing accounts all go through a point of renewal and often an RFP process. That process introduces some risk into your most valued relationships.

Sales leaders know this; seasoned salespeople know this, and everyone hears something like the following:

• “Don’t let this come down to the wire.”
• “Strengthen the relationship so that our client doesn’t put the business out for bid.”
• “Treat every year as if it is a renewal year.”

We work with many sales organizations who are proactive with renewals. They double down on resources in heavy renewal years, they increase customer visits and they strengthen the support bench to make sure these renewal clients know that they value the contract. But inevitably, salespeople still fall into the Catch-22 of renewals.

It’s that murky area where you’re solving today’s challenges, and new vendors step in with tomorrow’s opportunities. Suddenly, you seem to be the short-sighted one and other vendors seem to be the visionaries. They seem to have gotten the upper hand. How can that be?

Well, it’s easier to sail in on a promise and it’s much easier to tell a forward-looking story. There are no problems to solve, no bumps to remember and the slate is clean in terms of delivering on expectations. As the existing vendor, you have to balance what you’d like to do with why you haven’t done it and every forward thought is measured against your last deliverable.

It’s not fair. But, it’s real. When clients enter an RFP scenario, the rules seem to change overnight. You’re in a race that you never signed up for. And suddenly, things they’ve never asked for seem to be front and center.

The sound bites above are true. Renewals should be planned for, existing vendors should avoid an RFP at all costs and it helps to always have the thought of renewal top of mind.

But, there’s another part to the equation that we’ve had great success in helping sales teams implement. And, that’s the concept of changing up the storyline.

Long before an RFP competition, salespeople can adjust the view of their organization by sharing a more compelling storyline that delivers on where you are today and where you will be tomorrow. We rarely see a new talk track built into a renewal process. That’s a mistake, and that’s the blind spot.

Because this is what we hear from the client-side of the table:

• “While costs may be where we end up with contract renewals, it isn’t where we start.”
• “We have to balance disruption with enablement.”
• “No one buys technology in terms of what it does today. It’s always a question of what it could do next.”

As you can see, renewals are a forward-thinking decision. That’s where many existing vendors miss the mark. Yes, you’re solving today’s challenge and being responsive to their needs. That’s valuable. But, it doesn’t show them what you plan to do next or where you think the marketplace is going. That’s in the other vendor’s deck.

RFPs have morphed a good bit. And, technology may be to blame for it. Every sale has technology as a disrupter or an enabler. That can be a good thing if it’s hard to unravel your technology for another one. But, it’s also a forward-looking decision. Clients buy technology to get ahead more than to stay in step. So, they are more drawn to a forward-looking message than one that focuses on what’s been accomplished to date.

And too often, we see the existing vendors show up with a message about what they’ve done rather than what they planned to do next.

Our experience on both sides has revealed that it’s critical for salespeople to keep positioning the overall vision of their company even if your client isn’t currently interested in that total vision. The vision and look ahead needs to be a part of every sales process so that those who work with you can balance both aspects of your story.

We teach many sales teams how to balance a conversation that needs to solve for current challenges but should also position future opportunities. We overhaul sales messages to make sure that customers always have line of sight to today AND tomorrow. And, we bring a good perspective in helping sales groups recognize their blind spot when it comes to positioning a compelling message. That’s the best way to ensure those valued customers never roll into an RFP.

Renewals don’t have to be a Catch-22. But, it does take an intentional strategy to strengthen the storyline and help your customers see beyond today’s results. It can be as easy as offering perspective on what your materials say today or helping you position yourself against a new competitor who seems to be telling a better story.

Is it time for your group to change up your storyline?

We’re here when you need us!

Want a free 15-minute consultation with us to see how we can help you or your leaders? Book a call now!

How to Keep an Invisible (aka Remote) Audience Engaged

If you’ve been in the workplace for 15 years or more, then you know that the amount of time spent in meetings has multiplied over the years. As the pace of work picked up, companies found it saved time to get people together so information could be passed along quickly and decisions could be made more efficiently.  And, we probably abused the effectiveness of meetings a bit because today people say they spend too much time in meetings.  A recent survey found that middle managers spend 35% of their time in meetings and upper management spends 50% of their time in meetings.  In addition, people spend up to 4 hours a week preparing for status update meetings.

In the last few years, we’ve seen another trend in meetings. More than ever before, managers rely on remote meetings to pull teams together and to review progress.  And, current data suggests that 83% of HR professionals said telecommuting would be more prevalent in the next five years.  So, the medium is here to stay.

In every workshop, I’m asked about remote meetings.  And, I know that managers are looking for simple tools to improve this setting.  But, there is no simple solution. The remote communication environment is one of the most challenging situations where clients seek our advice.

Imagine this: You have scheduled a one hour meeting with a group of people who will draft a timeline for a major project you are leading.  With the major contributors in the discussion, you plan to get agreement on key milestones for the project and buy-in on deliverables.  So, picture yourself at the front of a conference table looking out at a group of people who all have their backs turned to you. That’s the invisible audience.  You can’t see them, so you have no idea if they are engaged in the discussion or even paying attention. 

My informal poll of clients proves out the worst behavior from the invisible audience. When I ask for a show of hands of people who give 100% of their attention to a remote conversation, no one raises their hand.  It’s just too tempting when you’re invisible to multi-task on calls. We also lower our expectations of what we will get out of remote meetings.  So, you’re dealing with a less attentive audience with lower expectations for takeaways.  I‘d take a live audience over those dynamics any day!

Remote meetings are NOT as effective as live ones, and good managers should be very aware of that dynamic.  There is no substitute for getting people together for connection and engagement. But, you can alternate live versus remote discussions to maximize time and costs.  Remote meetings can be used effectively as check-in points or discussion vehicles for specific issues. The critical skill is to learn how to keep the focus narrow, to demand participation and to deliver specific takeaways from every call.

Consider these concepts to improve.  We call them the 3 P’s of Remote Meetings.

PREPARATION

When you’re dealing with an unfocused audience, you need to be crystal clear about the objective of the meeting and what you’re trying to accomplish.  This often calls for more preparation and advance agendas so that listeners understand their role in the meeting.

Keep the objective narrow.  Most people are accustomed to ineffective remote conversations, so they’ll be skeptical at first.  You’ll need to earn their attention, and you’ll get there by setting realistic goals for the call and reaching those goals on every call.

So, consider the example again of the manager who has scheduled a meeting to draft the timeline of a major project. Initially, he has scheduled one hour and is planning to get agreement on key milestones for the project and buy-in on deliverables. In a remote meeting, he can’t accomplish both.  He would be better to schedule two thirty minute calls and set only one objective for each call.

If you lead a lot of remote calls, focus on facilitation skills and learn how to solicit verbal responses to keep all participants involved.

PARTICIPATION

Even though we are poor listeners on the phone, we would rather participate than listen half-heartedly. The multi-tasking symptom is a learned behavior and one that you can break your listeners of with a little effort.  Early in the call, you need to signal to a group that you want their participation and that you plan to call on them throughout the discussion.

We coach managers to use a polling or easy response question at the start of the call to give everyone “voice.” This can quickly engage all the listeners and start everyone on equal footing with the discussion.  Polling means ask for a one word or phrase response to a question.  This helps the leader read the audience and understand their initial perspective on their topic.

Back to the example of the manager who schedules a remote meeting to draft the timeline of a major project. He could begin the call by asking each participant to weigh in on the following question. “ Based on your role in this initiative, are you most comfortable with a timeframe of three months, four months or six months?”   By asking each person on the call to respond with three four or six, he will quickly see where the most pressure will be for the project and whose challenges need to be addressed first.

Calls that engage all listeners in conversation within the first 2-3 minutes yield higher participation overall. Construct an agenda that encourages input throughout the call.  Continue to engage participants with questions and reactions. Vary the way that you pose the questions such as fill-in-the-blank statements, open-ended questions or a “top three” of something.

PRESENCE

It can be challenging for remote participants to stay engaged when 80% of messages we receive come from body language, something that is hard to pick up on during a remote call.  When the audience can’t see you, they can only engage by hearing you.  The voice has to express confidence and commitment to lead the discussion.

The pace of the voice is a critical part of presence.  It impacts how well the listeners hear your thoughts and allows the meaning of the words to sink in.  The rate should be slower in the beginning to help participants engage in the conversation.

Voice energy establishes your level of commitment to the topic.  It also creates urgency around reaching a takeaway for the meeting.  It actually takes more energy to communicate by phone than it does in person because there is no one in the room to help you gauge reactions.

Remote calls can be effective if you set narrow objectives, drive participation and deliver clear takeaways.  The invisible audience is less vested in remote calls, but you can move them from low expectations to active participation.

As part of our virtual workshop curriculum, we have added “Effective Remote Meetings”.  This virtual workshop puts participants through a simulated meeting and then takes the group behind the scenes to see how implement the three P’s above. We also work with teams to tailor remote meeting formats that work best for your needs.  You’ll find a description and our public dates on our website.

As telecommuting increases so will the frequency of remote meetings. It’s time we all learned to lead them more effectively.

Call us when you need us!