3 Keys to Executive Presence

“Executive presence is about the ability of the leader to engage, align, inspire, and move people to act.” – Sylvia Ann Hewlett

One of the key leadership skills I wish I would have learned earlier in my journey at Microsoft is executive presence.

Unless you focus on executive presence, you might not cultivate it over time.

Executive presence is a learnable skill.

But you need to know what to focus on to learn it.

And you can get better at executive presence over time when know the skills you have to hone in on.

Watch an Overview of Executive Presence

This is my favorite video on executive presence because it’s right to the point:

In this video Syliva Ann Hewlett defines executive presence and gives you 3 ways to practice it.

If You Want to Lead, Master the Skill of Executive Presence

Here is a powerful quote about executive presence from Syliva Ann Hewlett:

“It is executive presence—and no man or woman attains a top job, lands an extraordinary deal, or develops a significant following without this heady combination of confidence, poise, and authenticity that convinces the rest of us we’re in the presence of someone who’s the real deal. It’s an amalgam of qualities that telegraphs that you are in charge or deserve to be.”
― Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Executive Presence: The Missing Link Between Merit and Success

What is Executive Presence?

According to Sylivia Ann Hewlett, executive presence is what you signal to the world in terms of 3 things:

1.  Gravitas
2. Serious communication skills
3. Presentation of self

Let’s walk through these…

#1. Gravitas

Gravitas is the quality of having a serious, dignified demeanor and a commanding presence that inspires respect and conveys a sense of weightiness and authority.

Syliva challenges:

• Do you really know your stuff cold?
• Do you give the impression that you’re three questions deep in your field of expertise?
• Do you have intellectual horsepower?
• How do you signal that?

#2. Serious Communication Skills

Having serious communication skills means possessing the ability to convey information clearly, effectively, and confidently, ensuring that your message is understood and respected by your audience, and demonstrating professionalism and authority in your interactions.

Sylivia challenges:

• Secondly, do you have really serious communication skills?
• Can you get your ideas across?
• I mean, can you be heard?  Because no matter how profound your gravitas, if you can’t somehow get it across, it becomes dead in the water.

#3. Presentation of Self

The presentation of self refers is how you consciously or unconsciously convey your identity, values, and persona through your behavior, appearance, and communication in social and professional contexts.

Sylvia says:

“And then finally, presentation of self:

The way you dress, your body movement, the way you stand and walk.

All of this is incredibly critical in allowing your gravitas again to get across.”

Executive Presence is a Learnable Skills

If you think executive presence is something you have or you don’t, that’s a fixed mindset.

What Sylvia and team learned is that executive presence is something you can learn and practice.

Sylvia says:

“So, the great thing about this piece of work, we went out to 4,000 professionals around the U.S. in all kinds of different sectors and 300 leaders.

It was a representative sample, so we do know what our colleagues and what our bosses are really looking for on this front.

And it’s fascinating because it turns out there really is almost a check list out there that we can work with and much of it is very learnable.”

Two Reasons Why Sylivia Wrote Executive Presence

Slyvia wrote her book, Executive Presence for two reasons:

1. Lack of executive presence was holding women back from top jobs
2. Sylvia had to learn executive presence, because the lack of it, held her back early on in life.

Reason #1:

Sylvia says:

“There were two reasons why I wrote this book.

First off, at my think tank, we had discovered three years ago that the main reason that the main reason women aren’t making it into top jobs is that they don’t get sponsors.

They have a ton of mentors, but they don’t have this senior advocate who really goes out on a limb for them.

So why are they not chosen as potential proteges and groomed for leadership?

And we found that many, many male leaders around the country saw women as lacking executive presence.

Somehow, they weren’t signaling that they were leadership material, or they weren’t ready for the big opportunity.

So, we wanted to look at executive presence to see what in fact this was and how we can all crack it.”

Reason #2:

Sylvia says:

“But I think the other root of this book is much more personal.

I grew up in the South Wales coal mining valleys.

I was one of the six girls in an industrial valley which was really rather neglected in the 1960s and 1970s.

The unemployment rate was 38 percent and I remember really understanding how bleak, how few opportunities this environment really was.

And so when I was 13 my father, who was trying to do something with this girl despite the fact that he was very much a working-class bloke, took me by bus to Cambridge University, and kind of fired me up about the possibilities of perhaps going to this amazingly beautiful campus, which was one of the best universities in Europe.

And he was very audacious.

He turned around to me and said, ‘girl’. He tended to get our names mixed up so he called a lot of us girl.

He said, ‘If you work hard, you can go here.’

And I want back to Wales to my really rather mediocre school and did work incredibly hard, and did get in.”

When I Opened My Mouth, I Let Myself Down

Syliva let herself down whenever she spoke.

She couldn’t take the pain.

She knew her success lied on the other side of her communication skills, if she could up her game.

Sylvia writes:

“But when I go to Cambridge at age 18, I was really like a fish out of water.

And the main thing that got in the way, I mean I was a good student, I was good at passing exams.

But every time I opened my mouth, I let myself down.

It was so hard to feel like a success story at Cambridge, or I suspected any place else, if you spoke English the way I did.

I had a very thick working-class Welsh accent.

I dropped my h’s.

I mis pronounced a lot of words.

And my tutor at Cambridge said that I simply sounded uncouth.

The word still sticks in my mind.

And I realized I had to up my game on the communication front, otherwise, I would get nowhere.”

How Syliva Upped Her Communication Game

Sylvia took learning powerful communication skills to heart, by changing how she spoke and used her words.

Sylvia says:

“So, I spent two years listening to the BBC World Service trying to get those modulated vowels down and also fix my grammar, and it made a massive difference.

I felt that I could then get my ideas across.

I could get my voice heard.

And so, I think that experience made me very interested in this whole field signaling that you’re the real deal.”

Executive Presence is How You Act, How You Speak and How You Look

It’s easy to miss the significant of executive presence, because it doesn’t seem core to the job.

Except, as a leader, executive presence is big part of your ability to influence.

If you overlook it, it can easily become the one thing that holds you back from your full potential in work and life.

Syliva says:

“It is about how you act, how you speak, how you look.

It’s about gravitas, it’s about communication and it’s about appearance.

And often times we underrate these qualities because these things do not seem to be about performance.

They do not seem to be about whether we achieve the goals that we are tasked with in the workplace, but they make a huge difference in terms of whether you’re the person who’s chosen for that next job or that next big opportunity.”

Elevate Your Edge with Executive Presence

Reflecting on my journey at Microsoft, one pivotal leadership skill I wish I had honed earlier is executive presence.

Without a deliberate focus on cultivating it, executive presence can remain an elusive trait.

However, the encouraging truth is that executive presence is a learnable skill.

By understanding the key components—gravitas, serious communication skills, and the presentation of self—you can systematically develop this essential quality for effective leadership.

Over time, by consistently practicing and refining these skills, you can enhance your executive presence and unlock new levels of influence and success in your career.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett’s insights remind us that executive presence isn’t about innate charisma.

Executive presence is about deliberate practice and self-improvement.

She defines executive presence as the combination of gravitas, serious communication skills, and presentation of self that signals to others you are capable and deserving of leadership.

By focusing on the elements of gravitas, effective communication, and professional appearance, you can project authority and competence, making you a strong candidate for leadership roles.

Approach executive presence with a growth mindset, continuously seeking feedback and opportunities for improvement.

As you cultivate this skill, you will not only advance in your career but also inspire and lead others more effectively.

Commit to mastering executive presence, and let it be the cornerstone of your leadership journey, driving you toward greater achievements and impact.

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