Speak Up: Develop Your Executive Presence & Leadership Communication Style

472: Why Your Need to Sound Smart Is Alienating Senior Leaders and Destroying Executive Presence

Oct 13, 2025

Explore how the need to appear flawless can jeopardize your executive presence. Discover why overpreparing can distract from genuine connection. Understand the risks of playing it safe in leadership and how comparison undermines your confidence. Shift your mindset from proving competence to owning your brilliance. Learn practical strategies to engage authentically and showcase your true potential. Tune in for insights that can transform your visibility and influence as a leader.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Execution Mode Limits Leadership Trajectory

High-performing leaders often default to execution mode and solve others' problems instead of leading strategically.
This habit reduces their visibility and blocks advancement to senior roles.

ADVICE

Stop Overpreparing Slides And Scripts

Avoid overpreparing slides and scripting every word for routine meetings.
Prepare sufficiently but prioritize audience engagement and relevance over perfection.

INSIGHT

Risk Aversion Silences Potential Leaders

Waiting until your idea is bulletproof keeps you from speaking and taking career risks.
Higher roles require risk tolerance and willingness to propose imperfect ideas.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

To see if Laura’s Executive Presence Mastery System 90-day coaching intensive is right for you, set up a strategy call here.

Have you ever spent your weekend on a presentation, rehearsing every word to make it perfect and to make sure others recognize your competence and excellence?

If that’s you, this episode is going to sting... but in a really good way.

If you're a high-performing introvert or experienced leader aiming for a senior executive role, the fear of looking “dumb” might be silently sabotaging your visibility, influence, and confidence.

This episode reveals why trying to appear flawless can actually block your executive presence—and what to do instead.

By the end of today’s episode you’ll know:

🎯How overpreparation, risk aversion, and comparison are hurting your leadership brand

🔑The mindset shift from proving your intelligence to owning your brilliance

3️⃣ Practical strategies to speak with more magnetism, clarity, and executive presence

Hit play now to learn how to show up with unshakable confidence without sacrificing your intellect or authenticity.

If you’ve been leading for 12–18 years and you're aiming for that next senior executive role—but you’re holding back in meetings unless your ideas feel bulletproof—this fear of looking “incompetent” is costing you visibility, influence, and impact.

This episode hits hard because it exposes exactly how trying to prove your intelligence is keeping you from truly leading.

That’s why I created the Executive Presence Mastery System—to help you shift from overthinking and overpreparing to showing up with the kind of confident clarity that gets you promoted.

So if you’re tired of playing it safe and ready to command the room without second-guessing yourself, go to the show notes, click the first link, or visit www.speakupwithlaura.com/speakup to book your strategy call. I’d love to help you make the mindset shift from proving your brilliance to owning it.

We release fresh episodes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

In Speak Up communication and executive presence coaching, high performing leaders and executives learn to enhance their influence and confidence, refining their communication style to increase visibility and effectiveness in promotion opportunities.

By honing communication skills and fostering a trusted advisor mindset, aspiring executives cultivate mastery in public speaking and beat imposter syndrome. Your leadership becomes more strategic and inspiring.