Learn from expert guests Megan Bock and Laura Sicola on how to cultivate executive presence. Discover tips on improving influence, engaging virtual audiences, and staying true to yourself. Explore strategies for mastering communication skills, building visibility, and embracing leadership opportunities. Enhance executive presence through authenticity, adaptability, and navigating the path to authenticity in professional settings.
Enhancing executive presence involves stepping out of comfort zones and embracing discomfort for growth.
Balancing different energies in communication and adapting to audience needs enhances engagement and authenticity.
Deep dives
Developing Executive Presence and Overcoming Discomfort
To enhance executive presence, it's crucial to recognize and address discomfort in behaviors that may not feel natural. The journey to improving involves practice, stepping out of your comfort zone, and embracing discomfort until it becomes more comfortable. This transformation doesn't equate to inauthenticity but rather signifies growth and adapting to new ways of expression.
Enhancing Engagement and Energy Variation in Communication
Increasing engagement and authenticity in communication involves exploring energy variation and adjusting your approach to match the audience's needs. By allowing different aspects of your personality to shine through based on the situation, you can create a more impactful connection. Balancing different energies and maintaining authenticity while adapting to various contexts is key to effective communication.
The Power of Building Trust and Authenticity
Building trust and maintaining authenticity are crucial elements in establishing leadership presence. It's essential to focus on demonstrating competence, exploring different energy levels in communication, and finding a unique voice that aligns with personal passions and beliefs. The journey towards authenticity and trust-building involves continual self-awareness, adaptation, and the commitment to connecting with others effectively.
Effective Communication in Virtual Settings
In virtual settings, effective communication requires active engagement and the ability to read and involve the audience despite the limitations of remote interactions. Encouraging verbal feedback, pausing to prompt questions, and utilizing nonverbal cues can enhance audience participation and understanding. The key lies in creating opportunities for interaction, adapting to different audience needs, and maintaining energy and engagement throughout virtual conversations.
Executive presence is a mix of gravitas, communication skills, and appearance. But how do you learn to command a room if you only have a few opportunities to be in front of your colleagues, except for the occasional video call? This is the situation that one of our listeners is in. She joins Amy B and two other women who’ve each cultivated a strong executive presence, Megan Bock and Laura Sicola, to get advice on what hers can look and sound like.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to improve your own influence and impact, keep a virtual audience engaged, and grow while staying true to yourself.
Guest experts:
Megan Bock is the chief operating officer at Federato, a company that uses machine learning to assess risk. Cultivating an executive presence helped her rise up through the insurance industry and into tech.