“Executive Presence” in Today’s Business Environment
Guest Speaker Joel Garfinkle, MCCIn this episode of WiseTalk, CEO and Executive Leadership Coach Sue Bethanis hosts Joel Garfinkle, Master Certified Coach (MCC) and Founder of Garfinkle Executive Coaching. Acknowledged as one of the top 50 executive coaches in America, Joel has access to some of the most successful leaders who provide fresh insights into common issues leaders face at work. For more than two decades, he has had first-hand experience advising thousands of executives, senior managers, directors, and employees at the world’s leading companies, including Google, Amazon, Starbucks, Bank of America, Microsoft, Oracle, Deloitte, Ritz-Carlton, Genentech, NBC, and the NBA. He draws from this experience to provide coaching programs serving individuals and organizations worldwide. Joel is also a sought-after speaker who conducts workshops, trainings, and keynote addresses that empower corporate audiences. He has delivered over 1000 customized presentations that provide fresh insight into common issues employers and employees face.
He is the author of 11 books, including his most recent, Executive Presence: Step Into Your Power, Convey Confidence, and Lead With Conviction, and over 300 articles on leadership. His articles on career advancement, inspirational leadership, and executive presence appeared in HBR, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, USA Today, Forbes, CNN, The New York Times, and NPR.
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INTERVIEW SUMMARY AND KEY TAKEAWAYS
Executive presence is the combination of confidence, authority, and clarity that makes great leaders so influential. Joel’s research has created a straightforward model which defines executive presence and helps individuals see where their strengths and weaknesses are using 9 core competencies. This 3×3 Executive Presence model is broken down into three main domains: Gravitas, Authority, and Expression. Gravitas encompasses confidence, command, and charisma. Authority includes decisive, bold, and influential. And respectively, Expression includes vocal, insight, and clarity. The best leaders are strong in all these areas, which make their executive presence so evident. Joel details how he came to these core competencies and how individuals can strengthen their executive presence.
Some key takeaways from this talk:
- Joel mentions that confidence is the main competency that really impacts one’s executive presence. Without confidence, or at least the perception of it, it’s very difficult to come across as a strong leader. (10:00)
- While those who are timider or people pleasers may not come across with the best executive presence, Joel offers a few methods to move in a better direction. He suggests taking more time to prep for meetings and speaking at least twice in every meeting until it becomes comfortable and habitual. (30:21)
- On the contrary, Joel also encourages some people to ‘speak down’ if they tend to be more assertive and interject often. Having a strong executive presence also means providing space for others to be involved and encouraging everyone to have a say. (35:17)
- The only way to truly gauge your own executive presence is by asking for feedback from others. Joel recommends getting 6-8 peers of coworkers or managers to evaluate you based on the 9 competencies to see where your strengths and weaknesses lie. (40:06)
Whether remote or back in the office, strengthening executive presence is crucial to being a great leader. How you show up influences how those around you show up. Leading with confidence, clarity, and conviction creates a positive and productive team and encourages others to engage more. Executive presence is not just for executives. Anyone, leaders or not, can use these methods to strengthen how they show up in their lives and in the workplace.
FAVORITE QUOTES
“People don’t want a tentative leader, they want someone who’s going to rein it in and be the bold leader, and be a decisive individual who really gets the point and knows what they want to do, and leads with conviction.” (10:00)
“Anyone who has a weak executive presence or struggles with executive presence often comes down to struggling with lacking confidence and having more self-doubt and unsureness and tentativeness in how they’re showing up.” (10:00)
“Executive presence is not only for executives. Every single person that goes into the work environment at the very beginning of their career, the more executive presence they have, the more confidence, the more power, the more presence, the more they’re in tune with their own sense of engagement, and how they’re showing up, the more the company gets more value out of them as a leader, and the more they feel more engaged in the work that they do.” (15:46)
“The aggressive and the somewhat arrogant types are the ones who go into situations and get results really quickly. But they aren’t aware of the wake they leave behind them and the damage that they do, relationships that they tarnish, and all in the name of results.” (38:07)
RESOURCES
Joel Garfinkle:
Website | LinkedIn
Book: Executive Presence: Step Into Your Power, Convey Confidence, & Lead With Conviction
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