{"id":484,"date":"2014-10-31T11:14:49","date_gmt":"2014-10-31T11:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=484"},"modified":"2014-11-04T11:49:52","modified_gmt":"2014-11-04T11:49:52","slug":"feedback-decoded-you-need-to-work-on-your-executive-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=484","title":{"rendered":"Feedback Decoded: “You need to work on your executive presence”."},"content":{"rendered":"

When I hear this one, it tells me that you’re doing something that would make people think you’re more junior than you are. The good news is that it’s usually about how people perceive<\/em> you, as opposed to your content. So a couple of things which may be causing this:<\/p>\n

1. Immature behavior<\/strong>: you could joke too much, dress too casually, be perceived as too cavalier about the job, inappropriately oversharing…just doing things\u00a0more senior people\u00a0wouldn’t do. Great executives are incredibly consistent, always measured. They never curse, they don’t have outbursts in public, they have a sense of humor, but you know they mean business. Ken Chenault, the CEO of American Express is a great example of consistency. In all his town halls, he is clear, measured,\u00a0in charge. He always wears a blue blazer with khakis. He always starts on time. He has a sense of humor. As an employee, you feel immense confidence in\u00a0 him as a leader.<\/p>\n

2. You show your negative emotions publicly<\/strong>: you’re\u00a0frazzled, angry, frantic from running from one thing to another and you show it to people indiscriminately.\u00a0 No executive ever shows panic…outwardly. They are always calm and collected on the outside. See my previous post\u00a0 on this here<\/a>….<\/p>\n

3. You have difficulty presenting to a senior audience<\/strong>. Practice, practice, practice. Make notes. What are the 3 points you want to make? Don’t read presentations line by line\u00a0to senior people…as one\u00a0managing director\u00a0once said to me: “I’ve been reading since I was 12.” Ouch.<\/p>\n

4. Your language is too personal<\/strong>, too colloquial, you use emoticons in your emails. “You guys” or anything overly familiar will not work. You emote on email….if people only knew how many times those emails\u00a0are forwarded with a “Can you believe this?” message, they would stop doing this.<\/p>\n

5. You’re too quiet<\/strong>. People aren’t sure what your point of view is. You don’t come off as someone who can make the hard decisions…worse you might come off as someone who doesn’t have a clue.<\/p>\n

The good news is none of the above is impossible to fix. But it does require you to change your behavior…noticeably<\/strong>. Not just a little. You can’t be a little immature.\u00a0 I once read a great quote: “I don’t take myself seriously, but I take my job very seriously<\/em>.”\u00a0 You need to make sure you’re not switching the two. But you’ll find that once you start focusing on your “executive presence”, people will start noticing. But it does take time to change people’s perceptions.<\/p>\n

Why I picked the picture? You ever notice how lifeguards have absolute authority on the beach? I have never seen anyone debate with a lifeguard, who’s usually a kid with a sunburn and a whistle. They take their job seriously and show it. And\u00a0people respond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I hear this one, it tells me that you’re doing something that would make people think you’re more junior than you are. The good news is that it’s usually about how people perceive you, as opposed to your content. So a couple of things which may be causing this: 1. Immature behavior: you could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-perform-better","category-uncategorized","tag-work-behavior"],"yoast_head":"\nFeedback Decoded: "You need to work on your executive presence". - My Lessons Learned<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=484\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Feedback Decoded: "You need to work on your executive presence". - My Lessons Learned\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I hear this one, it tells me that you’re doing something that would make people think you’re more junior than you are. 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