Executive presence is the ability, in any presentation moment and with any audience, to show credibility, authority, subject matter expertise and that you are a value-added partner. You show it by adjusting your language, your body language and the questions you ask to the people in front of you, so the conversation or the decision moves forward.
That feedback is common, and it usually arrives without instructions. So what does executive presence mean in practice? Here is how I define it after years of working with leaders in high-stakes presentation moments, and what actually changes it.
What does executive presence actually mean?
Executive presence is how credible, authoritative and useful you come across to a specific audience at a specific moment. The people in the room are the ones who judge it, which is why it is so hard to describe from the outside.
The most cited research on the subject comes from Sylvia Ann Hewlett and the Center for Talent Innovation, now Coqual. In its 2013 Executive Presence study, 268 senior executives were asked what executive presence is made of. 67% named gravitas, 28% named communication and 5% named appearance. The same executives said executive presence accounts for 26% of what it takes to get the next promotion.
That last number is why the feedback stings. It is a quarter of the decision, and it rarely comes with an explanation.
My own definition is more practical. I define it by what the audience sees, and by whether you can adapt it to whoever is in the room: your credibility, your authority, your subject matter expertise, and whether they see you as a value-added partner.
Is executive presence only for people who present to executives?
No. Executive presence doesn’t mean you are in the presence of CXOs, or in the presence of executives only. It means you understand where your audience is coming from, whoever they are, and you can use the language they need to hear.
A sales leader on a discovery call needs it. So does a subject matter expert briefing a cross-functional team, and a director explaining a reorganization to the people it affects. Each of those audiences has to leave believing you know your subject and that you are worth listening to.
If this feedback is likely to come up again in your next review, promotion conversation or leadership meeting, it is the kind of work I do with leaders across a season of presentation moments in my Be Brilliant package. We look at how you show up in the meetings that matter, make the adjustments, and build them into how you lead. See how Be Brilliant works.
What does executive presence look like in a real conversation?
It looks like adjustment. A leader with executive presence changes how they communicate based on who is in front of them, and keeps the thread while doing it.
These are the questions I ask myself, and the ones I ask the leaders I work with:
- Am I using the language and vernacular this audience uses?
- Does my body language match the weight of what I am saying?
- Am I answering the question that was actually asked?
- Are the questions I ask moving the conversation forward?
- When someone answers, do I paraphrase what I heard and ask another question back?
Each of these is small. Together they decide whether the conversation or the decision moves forward, and that is the test of executive presence I care about.
Is presentation coaching worth it for building executive presence?
Yes, because the adjustments that build executive presence are usually too small to see on your own. Over the years I’ve found that holds wherever someone sits on what I call the presentation spectrum.
On one end are keynote speeches, where all eyes are on the speaker and the audience has very little expectation placed on them. On the other end is teaching and training, where the expectation sits with the audience, because they are developing a new skill. In between is the messy middle of what I call the sales presentation world. Wherever you are on that spectrum, coaching earns its place for the same reason.
Most people don’t see the slight adjustments of 1%. Apply the 1% rule: know how to make that 1% adjustment, understand why it matters, and see how much it changes things for the learners, the audience or the prospect, depending on the situation you are in. That is the real value of coaching. You develop the ability to identify even the slightest adjustments that have a tremendous impact.
Can executive presence be developed?
Yes. It is built one adjustment at a time, in the presentation moments you already have. How you paraphrase a question, or which point you lead with, can change how a room reads you.
In the Resultations Method®, that work starts with Clarify: deciding what needs to happen because this conversation occurred.
Frequently asked questions
Research from Sylvia Ann Hewlett and the Center for Talent Innovation (now Coqual), published in 2013, found that senior executives see executive presence as gravitas, communication and appearance. Gravitas mattered most, named by 67% of the 268 executives surveyed, followed by communication at 28% and appearance at 5%.
Confidence helps, but the audience is the one who judges executive presence. It shows in whether you adjust your language, body language and questions to the people in front of you and move the conversation forward. A confident speaker who ignores the room can still be read as lacking presence.
No. Executive presence doesn’t depend on your title or on presenting to the C-suite. It is the ability to show credibility, authority, expertise and value to whoever you are speaking with, from a prospect on a discovery call to a cross-functional team, and to adjust so the conversation moves forward.
In short: executive presence is the ability to show credibility, authority, expertise and value to whoever is in front of you, and to adjust so the conversation moves forward. It is built through small adjustments, one presentation moment at a time.
