Got a case of the Mondays?

No seriously.

You wouldn’t be the first, and you’re probably not the last.

It’s no wonder why come Sunday, people dread going to work the next day. The reality is that the vast majority of Americans hate Monday not because it’s the beginning of the work- of week, but because of their lack of enthusiasm at their j-o-b.

Career engagement has become the holy grail of culture design for many companies.

Each year, Gallop (the gatekeepers of employee engagement): releases a survey around professional engagement on the job, and year-after-year the results are staggering.

70% of those surveyed say they are unhappy on the job – they’re either disengaged (not giving their all) or actively disengaged (consciously not contributing) employees.

Recently, I sat down with Tom Perry, founder of Engaged Pursuit based out of Seattle. Tom’s a 20-year tech leader with experience launching huge products and running global teams across Fortune 50 organizations. He left his corporate gig after experiencing his own professional disengagement to build his own company to address this massive problem.

I asked Tom one simple question: “How can employees stay out of that 70% and create career engagement?”

Here’s what he had to say:

Know your “Professional Story”

What’s that you might ask? You can think about it in a couple of ways. It’s not only your elevator pitch highlighting your strengths/interests, but it’s really knowing (and articulating) what makes you “tick” professionally. The most commonly asked question in an interview (from the informational to the intense in-person) is “So tell me about yourself?” The VAST majority of professionals don’t know how to answer this simple question in an inspiring, confident, and impactful way.

For more on career engagement:

His Advice: Paint-a-picture of who you are professionally, highlighting your previous paths, your home runs, your style and your intent for the future. This should take about two mins of time, not even touching the specifics of your resume. Check out how his approach, and, with his help, discover (and articulate) your Professional Story clearly and confidently.

Network, Network, Network.

If you’re looking for something new, 90% of the time a more engaging role will come through direct connections, peers, previous managers or friends-of-friends. To date, none of his clients (zero!) have secured a better gig by applying through a corporate career/job-portal (even though that’s where the vast majority start). All found something new through networking. Tom says the most effective work he does with his clients is on the art of networking, as it actually takes a ton of work to be successful – especially for those who aren’t comfortable in this type of experience (or never done it in the first place).

His Advice: YOU have to own every single element of the networking experience. No more “Keep your eyes out for a position that I might like!” From the initial sit-down request, to creating a clear picture of what’s desired, to managing the contact’s next-steps, to making it super-easy to say “yes” at every step of the way, it’s the job of the candidate to do all of this work. It takes time and practice but the investment is worth it.

Own the relationship with your boss.

You’ve probably heard it time-and-time again – the manager/employee relationship is a major contributor to employee engagement and one of the main reasons why professionals leave and/or start looking for something new. This partnership is crucial; however, Tom thinks individuals are not taking enough ownership of this relationship. As a former people manager, he found it frustrating when team members would come to him asking “for more opportunities” or wondering what they needed to do to get a promotion. In addition, he encouraged employees to tell him what they were good at and what they wanted to work on next.

His Advice: TELL your manager what kind of experience you’re going to create for yourself (in the parameters of your job description, of course), TELL your manager how you’re going to onboard yourself if you’re starting something new, TELL your manager how you want to utilize your strengths to maximize long-term impact, TELL your manager your ideas around getting that promotion to the next level and TELL your manager how they can most effectively manage you/your style. Having intent around this relationship is crucial – try it!

***
Final thoughts:

Tom’s employment engagement point of view and advice focus not on providing employee perks but focusing on how you can empower your own career journey. If you are reading this on the weekend and thinking, “Oh great, I have one more day before I have to head back to the office it may be time to think about how you can empower yourself to be more engaged in your career. If you get stuck, check out Tom’s company’s Linked-In page or reach out to him directly … there’s a reason his company is called Engaged Pursuit

The Floor Is Yours: Are you too happy or just too ehh? Take this quiz

With Leadership,
Joshua
www.JoshHMiller.com

Joshua Miller is a creative leader and impactful executive coach.

His career spans both the advertising world and the world of leadership. In advertising, he was the creative lead, responsible for the campaign strategy for Fortune 100 brands. Today, he is an innovator. He’s supporting the executive development and change management for many of the same companies.

Joshua studied at Syracuse University, NYU and Stanford. He combines that background with his deep knowledge of organizational behavior, performance and change management. He focuses on the analysis, design, development, delivery, and evaluation of scalable and global talent development solutions programs.

Joshua is a Master Certified Coach. He trained with the International Coaching Federation and CTI (The Coaches Training Institute).

Leaders don’t listen.

There, I said it.

Okay, maybe not all leaders. But many of them are overworked, underdeveloped and lack adequate time-management skills. And as a result, they don’t take the time to truly listen to their people. Basically, they develop bad people-management skills.

So why is this important?

As a coach, you must be able to stay present, engage others through powerful questions and then wait long enough for a response from the other individual. Coaching is not about being right or knowing the answer. It’s about guiding the other person to the place where they can discover the answer on their own. Coaching is also not about giving direction, leading the witness or bullying the other person into action.

What happens if a leader doesn’t feel equipped with the necessary skills or training to do this? You won’t be creating a coaching culture…but rather a demanding one.

I’ve been writing about coaching for almost as long as I have been a coach. And if there’s one thing I have witnessed, it’s the rise and fall of coaching cultures within organizations. It’s no secret that many companies want to create an empowering and impactful coaching culture. But they don’t always clearly outline the odds of its success. Last year, I published the article “A Coaching Culture: Why Leaders Struggle As Coaches (Part 3).” In it, I wrote about what it takes for an organization to seriously consider building out a coaching culture and the strategic work that’s involved. Now I want to discuss “why” it isn’t working out (or working out as well as you would hope).

Growing a Successful Coaching Culture

If you are one of the few organizations who’s been trying to stand up a successful coaching culture and has experienced more failures than successes, don’t give up just yet. Although giving up may be the easiest option, it’s worth first diagnosing what’s blocking your success.

For more coaching wisdom:

Unfortunately, the decision to create such a culture can stem from a variety of places.  None of these are ideal if the goal is to create a successful coaching culture. Oftentimes, the directive comes from the top down. And the person or persons responsible for carrying out this initiative are either ill-equipped, ill-educated or ill-advised on how to execute effectively.

What comes next is something I have witnessed firsthand and all too often.

Strategic Change

An organization sends a group of its pre-selected leaders to a workshop to learn a variation of one of the basic coaching models (usually called GROW). Then they expect them to walk away prepared to coach anyone and anywhere. This is both fundamentally wrong and a disaster just waiting to happen. Organizations need to view this type of project like any other change initiative. That is, using a systematic and strategic approach that’s been thought out well in advance and mapped to both a broader vision around the company’s talent development philosophy and roadmap.

“Changing culture is not as easy as changing your outfit”

Some basic questions organizations should consider before embarking on creating a coaching culture:

Why do we need this?
What specifically are we looking to achieve?
How will we know we were successful?
How do we know we’ve selected the right group of coaches?
Only 11% of senior leaders actively use coaching despite 70% of organizations claiming they coach their people
Here are three common reasons many organizations fail when it comes to successfully standing up a coaching culture:

The Framework Is Weak

Just as you can’t train anyone to be a coach if they aren’t interested in being one, you also can’t throw any coaching model into an organization and hope it sticks. Many companies use GROW as the go-to model to train the trainer or introduce coaching within their functions and culture. The reason is obvious, it’s easy to understand and in theory apply but that’s where it falls apart.

More times than not, the tool is introduced with the majority of time spent on what it is vs. how to use it. Having any model with little to no direction on its application renders it useless and potential harmful to others. It’s called coaching, not modeling. The coach is responsible for supporting the other individual’s growth and change, not the model. A good (or even great coach) will be able to see the potential in any model and decide how and when to apply it.

The Coach Is Weak

If your leaders training isn’t great, then don’t expect greatness from your leaders. Common challenges for coaches (at any level) right out of the gate is a common lack of presence. Being present is everything as a coach, and from there is where you (the coach) can actually go to work. When a coach isn’t properly trained, they are going to rely on what it’s comfortable and familiar. This is actually the opposite of coaching. I see managers all the time with the best of intentions of actually looking to coach but in reality they are directing, giving advice or sometimes consulting. Coaching isn’t a check mark in a box, it’s a commitment to another person’s greatness to ensure they’re in check.

The Accountability Is Weak

I always tell my clients that the true value of the coaching work we do will come the moment the session ends and you go back to your life and apply what you learned. The same holds true in the workplace. The leader/manager’s duty as a coach doesn’t end when the session ends, in fact that’s when it begins. It’s critical to hold your coachee/employee accountable to what they learned in the session, discovered through conversation and committed to before the next session. People who receive coaching are usually lacking follow through (amongst some other common blind spots). The best way to aid another person’s accountability is to demonstrate your own. Being accountable to your employee is about owning your integrity. You can’t expect someone else to follow through if you don’t.

Note: These two reports from HCI and the ICF contain incredibly insightful information:

“Building a coaching culture with millennial leaders” and “Building a coaching culture for change management”

The floor is yours: How important is coaching to your companies’ culture?

Have an extra 2 minutes to discover more about yourself? Take the quiz to find out if you’re happy or comfortable.

With Leadership,
Joshua
www.JoshHMiller.com

Joshua Miller is a creative leader and impactful executive coach.

His career spans both the advertising world and the world of leadership. In advertising, he was the creative lead, responsible for the campaign strategy for Fortune 100 brands. Today, he is an innovator. He’s supporting the executive development and change management for many of the same companies.

Joshua studied at Syracuse University, NYU and Stanford. He combines that background with his deep knowledge of organizational behavior, performance and change management. He focuses on the analysis, design, development, delivery, and evaluation of scalable and global talent development solutions programs.

Joshua is a Master Certified Coach. He trained with the International Coaching Federation and CTI (The Coaches Training Institute).

I want to preface that this article will not be touching on the industry itself, only coaching principles.

I won’t cover what makes an excellent coach. Nor, will we debate who can actually call themselves coaches.
I decided with this piece to keep it directly around the application of critical principles. There are the principles leaders should understand. A leader must be able to demonstrate these coaching principles when looking to develop someone on their team.

It’s essential to first understand what coaching is and what coaching is not.

“Coaching is the universal language of change and learning.” – CNN

Background

Coaching differs from other types of counseling methods. Coaching is a unique proposition. It can combine management, counseling, mentoring, psychology, and leadership training programs. It takes inspiration from these areas. Then, implies them to help people reach for their excellence.

Recommended reads about coaching principles to dive deeper:

Coaching is not training.

Both promote learning. However, in different ways.

Training is about teaching specific skills or knowledge. Coaching is about facilitating someone else’s thinking. Coaches help them learn on the job.

Training usually takes place off-site or in dedicated classes. Coaching takes place in the office. It can be integrated into day-to-day workplace conversations or over the phone.

Training is more typically carried out in groups. Coaching is usually a one-to-one process. It’s tailored to the individual’s needs.

Training is usually delivered by an external consultant or a dedicated internal trainer. Coaching can be provided by an external consultant or by a manager.

Coaching is not mentoring.

A mentor is typically a master or SME within the field of their knowledge.

Mentor advises. They base their advice on a gained personal experience. A coach does not have to reach for their expertise in the specific field to adequately support the client in achieving their goals.

Mentoring allows the learner to own the goals and the process. Mentoring allows the learner model their behaviors on given examples. In coaching, the learner has primary ownership of the goal. The coach has a central role in the process.

Coaching is not therapy.

A lot of people associate (life) coaching with therapy. Coaching is not targeted to help people with their psychological problems. Trained coaches who have gone through an accredited certified coaching program will have been taught how to spot this. For most people who haven’t had this type of training, some of the signs could be (fill in).

Therapy focuses primarily on the past. It can be rooted in managing and coping. Coaching is focused on improving the development path of the person taking the current situation as an initial point. It is rooted in empowerment, exploration and specific solutions.
Therapy raises the question of why? While coaching focuses on the present and builds the future, asking more what? And how? Questions. It focuses on solutions and actions by which a client seeks to achieve results, rather than looking for causes of his failures.

So what is Coaching?

Coaching a useful way of boosting performance. It can help deal with challenges before they become significant problems. A coaching session will typically take place as a conversation. It focuses on helping that individual discover answers for themselves regarding a current or future challenge or goal.

The fact is, people are much more likely to engage with solutions that they have come up with themselves, rather than those that are forced upon them by their manager or leader.

In some organizations, coaching is still seen as a corrective tool. In many companies, coaching is considered to be a positive proven approach for helping others explore their ambitions. Leaders in today’s organizations are being asked to do more coaching, but the data points to the fact that most leaders are just not equipped with the skills necessary to effectively coach. Managers meet their coaching obligations by giving performance reviews, holding occasional meetings.

A manager can be just as effective as externally hired coaches. Managers don’t have to be trained formally as coaches as long as they stay within the scope of their skill set. They must maintain a structured approach. They can add value and help develop their people’s abilities as long as they understand what they are creating.

Follow these 14 core principles to ensure you are effectively laying the groundwork to coach your people successfully.

Future State Thinking

Be clear in your own mind about what you want the other person to accomplish. If you are their manager, this will be a more natural process. Focus on what the end result should look like. Don’t focus on how you think they “might” get there. Think about the big picture. How will their success impact the broader companies objectives? How will their success impact their personal development goals? When you are clear, you’re more likely to get buy-in.

Build Trust

The foundation of every relationship regardless of its nature is trust. It’s critical that you are able to establish an atmosphere of open communication. A coach’s ability is predicated on how much and how quickly they can build this foundation. The foundation of any coaching relationship is rooted in the manager’s day-to-day contact with the employee. Without some degree of trust, conducting a useful coaching meeting is impossible. Your employees need to believe you are here to help them succeed.

Powerful Listening

One of the most significant skills a coach/manager must practice is active listening. Fully deploy listening skills to ask more useful questions of the employee/individual. Get to the heart of an issue to assist them in finding a solution.

Getting Agreement

As a manager, getting your employees to agree that there is a performance issue can sometimes be an uphill battle. Overlooking or avoiding the performance issue because you assume the employee understands its significance is a typical mistake of managers. To get an employee to acknowledge a performance issue exists, you must be able to define the nature of the problem and get the employee to recognize the consequences of not changing their behavior. To do this, you must specify the action and clarify the results. Be careful not to assume that your understanding of the situation is the right one. A coaching session is a two-way communication process. You should encourage your employees to explain how they interpret the behaviors and agree on the nature of the issue.

Be Curious

Rather than just jumping into problem-solving mode and rescuing every person in site, first get curious about what may be causing the problem. This helps define the problem more clearly. Some questions to ask the person you are coaching:
– What do you think is really creating this situation?
– What’s holding you back from the goal?
– What is it about this situation that is keeping you up at night?
– In what ways are you not being the person you’d like to be now?

To have successful coaching relationships with anyone (especially your employees), you really need to get to know them on at least some personal level. Let me stress, this is not about being friends or socializing outside of the office. Understanding a little bit about the person you are supporting can offer you valuable insight into the “why” they do what they do. Thinking about thinking is an integral part of the coaching process so remember to ask open-ended questions.

Be Flexible

Remember that each person has different motivators and communication styles. Recognize and understand that each person may have a different form of learning and respond differently to how you communicate. If someone is slower to speak and answer, for example, allow them time to think and process rather than interrupting with ‘helpful’ suggestions. This is typically a learning gap for the coach who wants to jump in, create results for their employee and get back some valuable time in their day – especially when they see the issue with no bias or judgment.

Flexible doesn’t mean being a pushover or getting someone to like you.

It means you are doing what’s needed with this individual to ensure they are moving closer to their goals. You are also maintaining the proper level of trust, commitment, action, and integrity required to run the coaching partnership forward.

Have and Set Goals

Discuss what you want to accomplish and be clear about your expectations. Consider giving your employees a model of what their end goal looks like or set specific criteria for what the output should include. Coaching is focused and grounded in a future state of possibility. This is only achievable with a clear timeline. Setting milestones that build toward the end goal with prescheduled “check-in meetings” will allow you to get together along the way to evaluate how things are going. Talk about a deadline and indicate how important the timing may (or may not) be to the success of the project or performance gap. Personally using the S.M.A.R.T Goal framework is a high starting point for both the conversation as well as to ensure it’s achievable.

Provide Feedback

As your employees work toward accomplishing the goal you set together, be sure to attend your check-in meetings at the agreed upon times. This applies to both the process but equally important is when they reach their milestones and ultimately their end goal. Allow them to ask questions. Acknowledge them for what’s going right with the project and make suggestions if you feel they need more direction. Remember to Be Curious, Be Present and Listen and Revisit the agreed upon End Goals.

Alignment With Your Company’s Core Values

When possible, your coaching should be based on your organization’s core values (or the employee/individual you are coaching). This becomes the “why” behind your support and coaching actions. As a result, your coaching becomes less about what you think and reinforces the culture that you want in your organization. And when you and your employees are looking at the bigger picture together, it should help them be more receptive to you, understand how this impacts both the broader organization and ultimately their individual goals and aspirations. Managers who know the business case for coaching and developing others typically value the process and use it more effectively.

Collaboration Is Key

No matter the situation, coaching conversations should flow both ways with ample opportunity for mutual feedback and discussion. This way, you’re not removing your employees’ responsibility in the matter of doing the work for them. When you establish great coaching relationships with your employees, it can improve every interaction you have with them and makes management far more accessible. Remember, a coach is not the expert but rather a sounding board who can and should reflect back to their people what they see and hear (but not “feel”) regarding their performance as it relates to that vital end goal.

Explore All Possible Solutions

With the help of your employee, brainstorm alternative solutions and possibilities to the issue. Your role is to ensure that your employees come up with specific alternatives to the existing challenges and not create broad or vague solutions. The reason is that you need to hold them accountable to the answers and clearly define what your expectations of the performance are. Your focus is to help them set goals (i.e., SMART) and support them in coming up with specific alternatives to create the highest possibility of success for reaching them. You can provide your own ideas, but be aware that they will carry more weight just because it’s coming from you.

Commitment To Act

Different then getting agreement, the promise here is around taking action and ensuring that they see what’s possible in it for them by taking action. It does not matter how great of a solution or roadmap to get you there is. If your employee doesn’t see it, get it or possibly feel it – then you should pause and recalibrate. You don’t want a false start. This works for you the coach too. Outlining what they (your employee or individual) can expect from you regarding showing up, supporting them, keeping and scheduling meeting times and most importantly ask them if there is anything specific they need from you – will demonstrate the level of integrity you are seeking them to model as well.

Handle excuses

Employees may use excuses to lower your expectations of their performance or just shy away from what they don’t know or feel is outside their comfort zone. You should acknowledge them without giving them an agreement while focusing on the solutions and the SMART Goal. There may be situational factors that may affect the outcome of their performance, and as a coach, you need to take them into consideration so, by all means, keep an open mind. Remember to get curious and do some detective work around both the content and context to what they are sharing. The material is the story. The story is where excuses come from. The background (i.e., emotional state) is where a coach picks up the subtle cues and clues as to why they are hesitant to move forward.

Accountability

Your job is to ensure that your employee understands what you should do if they do not follow through on their commitments. You could ask, “How would you like me to follow up if I don’t hear back from you?” or “If you don’t follow through, how should I help you get back on track?” And then, be sure that you follow through.

If you don’t model accountability, it sends the wrong message and jeopardizes future coaching solutions as well as taints your employee’s listening of you which will prevent further engagement on their end.

I am putting Time Management under this section as it pertains to being, staying and holding others to being accountable.

Remember that coaching can happen in different ways with different needs and circumstances.

Plan your coaching times. Know when they are and ensure that your employee/individual knows. Send calendar invites as well as follow-ups if needed. In the event you cannot make a session, immediately reach out to that employee, communicate the need to reschedule and find a new time as quickly as possible. This will again model both being accountable as well as being in integrity with your words, actions and ultimately the support you have for that person.

The best way to use this information is to apply it during any coaching engagement as a personal checklist both preflight and during.

The reason is quite simple: many trained coaches and/or managers will complete some type of training program and learn to apply that methodology with their people and within their practice, function, and company. There are hundreds of other coaching models that currently exist. Some are more radical and effective while others are redundant.

Your goal is to discover what works best for you AND your people and apply it so that THEY improve.

No one single coaching model will work with everyone-, but you should explore what’s out there. I invite you to use these principles in conjunction with your own personality and style. Any models you feel work for you and your company’s culture are all important factors

Final Thoughts

A manager who sees people’s potential is far better at coaching them towards it. A manager that judges people based on past performance will not get optimal performance. An engaged, well-coached employee will out-perform one mismanaged by a weak boss. If you manage people, you should understand the importance of effective coaching. Management determines effectiveness and productivity.

Have an extra 2 minutes to discover more about yourself? Take the quiz to find out if you’re happy or comfortable.

With Leadership,
Joshua
www.JoshHMiller.com

Joshua Miller is a creative leader and impactful executive coach.

His career spans both the advertising world and the world of leadership. In advertising, he was the creative lead, responsible for the campaign strategy for Fortune 100 brands. Today, he is an innovator. He’s supporting the executive development and change management for many of the same companies.

Joshua studied at Syracuse University, NYU and Stanford. He combines that background with his deep knowledge of organizational behavior, performance and change management. He focuses on the analysis, design, development, delivery, and evaluation of scalable and global talent development solutions programs.

Joshua is a Master Certified Coach. He trained with the International Coaching Federation and CTI (The Coaches Training Institute).

Fact: 80% or more of your communication is non-verbal

At some point in your life, you are going to be asked to make a speech, conduct a meeting or make a presentation as an executive presence. As much as you prep and plan – getting in front of a group of people can be a daunting task. You not only haveto captivatee your audience’s attention. It’s just as important is coming off powerful, polished and precise. This is a skill that many executives pay a hefty sum of money to perfect but one I plan to share with you all of you today.

Executive Presence

So what exactly is this term “executive presence” mean and is it something only executives can obtain? The short answer is no. Anyone can exude executive presence regardless of whether you are C-Level professional or a College Student.

Let’s begin by demystifying what this really means. Many times I get people asking me, “isn’t this really about inner confidence?” – my usual reply is that possessing inner confidence is definitely critical and in large part a huge driver for being able to step in front of room of two or two thousand (plus). But it’s also important to remember that public speaking is only a small piece of the pie when it comes to possessing executive presence. But since we’re on the topic, here is a little fun fact.

Public Speaking is the #1 fear of people, more so than death itself. 

In fact, at any given time according to StatisticBrain.com – 5% of the worlds population ranging in ages from 5 – 50 suffer from the fear of speaking to others. That’s quite a high number but shouldn’t be that surprising when death ranks #2. That said, it does bring us back to what exactly is “executive presence” and how does one go about obtaining some.

According to a recent Harvard Business Review article, they summed up “executive presence” like this:

Ultimately it boils down to your ability to project mature self-confidence, a sense that you can take control of difficult, unpredictable situations; make tough decisions in a timely way and hold your own with other talented and strong-willed members of the executive team.

It further gets to the heart of the matter which is, “can anyone develop executive presence?” – the answer is yes but it will come with some work to do on your end. The first piece according to the article:

• One must possess a baseline of self-confidence and a willingness to deal with the unpredictable situations that go with the territory at the executive level.

Here are some proven methods to get your executive swagger on the next time you have to enter and hold a room:

THE GRAND ENTRANCE

 Entering a room for the first time is critical in setting the tone and stage for how your audience will perceive you and then ultimately listen (or not listen) to you. Before entering, make sure you take a moment to run a mental checklist:

1. Be Bold

Many people walk into a room timidly because they don’t want to appear presumptions or self-important. No one likes arrogance but people respect and appreciate an heir of confidence so they can be reassured that their time won’t be wasted. Walk in with a pep in your step. Remember, you’re supposed to be there, so act like it.

2. Hold Your Breath

Okay not to the point of turning red or gasping for air but  rather take in a deep breath to expand your lungs and hold for a bit and then exhale upon saying hello or introducing yourself. This is an old stage trick many use but few discuss. By doing this, upon exhaling – you draw more blood to your face giving a more lively (and quite possibly) confident appearance.

3. Don’t Slouch

Enough can’t be said regarding having good posture. We live in a world of technology which typically requires us to be hunched over but this is not the time for diminishing your physical presence. When you enter a room, don’t walk in with your shoulders slouched and your head facing down like a toddler who knows they did something wrong. Show your confidence by walking in with your back straight and your chin up. Try not to stick your chest out too much or else it will look like you’re posturing arrogance and over compensating for something else. Just maintain your natural and correct posture. Do this and you’ll add inches to your frame and increase your presence in the room.

4. Do your homework

Specifically around the room in which you will be speaking. Familiarity puts our mind at ease – in fact “certainty” is one of five natural brain cravings we are hardwired to have at any given moment. If you don’t have the opportunity to check out your surroundings beforehand don’t worry, I’ve got something for you. According to one expert, the simple act of moving a few things around on a table or desk upon entering the room will send a message to your brain that you have (some) control over your surroundings. This could be a subtle as rearranging a few items in front of you.

THE BIG SHOW

Okay, you made it to the stage (or meeting room) without any miscues. Nice work – now it’s time to dial in your presentation skills so you don’t lose your audience. Before you open your mouth, make sure you take a moment to run a mental checklist:

1. Make Eye Contact

Any book, expert or not-so-expert will tell you that a simple way to increase your presence in a room and your connection with other people is to look them in the eye. Eye contact is key to creating a connection with people. You should be engaging, but not overbearing. Don’t stare a person down non-stop. You’ll just creep them out. Look into their eyes, while occasionally flitting yours to the sides of their head and then back. One good tip is to divide your audience into sections, establishing eye contact with a few people in one area (around 3-5 seconds per person) and then moving on to the next. But remember, moderation is the key—never breaking eye contact can be just as awkward as never making it at all.

2. Check Your Tone

Nobody wants to recall the famous scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when you are the one speaking. In fact, using that as a perfect example of what not do is spot on. Inflection when speaking is a must. You have to change pace from time to time to keep your audience engaged.Here is a great tip I saw online:• Practice using rhythmic builds. This is when you repeat the same words, in the same place, in three different sentences. For instance: “We have to strive for excellence in execution. We have to strive for excellence in service. We have to strive for excellence in profitability.”Done correctly and effectively, it can create sound patterns that rise in intensity – making both yourself and your presentation resonate while coming off passionate and powerful to your audience.

3. Mind Your Gestures

Gestures should relate to the message and not be a focal point or distraction of the speaker – said another way, make sure you know where your hands are at all times. I say hands because that is what most people cue in on right from the beginning.

Use your hands to create a visual image of the concept you’re trying to communicate. The key is to make sure to keep your gestures within the physical framework of your body so as to not distract your audience (or appear as if you are hailing a taxi). Gestures can be great vehicles for displaying a powerful presence while projecting articulation, but they must be used intentionally and strategically in order to be effective.

The same rings true for walking, pacing or jogging in place (and yes, I saw this once and it wasn’t pretty). Aimless wandering will lose your audience fast so when in doubt keep your movements within a 3 foot radius. How you show up physically sets the tone in which people will react to you and your presence and impact your audience. Start noticing your own body language so that you can begin establishing a strong executive presence.

4. Avoid…um…Awkward Pauses

Begin to notice and stop staying things like “um” and “you know?” and “you know what I mean?” and “like,” and any other variations of this type of babbling. Another critical verbal landline to watch out for is the tendency to “up talk”– that is, don’t end declarative sentences or phrases with an upward inflection, like a question. Lastly, just in case you thought I might have forgotten, some other phrases to avoid at all costs are, “…at the end of the day,” “to be honest,” “In my opinion,” and personal least favorite – “with all due respect…”

Be authentic and know it’s okay to pause to reset and gain your presence but don’t stop.

Here are few more quick tips to remember:• When asserting your ideas keep it short, simple and clear. When in doubt, less is more.• When you are silent, be present by active listening and staying off your devices because people are watching the behavior you are modeling. • Listen like it matters because it does. • When asking questions, keep them on topic or message, short, and oriented toward “what” and “how” and certainly not “why,” and toward the future or present, rather than the past

5. Be Confident, Not Arrogant

Arrogance and executive presence simply don’t play well together. Sure there are many powerful executives out there who people listen to when they speak. But ask those same people whether they would work for them, follow them or even agree with them. I think you may be surprised by what you find. When you’re perceived as arrogant, you’re trying too hard and over compensating for some insecurity.

Others may read it as overbearing and insecure. Either way you are sure to lose your audience if you take on this persona. Instead, if you really want to engage your audience – then focus on them. People want to feel loved, appreciated, and important. We’re drawn to people who show an interest in us. People are like mirrors. When we shine a light on a person, they reflect that light back on us. If we shine a light on every person in the room, we end up being the brightest one there.

For more research on developing your own executive presence:

Final thoughts:

I truly hope that after reading my article you have a better understanding of what executive presence is and how you can begin to possess more of it. This will help you the next time you walk into a room and have to speak other individuals. When in doubt, remember that being nervous is normal and human. And the very best of the best, from presidents down, all sweat from time to time. You just don’t see it.

When you are speaking, don’t worry about what you just said or if you chose the right word. Be in the moment. The key is to have you body, voice, and words in sync at all times. That way your message gets through most effectively. Lastly, nothing can replace taking the time beforehand to prepare yourself for that meeting or presentation. 

People who deserve their seat at the table don’t have to buy it at every meeting but they may have to work to keep it.

When it comes to your executive presence, do you “Purr” or “Roar” when you enter a room? The floor is yours.

With leadership,
Joshua

*****

Not-your-typical Personal and Executive Master Certified Coach. 
Joshua Miller is a creative and impactful leader. His career experience has spanned both the advertising world and the world of leadership and organizational development. In advertising, he was responsible in delivering campaign strategies for Fortune 100 companies. Now he innovates and delivers results when supporting executive talent development and change management for the same clients.