Leadership Presence 101

We just celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Today we celebrated the transfer of power in our democracy. The nature of leadership is top of mind. As a leadership coach, it is always top of mind for me and my clients-women executives.

Much of the work I do with my clients is helping them strengthen their leadership presence. What do we mean by “leadership presence”? Let’s start with one of my favorite researchers in this area of study. Amy Cuddy has defined presence as, “the state of being attuned to and able to comfortably express our true thoughts, feelings, values, and potential (p. 24).

To define leadership presence, we need to add some items to Cuddy’s concept. I use the term “courageous authenticity” to describe Cuddy’s attuned to and expression of our true selves with an important addition; our actions are in alignment with our true selves. We fully embrace our unique purpose and power. Our daily actions and priorities reflect our true selves-our courageous authenticity.

To complete the model, we do our best to practice effective leadership behaviors. Lastly, we act with courageous authenticity and practice leadership in all domains of our life-self, work, home and community. A visual representation of this model of leadership presence is below.

I challenge you to use this time to reflect on your own leadership presence. How well are you embracing your unique purpose and power? Your power are your strengths, skills, talents, knowledge, experiences, etc. How well do your actions and priorities align with your courageous authenticity? Do you walk the walk and talk the talk? How well do you let others see and hear your best self? What is your favorite model of leadership? In what areas do you excel? Where do you want to improve? What is your plan? How well do you integrate all life domains; knowledging that work is a part of life, not separate from it?

These are not easy questions to answer. The good news is you don’t have to answer all of them at one time. I challenge you to focus on one day at a time and reaiize that taking a step back is still progress-it is part of the process. Pick one thing you want to focus on and be more aware. Taking even a small step will strengthen your leadership presence.

Reference:

Cuddy, A. (2015). Presence: Bringing your boldest self to your biggest challenges. New York, New York: Little, Brown and Company