Change Masters Incorporated - The Blog
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“While we may refer to executive presence as a ‘soft skill’, it is the differentiating factor that complements strategic, technical, and operational mastery. In my observations, the “soft” skills are often the most “hard” to master. In our fast- paced business life and pressure to perform, finding that human edge to listen, learn, think, and persuade can lose out to dogmatic ordering.”
Stew Atkinson, Chief Purchasing Officer at Procter & Gamble
Executive Presence Tip by Carol Keers
“Tell me about your relationship with your board” is the CEO coaching equivalent of the therapist’s “Tell me about your relationship with your mother.” Think of this when considering who your centers of influence need to influence when pitching ideas to them!
Executive Presence Tip – Carol Keers
An example was in a New York Times interview recently. The interviewer started his sentence with, “So I feel like”… garbage words all! Instead of saying, as he did, “So I feel like we’re in this weird bubble right now”, think of how much more powerful it would be to just say, “We’re in this weird bubble right now.”
Remember – shorter sounds smarter! “Garbage words” add no value to your opening statement. In fact, they detract from it! They are rampant – and the biggest offender is the word “so”. Opening a sentence with the word “so” kills your impact. We see this all the time with our clients. Once you hear it, you’ll see how overused it is. I blame the Kardashians!
Take out the garbage, shorten your sentences and quit “so-ing”! It will make you sound far more powerful in your content and delivery.
Executive presence tip – Carol Keers
Politics are the relationships that help you get things done in a way that deals with the reality of the way people are … not how you would like them to be.
You are paid to get things done, so you are paid to not ignore politics. Accept that managing politics is just a part of the job. If you don’t, you will only hurt yourself and your team.
Executive Presence Tip – Carol Keers