LEADERSHIP PRESENCE: WHAT’S THE POINT?

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A recurring theme throughout our recent strategy meetings has been a quest to explore why Leadership Presence is important in business and why our clients and participants should care. This is a valid question—

-What IS the point of Leadership Presence?

-And why SHOULD you care?

A Tiny Sampling of the Nearly Infinite Number of Reasons
to Care About Leadership Presence:

Leaders with Presence Create Followership.
Epictetus, a Greek philosopher of the 1st century had the right idea: “The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.” A leader who has developed authentic leadership presence builds relationships with her people, engenders trust, communicates her values and inspires others by her ability to use metaphor and story to transmit even the most complex and potentially difficult messages. We naturally follow those who uplift us!

Leaders with Presence Build Trust.
In their book The Trusted Advisor, David Maister, Charles Green and Robert Galford  identify the following characteristics of trust:

• Trust is both rational and emotional
• Trust assumes a two-way relationship
• Trust is personal

In developing Leadership Presence, we invite participants to move beyond the rational and to explore the emotional connection to both the subject matter of their presentations and to the people with whom they interact – engaging their EQ along with the IQ. Furthermore, as part of developing a two-way relationship infused with trust, we know that it has to be personal to be successful. Listening to understand the other person and what they value – “to listen for…” – is at the heart of building relationships. After all, “we don’t trust institutions, we don’t trust processes, we trust people.”[1]

Leaders with Presence Accept Themselves.
Lao Tzu, the 6th century BC philosopher, wrote: “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.” This is at the heart of self-knowing, a critical dimension of Leadership Presence: the ability to accept yourself and your limitations; to be secure and comfortable with yourself and to be seen by others in the same way; never trying to be something or someone you’re not. Ultimately in leadership, wisdom and true power are more valuable than intelligence and strength.

Leadership Presence Underscores Authenticity.
The word “authentic” is defined with many words: true, trustworthy, credible, worthy of belief, genuine, real. At the Ariel Group, we believe there are three dimensions of an authentic leader:

• Accept yourself and your limitations – be seen as secure and fully comfortable with yourself
• Know, live and express your values, principles and beliefs – be consistent between what you believe, say and do
• Connect personally with your work and speak about this connection with those you lead – create meaning for yourself and others

Why do you/should you care about Leadership Presence?

Tags: Charles Green,David Maister,InterMission Newsletter,leadership presence,Richard Richards,Robert Galford,The Trusted Advisor