“Dominique is smart, people like her, she gets things done. But we can’t promote her to VP yet. She has no executive presence.”

Imagine Dominique‘s reaction when she heard those words spoken by her senior management.

“But, but, but … I’m qualified! I don’t get it!”

That one missing ingredient was stopping it all.

What is executive presence?

It’s an aura.

An aura is the distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to surround, and be generated by, a person.  It’s a subtle emanation around living beings, and is regarded as an essential part of the individual.

It comes from the Greek word aura which means “cool breeze”.

An aura is what you emanate.   Not what you’re trying to emanate.  But what you do emanate.  Whether or not you are speaking.  Even silently.

It’s powerful.

What Dominique emanated when we started her coaching was intense concentration, intelligence, and determination. She also emanated an undercurrent of anxiety, worry, carefulness, and a “trying to please”, especially when she was talking to people above her on the command line.

Dominique couldn’t see herself.  She only saw the reactions of others. 

Her peers, and all the people who report to her, respected her authority.  Not so for the folks above her.  She didn’t have the executive presence to lead from a VP level.

As I showed Dominique what she was doing, she realized that what she was emanating explained why people above her on the command line were reacting to her the way they were.

Dominique had to understand presence before she could begin to understand executive presence, which is a very specialized presence.

What are the key ingredients and the recipe?  What are the steps from here to there?  How does it become completely natural?

As Dominique unveiled the mystery behind an aura, hers completely changed.  It changed with no effort.  Dominique just naturally shifted into it. 

Others now say that that when they look at her, what they see is the aura of an executive. They’re all a little mystified at how she did it.

Dominique’s organization is in the chaos of a major re-org.  It’s a chaos that is driving many people mad. There’s tremendous confusion and uncertainty.  Promotions that had been promised are now null and void.

And it’s in the middle of this crazy tumult that Dominique was told last week by numerous people, many of them higher up, that what she now emanates is “In the face of chaos, poise.”

People calm down when she’s in the room. 

Dominique also has a new aura of authority and command. The aura of a leader. And it’s with this aura that she approaches all of her communications.

She is not “becoming” a vice president. She is being a vice president 

You have one aura when you are becoming. You have a completely different aura when you have achieved it and are very naturally being.

Dominique is NOT, “Faking until she makes it.”  Don’t think for a minute that you can get away with “faking it”. 

The real deal is REAL.  Real is real.  And the world can sense whether it’s real.

 The re-org chaos that’s infected everyone else has no effect on her. Why?

Because Dominique’s in control of her journey.

Dominique now commands attention. She commands respect from every level of the organization.

It’s not the kind of command where she gives orders. Command is very different than demand.

Dominique demands nothing. She commands everything.  She uses a very light touch, yet her light touch is compelling and very well received.

Dominique is now on the fast track for her promotion with support coming from the very top of the organization.

They’re nodding and saying, “She should be a VP.”  And when it’s that obvious to everyone, the decision to make it happen goes into effect more rapidly than expected.  Like now.

You can imagine how much Dominique is enjoying this.  She has great goals that will really help her organization.  She loves people and she’s here to help them win.  Now she’s in a position to really make a difference on a large scale.  It’s a real, “Look out, world!” moment in Dominique’s life and the lives of all the people who are looking forward to having her as their leader.

Presence is the atmosphere your being creates.  Your presence alone creates an atmosphere.  It comes from what you emanate.  Your words are subordinate and secondary to your presence.  Few people realize that.

What you emanate comes from within.  Because you create it, you can control it.  You can make it what you want.  

If you want executive presence, ask yourself:  What atmosphere does my presence create?  Does my presence reflect the chaos outside?  Or the profound poise within?

Be the cause!