How to Look Like a CEO at Every Meeting: These 7 steps will improve your “executive presence”

“Executive presence” is one of those important qualities that many women, and some men, hear they don’t have. Unfortunately, it’s not so easy to know what to do with that feedback. In my last post, I shared how the definition isn’t so helpful—but taking steps to assess where you are can be. If you haven’t done that assessment yet, start there.

Now that you know where you are and how others see you in specific areas, you need to develop a plan, take what you know and put it into action. Like any other skill development, practicing executive presence is very important. You have more opportunities than you think, including meetings, emails, documents and elevator pitches—those unplanned opportunities where you can share what you do with someone who could help you achieve your objectives.

Let’s start with meetings. Take out your calendar and look at your meetings for the next month. Ask yourself, “How will I convince people about my technical skills in these meetings?” Write down your ideas. And if you need help, ask some of your trusted colleagues or friends to assist you. Then, practice these seven steps:

1. Gauge your body language.

The word “acumen” means to be seen and heard. Speak, sit and stand like you are worth listening to in every meeting you are in. Make it a habit to sit across from the key decision makers, and don’t be shy. Always sit at the table—don’t be a “back bencher” and pick a seat behind those at the table. You will notice others do this naturally—often they are ones who have been identified with executive presence. This is not a coincidence.

2. Stay engaged.

During the meeting, lean into the table and stay fully engaged through the whole time. Close your laptop and mute your phone. You don’t want to miss a critical opportunity to contribute. This one is hard. I have struggled when I am juggling multiple priorities. Do your best. I made a standing exception if I get a call from one of my kids. I found their view of urgent and mine didn’t quite match up, but I wanted them to know I was always there for them and they were my priority.

3. Do your research.

Make sure you know ahead of time these three things: 1) the purpose of the meeting, 2) why you need to attend, and 3) who are the decision makers. Then spend time doing your research about what ideas or data you could bring to the discussion to achieve the objective or help the decision makers see a different view. Be creative. Do you have ideas that haven’t been shared before?

When you do share opinions and recommendations, support them with data. Use the broad definition of data here—could be qualitative, quantitative or customer anecdote. Each can provide a different perspective.

4. Know your audience.

When you present, think about your audience. Are they engineers who need to know the inner workings to be successful or are they busy executives who only need information at a higher level?

Then, provide the right level of depth and context. Think through what will help actually make a decision. I had a PM on my team do a huge amount of analysis to get a more precise answer. But the answer wouldn’t have made any difference to the decision so it wasn’t a good use of time.

Use stories and analogies to make your points memorable and, frankly, the meetings less painful. It also helps when you are working cross functionally. I remember an executive asking a scientist if two things were basically the same. The scientist’s answer was illuminating and memorable. He responded, “If you think waterproof and water resistant are the same, then yes.”

5. Ask the right questions.

Most meetings suffer because the participants don’t know how to ask good, probing questions and don’t know how to provide relevant, concise answers. Critical thinking and analysis depend on both. Invest in improving your questions and answers. I highly recommend Vervago to get you or your team started. I have brought this approach to multiple teams, in multiple countries and disciplines and it always provides participants a great place to start building these skills.

6. Use great meeting hygiene.

Make sure you have everyone in the room needed to make a decision or progress but no one who doesn’t need to be there. Always send out an agenda ahead of time. During the meeting, keep the discussion moving, ensure all voices are heard, invite everyone to sit at the table, make sure your room is the right size and document follow-up steps. Then, follow up with progress updates.

7. Solicit feedback.

Get feedback from attendees to find out if your contributions were valuable and on-point. Ask what they see as an area of improvement. Invite critical feedback as that will be most valuable to you. Within a couple months of consistent practice and soliciting feedback, you should find it much easier to convince others of your skills—and your potential to be the next CEO.

I also write on Adoptive Families Circle, Melting Pot Family, and my personal blogs: Balancing Motherhood and Career and Ethiopian Ties. You can find me on Twitter too ellenorea