Executive Presence
A Systematic Guide to Getting People to Listen When You Speak
For the longest time I thought that having executive presence meant wearing the executive uniform (suits in the early 2000s and Patagonia vests post 2015), having a full head of hair (salt and pepper for an added oomph) parted sideways, being white, male, tall, and speaking in confident declarations (and waving your hands for additional flair) even when I had no idea what I was talking about. As I started getting closer to actual executives, I finally learned what it means to have executive presence. Executive presence is not something people automatically get with a promotion or by spending time in a role or at a company. It is something that can be systematically learned, as I did. Even a junior engineer can develop their executive presence if they want to.
Before we dig into how to build executive presence, let’s quickly unpack what executive presence actually is. A quick Google search will reveal many explanations of what executive presence is, but to put it simply, you have executive presence if people, regardless of how high up the hierarchy they are, listen to you when you speak. You are able to hold the room’s attention if you want to. It’s as simple as that. If people listen when you speak up, you have executive presence. Let’s now unpack how to develop executive presence.
Be well read - The prerequisite for holding a room’s attention is being well-read—and I don’t mean just in your field. If you’re an engineer wanting to develop executive presence, understanding engineering concepts isn’t enough. You need knowledge in every field your company relies on to run: marketing (brand and product), product, finance, legal, etc. Think about the executives you’ll be in the room with and build up knowledge in each of their disciplines. I’m not suggesting you get a PhD in every field, but read at least a book or two about each. If books aren’t your thing, online courses, podcasts, and masterclasses can quickly help you develop a broader worldview.
Why bother? Because your presentations become exponentially more interesting when you can weave in how your idea affects other disciplines. If you pitch an engineering project to the executive team and purely focus on engineering benefits, you’ll lose half the room. But if you call out how it impacts customers, how the company might market it as a feature, how that feature could affect pricing, and any legal implications, you’ll pull in the entire team. Do this a few times and the executive team will automatically start listening when you speak—they might even ask you to join meetings when they’re making big decisions. And if you want to really stand out, become well-read in general topics. Read the news (both left, right, and center), political books, autobiographies, fiction, leadership stories, other essays from this substack (I had to!), historical accounts, and everything in between. I would even go one step further and say watch TV. Yes, watch movies, shows, documentaries, and for bonus learning, watch movies or shows that are in a language you don’t understand. Bottom line, the broader your knowledge base, the more valuable your perspective becomes and the faster you can convince people to listen to you.
Be well put together - Just like nobody takes health advice from an unhealthy-looking doctor, nobody will listen if you don’t make an effort to care about how you show up. I don’t mean you need expensive clothes and jewelry—you need to show up like you care about yourself. Clean clothes, well-groomed, good posture, firm handshakes, strong eye contact. I’ve seen countless people fail to make an impression because they didn’t put in the bare minimum effort for a high-stakes meeting.
Some of you are probably thinking: shouldn’t we be inclusive of everyone, regardless of how they show up? To an extent, yes. But if you’re trying to convince a group or make an impression, you need to reduce the friction between you and your idea. Make it easy for the group to come over to your side. The way you show up is half the battle—don’t let your appearance become a distraction from what you have to say.
Be aware - I remember this one time, a very smart engineer tried to pitch a new service idea to me. I don’t remember the specifics, but it involved breaking apart a problematic part of the monolithic application that was currently running in production and pulling it out into an independent service that would allow the engineering team to scale it more efficiently. The problem was real, the solution was well-thought-out, and that engineer had a track record of delivering results. I couldn’t green-light the project.
The mistake the engineer made was not asking me before he went and did the analysis, what is top of mind for me? What are the things that are keeping me up at night? If he had, I would have told him that the single most important issue I wanted to solve (in that moment in time) was to thwart off a competitor who was taking away market share from us. It wasn’t just me; the entire executive team was constantly thinking about this competitor and how to keep them at bay.
One of the key skills to hone if you want to develop executive presence is to figure out whether the problem you’re trying to solve has ripened enough. And the easiest way to figure that out is to talk to the executives regularly. Every executive (including me) is usually pretty generous with their time and can’t shut up if you ask them what’s keeping them up at night. But even if the executives at your company are not that generous with their time, pay attention to them when they speak up in meetings, AMAs, all-hands meetings, etc. The more aware you are of how the leadership at your company looks at the business world, the better prepared you will be when you have to go in front of them to convince them of something.
Be well spoken - So you have done everything. You are well-read, you are aware, well put together, and you are now about to start speaking. Do you need to get trained in public speaking to finish your executive presence arc? Public speaking training won’t hurt, but it isn’t necessarily required. To grab the room’s attention, you have to do the following:
Tell stories. Audiences love hearing narratives. When you speak about any topic, tell a story. Start with the beginning. Set the stage (explain the background), introduce the main characters (the main problem) in the story, move on to the core conflict (why solving the problem is important), and end with a grand climax (how solving it will help the business) when the protagonist defeats the antagonist despite all odds. If you can present your thoughts in a relevant, coherent, and easy-to-understand manner, you can get the room to pay attention.
Reduce verbal graffiti - Most people have the tendency to bridge their sentences with ‘uhhh’, ‘ummm’, ‘like’, ‘so’, etc. These words are filler words and will only distract the listener from your core message. When you want to bridge your sentences, try pausing, finishing, or using a transitional phrase (e.g., ‘What I mean by that’) to continue your narrative. Earlier in my career, I would lean very heavily on ‘so’ to bridge my sentences. Hec,k even now, if I don’t pay attention to what I am saying, I will subconsciously bridge sentences with ‘so’. What has helped me speak more clearly, without filler words, is to record myself talking, spot the filler words, and then practice pausing or other transitional words to bridge sentences. There is no magic here besides practice. Additionally, pausing has the additional benefit of making your audience lean forward to listen to you. Try the following at work. Say half a sentence, and wait for the audience to automatically lean in to hear what you have to say next. Presidents, statesmen, and world leaders all use the pause to reel in their audiences.
Say fewer words - I know your brain is telling you to keep filling the silence with words, but resist it. Just say enough words to get your point across and wait for the room to process it and come back to you with clarifying questions. If you say more than needed, your core idea might be lost in the noise, and you will lose the room. It’s best to be known as the person who says a few well-thought-out sentences rather than the one who can fill awkward silences the best. Embrace the awkward silence!
Listen - The best way to learn how to speak well is to listen to how others do it. Watch other executives and leaders work the room. Watch public figures speak on stage. There are numerous public leaders who are worth learning from. A fantastic example is David Attenborough. Every word he says in the background of his documentaries is deliberate, thoughtful, and designed to make the listeners lean in.
That’s it! Executive presence can be systematically learned—I’ve done it, and I’ve helped other product and engineering leaders do it too. If you want to work on yours, I have a few coaching spots open. Reach out at info@maheshguruswamy.com.