Measuring Executive Presence

How you measure your Executive Presence - by achievement, or by attendance?!

Sure, go ahead and laugh, but a lot of executives believe, to their (and their staff's) detriment, that "face" time is the answer. Playing the "visibility game" like that may give the illusion of working - and may sometimes even seem to work -, but:

True Executive Presence is not measured in minutes, but by one's impact.

That's not to say that visibility is irrelevant - being "seen" is a form of impact. But it's what you do when you're seen that matters more. Indeed, there are many ways that executives can have a significant impact:

• some excel at thinking strategically
• some excel at understanding the needs and wants of key stakeholders (customers, business partners, staff, bosses, competition, etc.)
• some excel at conflict resolution and/or having difficult conversations
• some excel at articulating the likely unintended consequences of a proposed action
• some excel at creating contingency plans and fall-back processes
• some excel with start-up opportunities
• some excel at turnaround situations
• some excel at being a great sounding-board to other executives

While this is surely not a comprehensive list, notice that "working hard" is nowhere to be found on it. That's not to say that working hard is not important. It's just to say, though, that as with being "seen", working hard is typically not enough. While they both may enable Executive Presence, Executive Presence is more about what results from your work, not just how much effort you put into it - or who happens to see you when.

Something else to consider the next time you're just showing up to be seen:

Idle minutes of visibility tend to decrease one's visibility and diminish one's credibility.

Why might I say that, I wonder?