Impact and Gravitas for Women: Executive Presence

This blog was written for Improving Communications by guest bloggers Annie Fine & Cat Clancy.

Gravitas was one of the ancient Roman virtues that denoted “seriousness”. It is also translated variously as weight, dignity, and importance and connotes restraint and moral rigor. It also conveys a sense of responsibility and commitment to the task. Wikipedia

For all our progress in the modern workplace, women are still do not always get the rewards for their strengths or their particular style of communication. But how to build that gravitas or executive presence?

If you’re a woman reading this, you may recognise the feelings. Those of not being able to get your point across and battling perceptions of the kind of roles women should play in the workplace.

Building Gravitas and Executive Presence

Ultimately of course, we want perceptions to change and for unconscious bias to shift. In the meantime, we need to be pragmatic and take personal responsibility for our own communication style.

Here are some practical tips about how to represent your expertise effectively and be as visible as possible in meetings:

• Represent your ideas vocally in a way that makes you sound as though you believe in what you say. Cultivate the ability to pitch down at the ends of sentences and land your point. In the end you need to sound as though you’re making a statement rather than asking a question or needing validation.
• Avoid prefacing ideas with disclaimers. Have you ever said, ‘this might be a bad idea’ or ‘I’m not sure this is going to work.’ Those are a self-protecting reflex we have internalised over years being shot down. Unfortunately, that can set up doubt other people’s minds before you even expressed yourself and give them an easy ‘out’ for not taking you seriously.
  Keep things exploratory, start off with ‘what about?’ or explain that you’re thinking aloud, but essentially make sure you edit out any words that devalue your own ideas.
• Use the acting technique of ‘accept and build’. Interject into fast-flowing conversations by acknowledging someone’s point through a brief bit of paraphrasing and then pivoting to what you want to say. By doing that you will have made them feel seen and heard and built a good reception for your point, even if you express disagreement.
• Deter interruptions. Have a very clear structure to what you’re saying. You might list your evidence by saying ‘there are three reasons why I think this will work’ to alert people you’re going to go through three stages and that they need to hear you out. Or you might talk through the options you’ve considered to deter pushback and strengthen your final solution.
• Be aware of the feedback loop between physicality and state of mind. Use decisive gestures, open out your shoulders, and engage with your eye contact. Take the space you are entitled to! Change your posture and send different signals to the brain. Create room for a more resilient mindset.

Moving Forward

Being strategic in your approach to communication can help you to capitalise on the strengths and talents that you bring to the workplace. Give yourself more choice and control over perceptions, increase your gravitas and executive presence.

Practicing these mindful communication tools will ensure that you are being you ‘on a good day’, every day. Ultimately, they will help you to hold your ground in challenging situations. The corporate norms may take time to change, but we don’t have to!

Other Guest Blogs:

Jeff Goldberg: 3 Sales Tips that Work

Ramona da Gama: What Now After the Lockdown

Michelle LaFiura: 4 Tips for Having a Good Conversation