Today: How does executive presence in the virtual world differ from the physical world? How do you ensure you are perceived as a leader? Find out how executive presence works and what it means for you.

Your turn: We'd love to hear from you. Use the "Message" button on the Anchor app to share a story, question, or feedback related to this episode. Or email us at joe@connectioncounselor.com

Learn more: Details about the book, online course, YouTube tutorials and more can be found at www.connectioncounselor.com/executive-presence-place

Music: Earning Happiness by John Bartmann is licensed under a CC0 1.0 Universal License

Transcript

What a crazy year it's been, right, with everything that's going on with COVID and for folks who are fortunate enough to be able to still work from home, it's been a year filled with lots of virtual meetings, right?

So you may have come from an environment where you're really good at navigating in the room and figuring out what you need to do - shaking hands, making alliances, talking to people, getting new ideas, whatever it is you do in that physical space. Maybe that was something you had figured out.

And then all of a sudden the rug is pulled out from underneath your feet. And we're in this brave, new virtual world. The world of back-to-back meetings, the world of Zoom fatigue, the world of do I really have to have my camera on all the time, and the world of worrying what's in your background or someone coming into your background or for some unfortunate people forgetting to wear their pants, in their virtual meeting.

But seriously, I get a question a lot. How can you have executive presence in a virtual setting, right? You're on this tiny little screen, basically compared to being there in person, uh, your screen may or may not be on; other people may or may not be looking at you. The audio is different. Your ability to make eye contact is different, or even just to nudge someone next to you or to whisper or, you know, give someone a hint.

All those things have kind of either been stripped away or have been replaced by new ways of doing that. So it can be very difficult for people to understand how to generate executive presence in a virtual environment - especially if you had it nailed in the physical environment - it can be quite a challenge.

And some people may say, we can't, and we just have to go back to the physical space. And what I like to tell people is that's not entirely true. They're not the same. But, if you look at the same principles and leverage the principles in the context of the new environment, there are definitely things you can do to improve your executive presence in a virtual setting.

So today I'm going to share with you one thing. For me, it's the most powerful thing you can do to generate executive presence in the virtual meeting. And I sum it up with a question, right? Ask yourself for any virtual meeting you're in, "what is the goal of the meeting and how can I help advance the goal?"

Think about that for a second. There's a reason people are having the meeting and whoever scheduled the meeting and the people who are attending want that goal to be advanced. So if you are on the call and you're just sitting back and you're passive or just reactive, and you're not really doing things to help advance the goal, or you're waiting to be asked, and then you're just responding, you're not really doing it yourself, you will be less likely to be perceived as having executive presence.

Versus the person who figures that out and doesn't wait to be asked, but starts to do the things that generate advancing the goal. Now, what if there is no goal to the meeting? Well, then you have a problem because it's hard to show executive presence to advance a goal when there is no goal.

So one of the things you can do in that situation is you can point that out, right? And you can be the person who says, wait a second, this meeting is not a productive use of anyone's time and offer alternate suggestions. Now, I understand what some of you may be thinking, whoa, career suicide, Joe. I am not going to do that. I am not in a position to make that call. And, that's totally right and I totally get that.

However, that doesn't mean you have to sit by passively and do nothing. What you can do in that situation is, if you don't have as much power or you don't feel as bold or comfortable doing that, you can ask questions to clarify that.

So you get clarification and get the people who do have the power thinking about it. So for instance, you could say, it's not entirely clear to me why we're here. I just want to make sure I can contribute to the best. Can you remind me again? What is the one major thing we want to accomplish coming out of this meeting?

So that's a clarifying question. Just by asking that question, you will be perceived as someone whose spirit and intention is to advance the goals and that will inform how people feel about your executive presence.

Another alternative in the same vein is you can make a suggestion and ask for others to weigh in. So you can say something like, maybe could we spend the next minute just getting input from everyone as to what the number one goal is or what the one thing we want to advance on this call is 'cause that would really help me clarify things and contribute better. So ask that question, then have others weigh in.

You don't always have to solve the question yourself to advance the goal. However, by doing that, you at the end of the call, will always be appreciated by the person who created the call, as well as the other people who are on the call, who frankly don't really want to waste their time on a call that has no point or no goal.

So think about that question. What is the goal of the meeting and how can I advance that goal to create outsized executive presence, even in a virtual setting. This is Joe Kwon, the Connection counselor. Thank you for listening to Executive Presence Morsels. Remember, it's not what you say do or wear, it's how you make people feel that generates executive presence. Nothing else matters.