Oct 06 Today’s Top Leadership: How to Accelerate to New Heights
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Skill development is a huge area of opportunity. Just as organizations profit by promoting talent from within, you as an individual leader can reap tremendous rewards when you invest in developing your leadership from the inside. The main reason leaders aren’t moving ahead is their lack of executive presence. But the root cause of that goes much deeper.
I’m one of the few executive presence coaches who focuses on the cause, not just the symptoms. I work to remove the internal barriers before we jump ahead to the external presence challenges. That makes success with those important externals like executive leadership presence much easier and more sustainable. That’s why it consistently opens the doors for my clients to win predictable promotions.
Let me share five foundational ideas with you. These lead to the acceleration of executive presence because they explore the source and fountainhead of that valuable leadership charisma.
Five Foundational Ideas
1) Positive Mindset: Every day you have 100% control of how you are going to see things through your positive perspective lens. Leaders need to have the mental flexibility to see the good and the opportunity in every situation, setback, or challenging problem, even when things aren’t going your way.
2) From Impossible to Predictable: Learn how to interpret possibility, versus imagining how impossible it all is, and watch as the whole dynamic shifts. That’s how you become a solution-oriented and innovative thinker. Companies are looking for that kind of mindset today, and this kind of internal development will ensure you have a place on the higher rungs of the corporate hierarchy.
3) Confidence: You have to move through whatever is holding you back – whether it’s public speaking, giving a presentation to the C-Suite, or developing more open and collaborative relationships with colleagues. Confidence doesn’t come after you reach the end goal; it comes to you as you hit the important mile markers along the way.
4) Leverage Your Strengths: While working with my private clients we identify their natural strengths, gifts, and talents. They also admit those are the same assets they leveraged to overcome past challenges. So take an inventory of your strengths and focus on them 80%, while spending only 20% of your energies on strengthening your weaknesses.
5) Brand Value: The brand value-add that you and your team bring to the table determines your leadership reputation and trajectory. That’s why you have to be crystal clear on how to define and project your personal brand value. Accomplish that and you’ll be offered your seat at the table at the next highest level.
Time to Get Real
Genuine, authentic executive presence can never be accomplished on a superficial level. Sure, how you look and speak and show up visibly matters. But for it to really resonate it has got to emanate from deep inside. Otherwise it lacks gravitas and comes off lightweight. Go inside yourself to find the leader you were meant to be. That’s the acceleration formula for iconic executive presence.
Are you there yet? Or is this your moment in time to capitalize on the support and expertise of an outside executive coach or consultant to help you put it all together and move into high gear? You get consistent and sustainable results when you begin to become internally aware of what’s holding you back.
As my private clients begin to work on these internal goals/belief systems, they illuminate and overcome obstacles they never thought they’d get beyond. There is a priceless bonus that most leaders don’t realize until they’ve done this internalized work, too. What is it? When you focus internally, the rewards are holistic, sustainable, and life-changing.
Both your internal self and your external career will thrive – and that’s the secret to winning the elusive work/life balance everyone so desperately desires. That can propel your leadership career while it also invigorates your interpersonal relationships – including those with your significant other or your children.
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Sarah Hathorn, CEO of Hathorn Consulting Group, is the go-to-expert in working with leaders and companies to create successful corporate DNA. As an executive coach, consultant and speaker she collaborates globally with clients and brands such as Deloitte, McKesson, Kimberly-Clark, Sherwin-Williams, Home Depot and other leading organizations.
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