Most CEO’s believe they have strong Leadership Presence.

But if you measure it by how you feel or how often you speak, you’re measuring the wrong thing.

You measure your Leadership Presence by the impact you have on others.

And that impact shows up immediately:

1. As a Powerful Leader your impact creates space for others to engage, collaborate and are willing to challenge you.
2. As a Forceful Leader your impact shuts others down, leading to disengagement.
3. As a Powerless Leader your impact creates confusion through absence. Failing to show up when your leadership is needed!

So, the question is not: Do you have Leadership Presence?

The question is: What happens to people when you show up?

If you’re serious about showing up consistently as a Powerful Leader, here are four leadership practices to focus on:

1. Speak last.

In meetings, practice speaking last. This allows others to think independently, rather than “Parroting” or echoing your views.

A CEO that I work with believed he was highly collaborative. In his executive meetings, he would share his perspective early, “to lead by example and to help guide the discussion.” The result? His team nodded, agreed and the discussion moved quickly making for an efficient meeting on the surface.

But afterwards, in smaller conversations, something very different was happening:

• Concerns were being raised
• Better ideas were being shared
• And decisions were quietly being questioned

Nothing was wrong with his strategy. The problem was his Leadership Presence. The moment he spoke first, independent thinking of others left the conversation. When he shifted one behaviour, speaking last, the energy changed almost immediately.

• Open discussion increased
• Ownership increased
• And the quality of collaborative decisions improved

Not because the team changed, because his Leadership Presence shifted from Being Closed to Being Open.

2. Be Intentional about how you listen:

In every conversation, you are listening to:

• Fix
• Win
• Or Connect

Powerful Leaders listen to connect first, which allows they to create trust, ownership and real alignment with others!

3. Stop stacking meetings

When you move from one conversation to the next without space between meetings, you don’t lead, you react!.  

4. Prepare with intention.

Remember that the quality of your preparation shapes the quality of your participation you will have with others.

Most leaders don’t have a presence problem. The have an impact problem and they’re not measuring with honesty.

Here’s your challenge:

In your next three meetings, don’t change the agenda. Change your Leadership Presence by:

• Speaking last
• Listen to understand
• Create space
• Show up prepared

Then ask yourself, “Did people open up or shut down?”

Because the answer is your real Leadership Metric.