In short
- Executive presence is influence beyond your job title. It lives in other people’s perceptions, which means it changes when your behaviour does.
- Senior leaders rate gravitas well above communication, and communication well above appearance.
- The “7% words, 38% tone, 55% body language” rule does not apply to most of what leaders say.
- First impressions form in seconds, but much of presence is judged over months: whether you deliver, and whether you are the same person under pressure.
- Composure, a clear point and a steady voice can all be practised.
What executive presence is
“Executive presence” turns up in appraisals and promotion panels far more often than anyone defines it. One of the few studies to pin it down interviewed 34 business professionals with expertise in how executives perform. The researchers, Dagley and Gaskin, concluded that executive presence “is based on audience perceptions of the characteristics of particular people”, and described the person who has it as someone who “exerts influence beyond that conferred through formal authority”.
They identified ten characteristics, in two groups:
- Judged quickly, in first impressions: status and reputation, physical appearance, projected confidence, communication ability, and engagement skills.
- Judged over time: interpersonal integrity, values in action, intellect and expertise, the ability to deliver outcomes, and the use of coercive power.
The last item is a reminder that presence is not always benign: the study also describes a “dark” form of presence. The useful point for everyone else is in the definition itself: presence is what other people perceive, so it is shaped by what you do.
What senior leaders say counts
The best-known survey comes from the Center for Talent Innovation, whose research underpinned Sylvia Ann Hewlett’s book Executive Presence. Asked what executive presence is made of, 268 senior executives answered:
| Component | Share of senior executives | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Gravitas | 67% say it is the core of executive presence | Confidence and “grace under fire” came first, then acting decisively |
| Communication | 28% say it signals leadership potential | Speaking skills, then the ability to command a room |
| Appearance | 5% see it as a key factor | Mainly a filter: rarely decisive, but able to derail the rest |
For anyone working on their presence, the order is the message. How you hold yourself when things get difficult matters far more than what you wear, and what you say and how you say it sits in between.
The 7-38-55 rule, and why it misleads
You will often hear that only 7% of communication is the words, 38% the tone of voice and 55% body language. The figures come from experiments by the psychologist Albert Mehrabian in the 1960s, and he has been clear about their limits. The experiments dealt with communicating feelings and attitudes, such as liking or disliking someone, and in his words: “Unless a communicator is talking about their feelings or attitudes, these equations are not applicable.”
So when you explain a strategy to a board, the words carry the argument. What the research does support is narrower and still useful: when your words and your tone disagree, people believe the tone. If you say you are confident in a plan, sound as though you are.
First impressions, and second ones
First impressions really are fast. In a well-known 1993 study, Nalini Ambady and Robert Rosenthal showed strangers silent video clips of teachers, under 30 seconds in total. Their ratings predicted the teachers’ end-of-semester evaluations from students who had spent months with them.
But first impressions are only half the picture. Half of the characteristics in the Dagley and Gaskin study are judged over time: whether you keep your word, whether you deliver, whether your values show in what you do. A strong first impression that is not borne out does lasting damage. Presence that lasts comes from being the same person in the board meeting, the corridor and the crisis. The Experience podcast’s explainer on authenticity makes the same point from the psychology side: people trust behaviour they can read.
How to build it
Stay composed when you are challenged
Gravitas is mostly what people see when things get difficult. Work out the questions you would least like to be asked, and practise answering them out loud, ideally with someone pushing back. When the challenge comes, pause, acknowledge the point and answer it. Respond to the question rather than the tone it was asked in. The tough question drill gives you fifty to practise on.
Say the point first
Lead with your conclusion, then give the reason and the evidence. If you are interrupted after one sentence, people should still know what you think. Before any important meeting, write your point in a single sentence; if you cannot, you are not ready to make it. The soundbite timer shows how long an answer takes to say and flags the sentences that run long.
Slow down, and use the pause
Most people speak faster when they are nervous, and fast speech reads as nerves. British radio is read at around 180 words a minute, which is slower than most people talk in a meeting. A pause before an important point tells the room it matters, and a pause before answering a hard question looks like thought rather than hesitation. Breathe out before you start.
Be still
Fidgeting, swaying and touching your face all leak nerves. Plant your feet, keep your hands still when you are not using them, and let your gestures support the point rather than release tension. Watching a recording of yourself with the sound off is the quickest way to see what you do.
Listen first, then adapt
Engagement is one of the characteristics people judge in the first few minutes. Ask a real question, listen to the answer and use it. Then pitch what you say to the audience in front of you: a board wants the decision and the risk, a team wants to know what changes for them, a journalist wants the line they can use.
Look and sound credible on screen
Many first impressions now happen on video calls. A camera at eye level, light in front of you and a decent microphone make more difference than anything you wear. Our guide to being on camera from your desk covers the set-up.
Deliver, consistently
The second half of presence is built slowly: doing what you said you would, saying the same thing to different audiences, and behaving the same way on a bad day as on a good one.
Getting feedback you can use
“You need more presence” is common feedback and almost useless on its own. The Center for Talent Innovation found it is also unevenly given. Women in its study were less likely than men to have had feedback on their presence from a senior man (32% against 47%), and 56% of professionals of colour felt held to a stricter standard of presence, against 31% of white professionals.
So ask for feedback that describes behaviour:
- Ask three people you trust what you did in a particular meeting that worked, and one thing you could change.
- Record yourself presenting or answering questions. Watch it once with the sound off and listen once without the picture.
- Ask colleagues to fill in our executive presence self-check about you, and compare their answers with yours.
Can coaching help?
The evidence on workplace coaching is encouraging. A 2016 meta-analysis of 17 studies by Rebecca Jones, Stephen Woods and Yves Guillaume found that coaching had positive effects on outcomes overall, and that it worked whether it was done face to face or blended with remote sessions.
Coaching tends to work best when it is aimed at something specific and close: a board presentation, a promotion panel, a select committee appearance, a first broadcast interview. Practising for a real moment, with honest feedback, builds the habits faster than practising in the abstract. That is the basis of our executive presence coaching. To see where you stand now, try the executive presence self-check.