Power of Presence

July 10, 2019 Kristi Hedges

Kristi Hedges defines presence and explains how best to capture it to satisfy people’s adequate perceptions without compromising your uniqueness. There are certain keywords that come to our mind when we think of people who are charismatic like –
Influential, Comical, Inspiring, Assertive, Engaging, Confident, Dynamic, Commanding etc…
However is it possible to become dynamic overnight? Well Kristi opines that it must be done with an Inside-Out approach rather than the Outside-In Approach. Let us take an example here. Kristi argues that wearing power suits and commanding gestures, eye contacts cannot be sustained for a longer period if it is not coming from within.
She talks about Intentional, Individual & Inspirational as the 3 pillars for making our presence. Always there is a narrative that we build about people when we see/listen/interact with them. These narratives affect the body language, facial expressions etc… Sub-consciously.
Intentional –
• Core values that we must remember and keep it with us overtime
• Situational Intention – How we want to show up but intentionally
For Situational Intention she takes an example of CEO of a technology company who was nervous about a big acquisition meeting and how she changed her perception from “We are not ready for it” to “We deserve it” and how she managed the meeting to win the deal for her company to move to the Top 500 list. She calls this as the intentionality frame.
Individual –
People make connections with leaders only if they relate to them as individuals. What does this mean?
Kristi states that “In the workplace, strong connections make us more productive employees, better co-workers, and motivating leaders. Connections provide us with influence…Once upon a time, when you wanted to win someone over you’d do it informally; you’d walk down the hall for a friendly chat or catch up at happy hour. But when your colleagues are scattered across the country (or around the world), that becomes considerably harder to pull off.”
Hedges suggests talking to trusted colleagues, a mentor or friends at work and this is a good starting point to get feedback as an Individual.
Inspirational –
In this section Kristi writes about inspiring language. She suggests using phrases like ‘I will’ instead of ‘I might’ as the latter keeps you in the realm of giving people information, not inspiring them.
“Part of being inspiring is simply being interesting,” she writes. “Having an impassioned point of view or a bold take on a situation is far better than the alternative – being taciturn and forgettable. A leader who plays it safe and stays under the radar inspires no one.”