Episode 13: The Leadership Equation: Why Executive Presence Multiplies Your Influence
Welcome, welcome to the People‑Forward Leadership™ Podcast. If you’re a first‑time listener, thank you for pressing play and joining me. If you’re a returning friend of the show, it’s always good to have you back. Welcome. On this show, we explore practical strategies to build thriving leaders and people‑first cultures, because we know that when people thrive, organizational success is inevitable.
Today we’re unpacking a question that has electrified every workshop I’ve facilitated this spring: How do executive presence and executive influence work together, and what falls apart when one shows up without the other? By the end of this episode, you’ll know why cultivating both is the fastest way to elevate your credibility, galvanize your teams, and accelerate results.
While there are many definitions and schools of thought about leadership, for me, it’s ultimately about people. How we connect, inspire, and elevate those around us to their highest potential. Whether you're leading a small team or an entire organization, understanding the interplay between presence and influence transforms not just how you're perceived but the concrete results you achieve.
As John C. Maxwell famously said, "Leadership is influence."
In my consulting practice, it's common for me or one of our team members to get called in to help elevate a leader's executive presence. However, this is only one piece of the equation. What organizations really want, and sometimes don't know how to ask for, is for their leaders to have more influence, or a healthier version of the influence that leader already wields.
The differences between presence and influence, however, are nuanced, but both are required for a leader to be effective. Presence is the foundation upon which all lasting influence stands.
A few weeks ago, I wrapped up a session at Smith College Executive Education for a group of tech middle managers, and a few days after that, I spent two fun days guiding 26 Pharma and healthcare executives and senior leaders. Different companies, different career stages, but the same aha moment kept surfacing: Presence alone isn’t enough. Influence alone isn’t sustainable. Together, they create a multiplier effect that changes everything.
One participant said, ‘I never even looked at my phone, my team needs this yesterday.’ That urgency is why we’re diving in today.
Now, putting on my People-Forward Leadership™ hat, the framework I’ve discussed in detail in Season One, this episode sits squarely in Pillar 1: Developing Self through Authentic Leadership. Leader awareness is about knowing yourself so profoundly that you can show up not only powerfully, but, more importantly, authentically. When your leadership is rooted in self‑knowledge, executive presence stops being about polish or just your external image and becomes a genuine extension of who you are. And from that soil, real influence grows.
So I mentioned that there’s a nuanced difference between presence and influence, so let me more clearly define our terms so we’re on the same page.
Executive Presence answers a fundamental question: Do people instantly trust my credibility? A powerful presence opens ears and minds, creating space for your ideas to be heard. It’s that earned confidence you project the moment you walk into a room or unmute on Zoom. Think open posture, clear voice, purposeful eye contact…signals that say, ‘I belong here, and I bring value.’ It's not about title or intimidation but authentic confidence.
Executive Influence answers a different question: Do people act on what I propose? It’s what moves budgets, behaviors, and belief systems throughout an organization. It goes beyond being heard; it catalyzes action, shifts perspectives, and inspires others to move in directions they might not have considered before. Presence slows the room down so they can take notice; influence gets the room in motion.
Where ‘Leadership is influence,’ presence is the amplifier. Presence without influence means you might command attention but create no change. Influence without presence means your great ideas may never get the hearing they deserve. In other words, without presence, your influence is muted; without influence, your presence is just stage lighting. Together? They become the spotlight and the microphone that let your ideas shine.
Presence and influence may seem like soft skill development, but they’re bottom‑line drivers. These are tactical skills that drive results. For example:
Executive presence accounts for 26 % of promotion decisions.
Disengagement drains $8.9 trillion—that’s about 9% of global GDP. Employee disengagement can be directly linked to a leader's inability to master the connection between presence and influence.
And half of employees say they’ve quit a job specifically to escape a boss who lacked authentic leadership. I've found that leaders with poor presence are frequently described as "disconnected," "inauthentic," or “uninspiring,” qualities that drive top talent toward the nearest exit.
I see it in my consulting practice all the time: brilliant strategists passed over because they can’t command a room, or charismatic presenters with no follow‑through on influence, leaving teams swirling in ambiguity. It shows up in the workplace through high turnover, stalled projects, and missed market opportunities.
The presence‑influence connection isn’t a ‘nice‑to‑have.’ It’s a business imperative.”
For decades, executive and professional presence has been defined subjectively, treated like an ‘I‑know‑it‑when‑I‑see‑it’ phenomenon. The trouble is that vagueness often creates systemic inequities and props up unconscious bias about what leadership “should” look like or sound like.
To address this, my firm has partnered with an organization to use a research‑backed Executive Presence & Influence Assessment with 32 observable behaviors distributed across four domains:
How You Show Up—gravitas, authenticity, verbal precision.
How You Decide—transparent, data‑informed choices that invite buy‑in.
How You Inspire—storytelling that tethers today’s grind to tomorrow’s possibility.
How You Manage Emotion—composure that cultivates psychological safety.
Now, instead of telling leaders, ‘Have more gravitas,’ we can pinpoint the exact communication patterns and behaviors that will enhance or erode a leader’s impact in specific scenarios. This instrument is a game-changer. It’s the difference between guessing and engineering your influence. As you listen to this, if you’re thinking, 'I need this assessment,' or 'we need to utilize this tool in our organization,' please reach out to my team at the link in the show notes.
In the interim, here are five moves you can implement immediately to level up your presence and influence this week. So grab a pen and let’s go.
1 .Run a Credibility Audit. Record your next meeting, then watch 90 seconds on mute. Ask yourself: Does my body language convey confidence, curiosity, and credibility? Adjust one non‑verbal signal, posture, eye contact, or pacing, and re‑watch. Small tweaks yield big gains.
2. Map Your Influence Stakeholders. List the five people who most shape budgets or decisions in your world. For each, write one way you can proactively add value this month: share an article, connect them to a resource, or acknowledge their contribution. Influence is a contact sport; you earn it through service.
3. Use ‘Story–Data–Promise.’ The next time you pitch an idea, frame it in a one‑minute triad: a 30‑second story that builds emotional connection, one compelling data point that nails the logic, and a clear promise outlining the win for your listener. Emotion plus evidence equals momentum. Admittedly, this can be challenging. This was one of the workshops I taught executives a couple of weeks ago.
4. Practice the 90‑Second Reset. When emotions spike, yours or the room’s, pause, inhale for six counts, name the feeling, and choose your response. The ability to regulate your emotions is essential. I often call this a Powerful Pause. I’ll share a link to a quick video where I talked about this in the show notes. Leaders who self‑regulate create psychological safety, and safety is the birthplace of innovation.
5. Seek Structured Feedback. Ask three colleagues to name one presence behavior and one influence behavior they’d like you to amplify over the next quarter. Share your action plan, then circle back in 30 days. Accountability accelerates growth.
Executing even two of these five moves will help you see and feel the shift in your presence and influence level.
Keep in mind that in a BANI world, brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible, presence calms the waters, and influence allows for smooth sailing. In fact:
Trust rises when your first impression communicates credibility.
Speed accelerates when your decisions are transparent and consistent.
Commitment sticks when your stories connect work to meaning.
Innovation unfolds when your emotional steadiness makes risk-taking safe.
If you’re serious about closing your presence‑influence gap, the next logical step is our Executive Presence & Influence Assessment. You’ll receive a detailed report benchmarking you against high‑performing leaders and a private 30‑minute debrief with me or a certified coach. Together, we’ll translate data into an actionable 90‑day roadmap.
Email us at [email protected], the link is in the show notes, and let’s engineer your influence deliberately, not accidentally.
That’s it for this episode. Thanks so much for joining me, and until next time, keep leading people forward. I’ll see you soon.
