Legacy Talent Development - Blog

Professional Presence. It's the WOW factor that gives your career an extra boost. It’s an elusive “you know it when you see it” quality. Most professionals want more of it, but many are unsure exactly what “it” is or how to gain more.

Just what is professional presence? At its core, professional presence is a way of speaking and acting that makes other take notice and listen. It’s essentially a combination of:

1. How you act (also referred to as “gravitas”).

2. How you speak.

3. How you look.

Improving presence means aligning how you speak, act and look in order to better impact (and influence) those around you. Here are three ways you can polish your professional presence right now.

Pro Tip #1: Stop Phubbing

When your actions don’t match what you say, others see only your behavior and overlook your words. So of the 3 areas, paying attention to your actions is often the best way to uplevel your presence.

But often our cell phone derails our efforts to act with intention. It stops us from being fully present. Consider how you view others who are consistently on their phone. What assumptions do you make about them? Too busy to care. Distracted. Stressed out.

Insightful research came out this year around “phubbing”. (Combine the word phone with snubbing.) It means snubbing the people you’re with while looking at your phone. Phubbing is a range of behaviors. From glancing at your phone in the middle of a conversation, to checking your phone when the conversation stalls, or simply keeping your phone close by. Looking at your phone can make people around you feel insignificant and they may start to distrust you.

What can you do? Implement a phone boundary. Consider putting your phone  away when you’re around real people. Make sure the phone is out of sight. Physically place your phone into your handbag or coat pocket to reduce your temptation to look at it.

Pro Tip #2: Ask More Questions.

Asking questions is a powerful way of speaking that shows others you’re listening and present. Plus, it fuels connection.

Posing questions uplevels your presence because it slows your Advice Monster. Most of us have a habit of slipping into the advice giver, expert, and fix-it so-we-can-all-get-back-to-work mode. It’s your advice monster. It comes out of nowhere. Before you know it, you’re giving suggestions, ideas, and recommendations. BUT when you lead a team, there’s a price to be paid for always giving advice. You become the bottleneck to progress and buy-in. Level up your presence simply by asking questions a little more often and giving advice a little less often.

Pro Tip #3: Show Poise with Posture.

Posture is critical to boosting professional presence because power and authority are expressed by expanding your space.

To project presence while sitting, sit tall and claim your territory. Think open postures. Legs uncrossed. Arms held away from your body, with palms exposed or resting comfortably on the desk/table. Feet placed feet firmly on the floor.

When standing, move your hands and arms away from the front of your torso to show sincerity and security. Be aware of your feet. If they’re too close together, you may appear hesitate or unsure. Instead, widen your stance, relax your knees and center your weight.

Bolster your professional presence right now with these three tips. For more ideas on elevating professional presence, check out our Signature Talk on The Power of Professional Presence.