5 Faces of Executive Presence: Celebrities Who Embody the Future of Leadership
Originally published August 12, 2014 on LinkedIn.com
The Center for Talent Innovation defines executive presence (EP) as a combination of gravitas, communication and appearance. Gravitas is the ability to convey confidence and establish trust and credibility through moral integrity, emotional intelligence, and calm in a crisis. Communication includes exceptional public speaking and presentation skills, and the ability to command a room. Appearance in terms of dress and style can vary across industries, but what matters is the judgement to know what is both appropriate and distinctive for the given setting.
Women and minority professionals often struggle with passing the EP test, because it can be challenging to win a game in which the rules were originally written to limit inclusion, rather than encourage it. The good news is that tomorrow’s talent will be increasingly diverse and the law of executive presence will be open to a much wider array of interpretations. Here are 5 diverse celebrities who have expanded the meaning of EP and reflect leadership styles that reflect the workplace of the future.
Pharrell Williams: Renaissance Specialist
He is an artist, designer, branding wizard, musician and entrepreneur. Pharrell Williams is a bonafied mogul who has built an empire and a name for himself in just about every industry possible. — Buzzfeed
Leading up to the Great Recession, futuristic thinkers such as Daniel Pink predicted a world in which creative Renaissance men and womenwould take over from the more analytical, linear-thinking specialists. Post recession, we have witnessed corporations double-down on sourcing employees with ten-plus years of experience in a specific function, and/or a particular industry. Pharrell Williams began his career by specializing in music production, before branching out into performing, fashion, technology and other ventures. Despite his multitude of interests and capabilities, music has served as a the foundation for everything he has accomplished. Pharrell has excelled by synthesizing the powers of the polymath and the savant.
Outlook: Those executives who combine subject matter expertise with diverse interests will have a competitive advantage in a market that requires both concentrated knowledge and multidisciplinary thinking, and will outperform those who can only operate in one area or the other.
Arianna Huffington: Compassionate Sage
A fall caused by exhaustion led Arianna Huffington to a broken cheekbone, four stitches and a journey toward redefining success. Huffington says the third metric of success goes beyond money and power and “includes our well-being, our wisdom, our capacity to wonder and bring joy into our lives and our capacity to give.” — Knowledge@Wharton
The age of the cold, calculating executive has been gradually coming to an end. Although business decisions will be increasingly informed by data analytics, leaders will have to interpret data points in light of how human beings actually experience life, work and consumption. Arianna Huffington epitomizes the enlightened executive who has continuously evolved philosophically and professionally over the course of her career. As a baby boomer, Huffington embraced the hard work ethic of her generation and became the founder of one of the most profitable news blogs in the history of the internet — The Huffington Post. Since recovering from health challenges induced by work-life imbalance, Arianna has become an evangelist of mental and physical wellness in the workplace and is sharing her wisdom and life lessons through her book, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder.
Outlook: Enlightened leaders who have genuine empathy for their employees and create better workplaces, rather than repeat the organizational dysfunctions of the past, will attract and retain the best talent in the present and future.
Oprah Winfrey: Inspirational Mentor
“Oprah is the epitome of leadingby example. Her focus on being the best person she can be, translates to the way other people choose to live their lives in response. Sure, Oprah gives advice and offers suggestions to others in hard times, but it is her nature to always be improving professionally and personally that inspires people to take her advice.”
- Center For Work Life
There is a lot of talk about the importance of mentoring to enhance talent development outcomes, but many leaders struggle with doing it effectively. While many of us find it difficult to make a significant impact on one person, Oprah has mentored millions both directly and indirectly, including several hundred school girls in South Africa. The best mentors do two things extremely well: listen and inspire. When Oprah is conducting an interview, she is really tuned in to every word that her subject says. As she listens intentionally, she gains a deeper understanding of the person and uncovers how their story intersects with the universal human condition. She is then able to find just the right words to encourage and affirm the interviewee, as well as her entire audience. Oprah’s mastery of inspirational mentoring and her passion for empowering others resulted in a multibillion dollar media career and her OWN network.
Outlook: Leaders will have to increasingly find ways to scale mentorship across their organizations through simple group discussions (such as “lunch and learns”), as well as social media, videoconferencing and other communication tools to inspire employees and other stakeholders.
Steve Jobs: Visionary Innovator
“Jobs famously said that ‘customers don’t know what they want until we’ve shown them.’ Indeed, he had a remarkable, but not infallible, ability to develop products that consumers would buy and savor, as well as the confidence, courage, and drive to bring them to life.”
- Strategy+Business
It is hard to believe that Steve Jobs has been gone for three years. Jobs is to the business and technology world, what Tupac is to the hip-hop community. Both men were so creative and prolific that their impact continues to resonate although their physical lives have ended. Stylistically, Jobs was a fashion minimalist, who helped to redefine what executive presence looks like in Silicon Valley and the broader tech industry. The challenge for many innovators is the ability to translate their technical IQ into gravitas, and turn their pitches into compelling stories that capture the imaginations of employees, customers and investors. Unlike the fictional start-up founders on the HBO sit-com series, “Silicon Valley,” who all claim to be making the world a better place, Jobs actually did — or at least he helped to make our lives much more interesting and integrated.
Outlook: Regardless of industry or business size, leaders must think like futurists in order to anticipate customer desires and innovate accordingly, while casting a vision that mobilizes their team to change the marketplace and maybe even the planet.
Cory Booker: Charismatic Servant
“He saved a dog from the cold, housed his neighbors after a hurricane, and shoveled a stranger’s snow. He subsisted on food stamps and lived in public housing. His Twitter following is five times the size of the city he governs, and Oprah is one of his biggest fans.”
- Fortune
Cory Booker is a former mayor of Newark and is currently a U.S. Senator representing the state of New Jersey. If executive presence in its purest form is the embodiment of style and substance, than Booker strikes the right chord. He has gravitas and impeccable rhetorical skills, but is also passionate about serving the people. He lived on a food stamp budget of less than $30 a week to raise awareness around food insecurity and persuaded Mark Zuckerberg to donate $100 million to Newark’s challenged public schools. Now, he’s partnering with fellow Senator Rand Paul to reform the war on drugs.
Outlook: A magnetic personality is insufficient without the will to serve a cause greater than oneself, and those executives who can place the interests of their stakeholders (customers, shareholders, employees and community members) ahead of their own will outperform their competitors in the hyperconnected economy.
Conclusion
“I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I’ve become. If I had, I’d have done it a lot earlier.” — Oprah Winfrey @ Facebook
Each of these celebrities could easily fall into one or more other categories, because the best leaders are multidimensional whether they are corporate executives, entertainment moguls or politicians. Hopefully these 5 faces of executive presence can offer some encouragement to those who do not fit the current mode of leadership in their organization or industry. If you are willing to cultivate the essential and timeless EP capabilities of gravitas, communication and style, the world will make room for your unique and authentic leadership style.
