3 Steps to Power Presence
Power Presence is a state of awareness in the moment that allows you to manage yourself, your non-verbal communication and your connection with others with flexibility and impact.
By Juliette Jenner
Here are three crucial steps to Power Presence:
- Be fully present to yourself.
Listen to your internal world. How do you feel and how does your body feel? This self-awareness gives you vital information about what you need to do to restore balance and channel your energy into high performance when under pressure. Self-regulation gives you the flexibility to be powerful in any context you find yourself. - Be fully present to the space around you.
The awareness that your non-verbal communication can increase or decrease you in space is an important part of having presence. By ensuring your posture is aligned and your body language is energized yet relaxed you are able to send the right signals of power and authenticity when you relate to others. - Be fully present to others.
Giving others your full, quality attention is at the heart of Power Presence. You do not need to strive to dominate or negate others, but rather to meet them openly with warmth and interest. This capacity to really listen also gives you the time and the opportunity to understand and assess the information at hand and act accordingly. It increases the quality of your connection with others and your ability to build effective relationships.
“People have stopped interrupting her when she speaks and listen to her ideas first time round.”
Case study- a recent client
Janet is a leader in the Compliance Department in a high-pressured financial institution. She is required to lead a team, facilitate between departments and present nationally and internationally. She is a skilled professional with great expertise to offer and share. Yet she was getting increasingly frustrated about her low level of impact and influence when she communicated. It was making her feel anxious and eroding her self-belief too.
Janet lacked Power Presence. She seemed youthful and girlish, her body language was tentative and low status, her speech gentle and rushed. She was giving off all the wrong signals and her personal brand was compromised by the mismatch between her real power and how she came across.
After Power Presence coaching:
She suddenly understood how to accurately project the confidence she felt inside, through her non-verbal communication. She takes up more space and turns heads when she walks into a room. People have stopped interrupting her when she speaks and listen to her ideas first time round. She is able to perform powerfully and manage her anxiety, knowing she projects credibility and authority. Its made all the difference to her career opportunities and to her level of work enjoyment and satisfaction. Developing Power Presence helped her align her value with her delivery, cementing a strong personal brand.
