EXECUTIVE PRESENCE
How you think, lead, and connect shapes your executive presence.
We often recognize executive presence when we see it. How a leader thinks, communicates a vision, carries themselves, and connects with others can inspire confidence, even when it’s difficult to pinpoint why.
Among the many definitions of executive presence, MJ chose one that emphasizes the ability to influence, engage, align, mobilize, and inspire action.
Beyond appearance and charisma, executive presence reflects the qualities and capabilities that shape how others perceive a leader and respond to their leadership.
Understanding Your Current Executive Presence:
Dimensions that shape executive presence.
Research by Bates identifies 15 facets of executive presence, organized into three dimensions: Character, Substance, and Style.
Together, they provide a framework for understanding and developing the capabilities that influence a leader’s impact.
Developing executive presence is valuable both for emerging executives preparing to take on greater leadership responsibilities and for established executives who want to refine their impact and continue evolving as leaders.
This program offers a structured opportunity to strengthen these capabilities and apply them to today’s leadership challenges.
What Distinguishes Leaders Who Stand Out?
Bates research on leaders in high-growth companies identifies four qualities that distinguish leaders who stand out: trustworthiness, sound judgment, a broad organizational perspective, and composure under pressure. Beyond technical expertise, these qualities shape leadership impact.
Emotional intelligence helps leaders recognize how emotions, assumptions, and behavioral patterns influence their judgment, decisions, and relationships.
Executive presence begins with understanding how others experience your leadership and identifying where focused development can strengthen your impact.
The Executive Presence Program
by MJ Michaud™
Develop the presence to lead with greater impact.
Whether preparing for an executive role or refining your impact as an established leader, this program is tailored to your priorities and challenges. Through assessment, personalized development, and reflection, you will build on your strengths and refine the behaviors that shape your leadership impact.
How the Program Works
1. Identify Your Development Priorities
MJ has developed a tailored assessment process based on the fifteen dimensions of executive presence. It combines self-assessment with structured feedback from selected colleagues and the leader’s supervisor.
A psychometric leadership profile and a validated emotional intelligence (EQ) assessment provide additional perspectives, helping corroborate findings and identify gaps between how leaders perceive themselves and how others experience their leadership.
Because emotional intelligence influences decision-making, relationships, and responses under pressure, the results may also reveal areas requiring further development. When appropriate, MJ may recommend her Applied Emotional Intelligence for Leaders program to strengthen the capabilities that support executive presence.
2. Develop Your Executive Presence
Each program is tailored to the leader’s development priorities, role, and real-world challenges.
Through confidential thinking sessions, mentoring, feedback, and targeted resources, leaders work on the behaviors that will make the greatest difference to their leadership impact.
3. Turn Insight into Lasting Change
Drawing on a structured leadership development framework, the program helps leaders build on their strengths, practice new approaches, and evaluate their progress over time.
It also addresses behaviors that may undermine trust, relationships, and performance, helping leaders recognize their impact and make more intentional choices.
Duration & Continued Support
The Executive Presence Program typically unfolds over a period of up to eight months, depending on the leader’s development needs, responsibilities, and operational schedule.
Whether preparing for a promotion or navigating the demands of a new leadership role, the goal is to strengthen executive presence and support lasting success.
A Confidential Space for Development
Confidentiality is fundamental to the program. All development sessions and interviews conducted to explore perception gaps are confidential.
As part of the service agreement, the sponsoring organization agrees to respect these boundaries. It will not seek access to the leader’s identified development gaps, confidential interview feedback, or details of individual sessions, nor request a report disclosing this information.
This protection allows leaders to explore challenges openly, receive candid feedback, and focus on their development without their participation becoming an assessment of their competence on behalf of the organization.
Measuring Progress and Sustaining Growth
Executive presence is assessed at the outset to identify development priorities. Progress is reviewed throughout the program, with an optional follow-up one year later to assess the leader’s development.
What a Client Said After the Program
Ready to strenghten your executive presence?
Become this leader who stands out.