How women can develop leadership presence
Glacier FarmMedia – Lauren Sergy, an Edmonton, Alta., communications and executive coach, says it’s human nature to be biased when someone in a leadership position doesn’t look or sound like what we’re expecting — which, in agriculture, has typically been a white male.
“It’s the way our brains are wired. Even before people hear us speak, they are deciding whether they should listen to us, whether the information we are going to share is reliable and if they should trust us,” she says.
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“Even if we don’t want to be biased, we’re making judgements and evaluations. We have to mentally think our way around it. It takes stepping outside ourselves for a moment.”
Sergy acknowledges that it’s frustrating to still be talking about gender and race. “We have to recognize those elements of human bias and we have to work with them strategically. The longer we work with it, the more we work strategically, the easier it gets. But we’re not there yet. Good people can still be unconsciously biased.”
She works with both men and women to help them learn to project an air of confidence and trust, what she refers to as leadership presence. While leadership presence may come more naturally to some people than others, it’s a trait anyone can develop.
Leadership presence is valuable no matter what stage of your career, although Sergy says the vibe you give off will change as you progress through professional phases. When you are young, for example, she says your leadership presence may be more energetic and ambitious but when you are older it may be more reflective and philosophical.
Sergy offers the following advice for developing leadership presence:
- Develop self-awareness and self-control. Remain in control of yourself. You do not need to be a robot but show the right emotion at the right time.
- Look confident. Are you presenting the external appearance you intend? Stand tall with an upright posture and make eye contact. (This is generally true for North American cultures but may not apply to other cultures.) If you are a fast talker, consciously slow down.
- Listen more than you talk. Listening instills trust. When leaders listen to us, we tend to assume they are smarter although Sergy acknowledges this does take self-control.
- Accept and embrace impostor syndrome as part of being human. “I don’t know any high-achieving leader, male or female, who doesn’t express this. Learn to dance with it.” Her advice is to write an objective list of skills and career path highlights. “Ask others and take what they are telling you. You have the evidence in the list.”
Source: producer.com