Presence and its link to Promotion

A lot of my work, whether through training sessions, coaching or a combination of the two, is focused on helping people to strengthen their personal presence, in an effort to enhance their career opportunities.  This tends to be an area of development that many miss on their bid for the top, preferring to focus on developing their technical skills, knowledge and expertise.  However, as business guru Mike Litman puts it...

"Every level of income demands a different you".

Think about this for a second.  As you move up within an organization you don't just have to be able to do and deliver more, you need to 'be' more.  This involves more than just simply being able to manage the work.  In order to get the job done, you must be able to instill in others the confidence that you can get it done and, likely, that you can inspire others to get it done too.

You don't have the same skills and knowledge today as you did when you first graduated from college or university.  Your skills have grown.  You are capable of doing more.  You need to ensure that the 'you' that accompanies those growing skills is keeping up though.  It is easier and more comfortable for us to focus on the more technical aspects of our career growth , and it is likely the area that our organizations expense their training budgets on developing and providing us.

It is up to us to ensure the 'us' that is accompanying those developing skills keeps pace.  We need to display more confidence, more professionalism, more poise as we move up.  If we only focus on what we need to DO, on what we need to produce, we will overlook being what we need to BE.  Without the combination of the two, we will likely be recognised within the company for our technical knowledge, but our career will take a backseat to those that are also seen as having the strength and ability to manage, to lead others.  This requires someone that has demonstrated the content and that projects the presence to get others to follow.

Consider then...

• what do you need to be?
• what do you need to project?
• what do you need to think?
• what habits do you need to have?

...in order to be 'seen' as a person that could fill that coveted next role.  It's a total package that needs to be strategically put together if you want to succeed.  Consider then, for that next level up, not just what technical skills and experience you need, but what aspects of you need to be strengthened and projected in order to 'sell' yourself into the role seamlessly.