Lucy Gernon (00:02.254)
Hi there, I’m your host Lucy Gernon. Welcome back to part three of this mini training. my God, Ali cut this, I’m gonna start again.
Lucy Gernon (00:15.758)
Hi there and welcome back to part three of this Executive Presence mini training series. I’m your host Lucy Gardner in case you’re new here. I’m in a multi award winning executive coach for women in leadership roles and I support you to accelerate your career with more confidence, more excellence so that you get the recognition you deserve and can build a life filled with success, balance and happiness for anything is possible. Now we’re in our final part of our three part training series. In the last two,
trainings, we spoke a lot about the trends of executive presence. We spoke about how to build more gravitas and how to become a stellar communicator. So if you haven’t already listened to part one and two, I recommend that you go back and listen to episode one and two before continuing with this one and then come back to this one when you’re ready. So in this episode of the show, I am going to be digging into a question that I’ve been asked a lot is.
Is appearance really important and what’s more important like keeping it real and being authentic or is it isn’t my appearance? So I’m going to get into that today. But before I do, I just want to do a very quick little recap as to why executive presence is so important. If you are an ambitious woman or a man in a senior leadership role who wants to get recognized and who wants opportunities, right? Executive presence.
is all about, you’ve heard me say it, it’s about instilling confidence in others that you are the person for the job. Again, like I said in the previous episode, all important decisions are made about you when you’re not in a room. So it’s very, very important that you build a personal brand that instills trust and confidence in others. Now, personal brands are something that are strategically
crafted, OK, strategically crafted. I do it with my own clients. I personally worked with branding strategists as well for my own brand because it’s really hard to go to craft a personal brand and to be authentic without having a step by step road map to support you, which is why I’ve included a module on personal branding in my new executive presence blueprint course, which you can grab at lucygarnon .com forward slash EP, where I walk you through.
Lucy Gernon (02:40.238)
I suppose how to define what your brand is and how to get really clear on your story, who you are, what you stand for, your vision, your goals, everything, so that you can truly exemplify a senior leader that people want to follow. OK, so executive presence is really, really, really important, whether you’re already at executive level or if you’re an aspiring executive or if even if you’re just like a really, really ambitious senior manager.
who wants to just have a real leadership presence so that you get the recognition you deserve. You don’t have to want to be CEO, okay? I believe all leaders need executive presence because a true leader is somebody who goes first. It’s somebody who’s willing to be themselves. It’s somebody who puts themselves out there, okay? That’s what executive presence is all about. So you can build trust with your stakeholders, okay? So.
If I go back to the recent Harvard paper that was published where they looked at the differences between 2012 and 2022 when it comes to executive presence, we are now talking about our third and final element, which is appearance. OK, so appearance has always been important. OK. And surprisingly, having a polished look is actually super important.
So we might see, you know, executives in Silicon Valley in the US who wear their sneakers and their jeans and their kind of t -shirts. And that’s the vibe. But extensive studies have shown that we trust people who look polished. Okay. So again, you don’t have to wear a suit. Okay.
But you do need to kind of have a polished look. And again, in my course, I get into kind of how to do this as part of your personal brand to establish like, what does a polished look actually look like for me? In case you don’t know, I love a bit of fashion. I love a bit of polish anyway. So you’re definitely in safe hands there. But being polished is important. It instills trust in us. It shows that you’ve made an effort. It shows that you take pride in your appearance and who you are and what you stand for.
Lucy Gernon (04:56.462)
But something that has now registered in 2022 when they did this study versus when back in 2012, this didn’t even register is authenticity. OK, so I had a little bit of click bait at the start of this day, which is more important, appearance or authenticity? And the answer is it’s both. It’s both. So it’s really, really important that you’re able to show up and be authentically you.
while still having a polished appearance. OK, so that’s about you defining your brand. It’s about you defining how much of myself do I want to share? And then it’s also more so about overcoming the fears associated with showing who you really are and how much of who you really are do you show and how do you even bring that into the workplace, especially if you’ve already curated a brand that’s quite
Maybe corporate is the word I’m going to use, which I would see a lot where there’s a lot of amazing women that I work with who put on a mask when they go to work. And I don’t believe you have to. I believe lots of things which I will get into in the course if you want to go and grab it at lucygarnon .com forward slash EP on the importance of your authentic polished appearance for your personal brand.
Another thing when it comes to appearance that has appeared, which makes sense, is fitness and vigor. So this was not something that registered, but the younger generation and even our, I mean, definitely me for sure, is we’re a lot more aware of energy. I know I certainly am. I’ve gone through like some sort of a spiritual awakening back in 2020 and I see and feel the world very differently than I used to.
And people can sense energy. So I cannot underestimate the importance of taking care of your physical and mental health, not only from an executive presence perspective, but again, as a positive psychology coach, we know that health and, you know, mindfulness and nutrition and taking restorative breaks is so, so important for your overall wellbeing. But actually, it’s also really, really important for your executive presence.
Lucy Gernon (07:17.198)
because when you have more vigor and you have more vitality and you bring more energy, it actually raises the vibration in the room. It makes people feel better who are around you. OK, so that’s so, so, so important. The other things that are kind of coming up as well is that when it comes to appearance is about having a curated online image. OK, so I have had clients who are absolutely killing it on LinkedIn in particular.
who are winning awards, who are becoming like leadership top development voices on LinkedIn, because they have taken the time to do the work to build their online presence and to use LinkedIn to their advantage. The opportunities that can come your way when you do that are astounding.
which is why in my course, I’ve included a module on or a lesson on how to actually stand out on LinkedIn and how to build a presence there too. Because again, it’s so, so important and it’s something that I’m very familiar with. You’ll see me on LinkedIn all of the time. So that is it for the appearance authenticity episode. In essence, you got to be polished, but you got to keep it real. And then it’s important.
that you build a brand that instills trust and confidence in others and don’t be afraid to show it because you, my gorgeous, gorgeous person, whoever you are watching or listening to me here, I want you to know that you have gifts that the world needs to hear. So promise me this, no more playing small, no more playing small. You go and you lead. You are here for a reason.
And I cannot wait to support you inside my course. If it feels right, lucygarden .com forward slash EP. You will learn all about the executive presence blueprint that I have used to support my clients to explode their executive presence, get unbelievable opportunities. And also you’re going to feel super confident and super powerful, which is what life is all about in my own opinion. So that’s it for our three part mini series. I really hope that you enjoyed it. Allow.
Lucy Gernon (09:28.334)
All of this to digest, allow yourself to reflect, but please, whatever you do, take action. Take some sort of action. In my course, I talk all about this mantra, TNT, try something new. Sorry, TST, try something new. my God, I can’t even say it. Ali, cut this.
Lucy Gernon (09:55.534)
In my course, I talk all about try something new. It’s so, so important that you push yourself out of your comfort zone one percent every day and you will be a different person. And if it feels right, I would love, love, love, love to see you inside my course, the Executive Presence Blueprint. You can grab it at lucygarnon .com forward slash EP. All right. I hope this is valuable. I look forward to seeing you again soon. Take care. Bye for now.
