Leadership Presence Is a Myth

Leadership Presence Is a Myth Leadership presence may be one of the most overrated ideas in leadership. For years we’ve been taught that influence comes from commanding a room, projecting confidence, and creating followership through charisma. I taught leadership presence myself, so I understand why the idea persists. But I’ve become less convinced that presence explains influence as well as we think it does. Some of the most influential leaders in history would score surprisingly low on executive presence assessments today and still changed behavior at extraordinary scale. That made me question whether people follow leaders because of how they appear or because of the beliefs they create....

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Past Issues

That’s Not What I Meant

That’s Not What I Meant This week’s This Week in Culture is about one of the toughest lessons in leadership: you are not judged by your intention,...

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Culture Captures the Cost Savings

Culture Captures the Cost Savings In this week’s CEO Daily Brief, I spoke with labor strategy expert John Frehse about the growing pressure leaders...

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