604: Why You’re Already Enjoying the Compound Interest of Executive Presence and What Happens As a Result of That

Right this very minute, you could be listening to True Crime, the World Cup, a comedy podcast or absolutely nothing. Instead, you're listening to a podcast about building your executive presence. What does that say about you? Welcome back to Speak Up, the number one right to business communication podcast, where we help high performing introvert leaders, including you social introverts, turn your ideas into influence and improve business outcomes, because being brilliant does not automatically make you influential. I am your host, Laura Camacho, your career accelerator executive presence, strategist and godmother. And by the end of today's short episode, you will know why R.O.E. return on effort may be a more meaningful career metric than R.O.E. How executive presence continues creating opportunities long after interviews, presentations or promotions are over. Short term and long term reasons to keep developing your executive presence and business communication skills. Now think about that for a second. But you're listening to this, nobody made you do it, it's not a sign from HR, you don't get as certificate, but there's a belief inside of you that says you can become more effective as a leader, a communicator, a professional. Do you know how unusual that is? Most people spend their careers hoping they'll become better or hoping they'll get promoted. I won't go into what most people are like, but they're not you. You're training when nobody's looking, right? Nobody knows or cares that you're listening to this podcast and that makes you so different. And we're all obsessed with R.O.E. Return on Investment. Will this certificate get me promoted? Will the conference pay off? Will I meet the right person? Will the book lead to more money? These were fair questions. But I think there's a metric that matters more and it's called Return on Effort. I like where to put your energy because it is limited. Every time you choose to become better at communicating, at showing up, at being the guide, you're investing in a version of yourself that does not disappear if a project gets canceled or the re-org comes or somebody else get the promotion. Nobody can take that away from you. It's going to go with you. You're going to have that greater confidence that more compelling executive presence, no matter what. And that's why I love this work because we are building what stays with us, right? And I'll be the first to admit that it's not that guarantees beyond a shot of a doubt, a specific outcome. I wish it did. Here's a story that's not the typical, but it does happen. One of my clients who works in supply chain for one of the largest defense contractors in the world, like hundreds of thousands of employees. And she wanted my help in preparing for interviews for a role at a higher level. And she was crushing them. Her preparation was unbelievable. She was the top candidate mission accomplished, right? Not exactly. Then the company re-orgged. It was going on, you know, how these things are just always happening. And they took away the position. Like just re-orgged it out. Like how unfair was that? So even though there was nothing wrong with her preparation, nothing was wrong with her interviews. Sometimes decisions are made or things happen that are out of our control. To her credit, instead of becoming cynical, she applied and continues to apply everything she's learned and she's now. And this was last year. But she's in the interim. She's contributing more strategically, becoming more visible, communicating with greater confidence, helping people across the organization, inspiring people. Her influence is off the charts. So the next opportunity appears. She's no longer just a qualified employee. She's someone that people already think of as a leader. And that was already happening as this other role that she got fell apart. That can happen, but you're your executive presence, your skill at communicating and inspiring people. That stays with you. This is Cher. Another example you might have heard before. Is it to anyone? One of my clients was a scientist working for a global nonprofit sponsored by Amazon's Jeff Bezos. And that's not exactly the traditional path into politics. But soon after we started working together, she was appointed minister of the environment for Rwanda, right? Because she got her story straight about the value of her work with the environment. So does executive presence alone make that happen? Of course not. She had the experience, like to tease the character, but people noticed, right? She was involved in conferences. And so she had exposure to outside people and they saw her and they're like, yes, we want her. Another client, this was last year and beginning of this year, a client, we were working together and he had an industry conference presentation. And it was technically excellent, but a little bit boring. And so I didn't make him change that I invited him to change it and took out a lot of stuff and put in more story and more emotion. And he, I think it was a little bit skeptical, but not too bad. And he went with it. It was literally life changing. He got to share in this technical presentation about safety in a very dangerous industry, right? Heavy industry. And he shared like why it's so important and why it's so hard to get people to take safety seriously, even though it's a dangerous industry. But his phone was exploding afterwards. He got calls from all kinds of companies and he just let me know that he just accepted a significant promotion and another international organization, right? So is not that his technical knowledge expanded as a result of our working together or even his studying that? No, people started connecting with him as a person and not just reading his slides, because even in engineering, even in manufacturing, even in any heavy industry, like mining or defense, those industries that think that they are purely rational. People are still people and we make decisions emotionally and justify them logically. So when you connect the head and the heart, people remember you. And here's something I've noticed after coaching so many extremely smart people that the transformation is not the promotion. It's the person that the people become calmer, more intentional, more curious, they ask better questions, they stop over explaining their emails or better. People notice and they're adding more value. So confidence when it's earned rather than performed as in fake it before you make it. I'm not going to diss that today, but the earned confidence has a way of rippling into every part of your life. So today there are no tips. I just want to encourage you and remind you that, hey, you're doing something important. You're investing time and effort in developing yourself so that others have more clarity about the right direction so that others feel inspired to take action so that they inspire to grow. A lot of you are asking the people that work for you to do pretty hard things and they need some inspiration to accept that challenge. You're doing it, right? You're bringing clarity to chaos and complexity. So you never know how this is going to pay off, but it will. There will be opportunities and if one doesn't work out, another one is coming down the road. Same with promotions. That is the way life works. So I thank you for listening. I want every episode to leave you with a little bit more courage, but today I want you to give yourself a pat on the back because what you're learning, no reorg, no hiring committee, no executive assert, no unexpected setback can take that away. Appreciate your spending part of the time of the week with me. And I am so impressed that you are doing something that most people never do, which is intentionally prepare yourself for opportunities before they arrive before those opportunities arrive. I'm proud of the work you're doing. Keep going. You're making a difference. Executive presence is never wasted. If you want a clear picture of how your executive presence is landing where you work, I have a nice executive presence scorecard assessment is linked to the show notes and that will give you a pretty organized picture of where your strengths and opportunities lie. Have a fantastic day and I will catch you on the next episode.