Conscious leaders continuously expand their presence. As of late, there is a good reason why we are speaking more about raising consciousness in business circles. We are learning more about how human beings construct and interact with reality due to emerging breakthroughs in neuroscience. In short, what we have come to understand is that everyone is making up reality as we move through our days.
While there is a reality out there, we do not experience it. What we experience is a brain simulation of this reality – a construct. This is the only thing we interact with, this simulation – not the world. We don’t have the neuro-machinery to experience the world as it is.
Susana Martinez-Conde,
Director of the Laboratory of Visual Neuroscience at the Barrow Neurological Institute
In other words, most human beings on the planet are engaging work and life from habits of thinking, feeling, and sensing they rarely, if ever, question. More importantly, a leader who is attempting to become more effective must determine if their habits are adequate, given what they intend to create for their organization. When a leader makes this inquiry earnestly, they are challenging themselves to grow. The foundation for this growth must be the expansion of executive presence.
The Downsides of Unconsciously Engaging from Your Constructed Reality
Our constructed realities are born out of our unique nature, past experiences as well the interpretation of those experiences, and the resulting core beliefs that direct their attention and actions. This ‘cocktail’ creates a kind of simulation that emerges in our attempt to make sense of our circumstances. So, the truth is that there are 7.4 billion separate simulations operating and interacting on our planet! And collectively, we have generated socio-economic simulations that we unconsciously agree to live by. That said, the means with which we engage the world and our socio-economic approaches are made up and thus are open to change.
Unfortunately, when we remain unconscious of this fact, we live under the assumption that everyone around us is coming from the same vantage point as us. We shun the vast diversity as if it is an obstacle rather than seeing it as an opportunity. This misunderstanding can cause a downward spiral in organizations that involves a:
- Rise of arrogance in the executive that their way of viewing the world is the ‘right way.’
- The result this arrogance is a constriction in the executive’s willingness to deeply listen to others.
- The shutting down in listening leads to a set of decisions and commitments that miss the benefit of multiple vantage points.
- When decisions and commitments are less effective, it naturally leads to a lower quality of outcomes as well as a drop in employee engagement.
The antidote to all of this comes from raising one’s consciousness.
What is Presence and What Must We Focus On to Expand It?
When you get that you are making up reality, moment to moment, it is a massive wake-up call! When this happens, it dawns on us that many of the problems we face are self-generated, and our current state of consciousness is the cause.
No problem can be solved in the same consciousness that created it.
Albert Einstein
So what can we do about this? The short answer is by becoming more present. Then, we must then ask – “what does it mean to become more present, and what can we do to increase our presence?” The truth is you are already, always present. In other words, we do not have to create executive presence; we have to bring our attention to it. Moreover, all practices for expanding executive presence must base themselves on the fact that being aware is a power we already have. Given this, the main effort we must make to expand presence is learning to reacquaint ourselves with the awareness that’s already present.
Think about it. If you were not present or aware, you would not experience anything. You would be in a deep sleep all the time! That said, most of us do not experience being present most of the time. Instead, we lose touch with it by over thinking and unconsciously allowing ourselves to be led by our unconscious conditioning. This engagement of unconscious habit is why neuroscience states that 95% + of the time we are literally on automatic pilot.
The truth is that we think and feel because we are aware of thinking and feeling. In other words, our awareness is superior to thought and feeling. But the world tells us we have to know more to become better at what we do. I am certainly an advocate of life-long learning. That said, if we fail to raise our awareness along the way, all the learning in the world will not allow us to have the impact we genuinely desire to create around us.
Thus, the expansion of self-awareness primarily comes from becoming more conscious of the one in us that is already aware. So how do you become more aware of this self?
Strategies to Deploy to Expand Executive Presence
There are five primary means of developing a more significant presence.
I. Develop A Vision for Your Leadership and Desired Impact
You create what you focus on most. Thus, when we are clear about the kind of leader we desire to be and the impact we want to have, we have a powerful context to focus our attention. When we do this, we are holding ourselves accountable for being our best and having the most significant impact possible. Once our vision is clear, we can incrementally hold ourselves responsible and structure our professional development in such a way that it most supports our highest aspirations.
(with vision) You are painting a picture, you are trying to create something to make a difference in people’s lives. You have a blank canvas and you are filling in every little bit of that canvas to get every single detail right. And if that canvas sings out to you at the end as a beautiful picture your business is going to be successful and if bits of the details are not quite right you may fail.
Richard Branson
CEO, Virgin
While the quote above relates to a business’s vision, the vision we hold for the kind of leader we are and desire to be must follow the same principles.
II. Know thyself
How do you construct your world? What floats your boat? What blocks you from being more productive? What supports you or gets in your way when you are attempting to influence others? These are essential questions to answer to know yourself better.
A great start in answering these questions can involve engaging a robust personal assessment. I have found the Enneagram Assessment the most useful tool for understanding ones self. This tool is a system that identifies nine primary ego structures. Once you know your Enneagram Type, you will gain keen insights into your personality traits. However, the Enneagram cuts to a much more profound than merely defining ones’ personality. It is the most in-depth assessment I know of for understanding one’s authentic nature.
This tool is the most in-depth assessment I know of for understanding one’s more profound nature. As you study your type, you will learn that inherent in each orientation is a more profound desire that was thwarted at an early age. Once you understand this, it will also illuminate a development pathway, that is most natural to you. By following this pathway, you will automatically enable a higher degree of presence and effectiveness.
III. Create More Space to Befriend Your Awareness
In short, start a meditation practice! To me, the primary reason to meditate is to build a relationship with the one in you that is already, always aware. Building this relationship requires space and silence. Our most significant distractions and missteps come from unconsciously following specific patterns of reacting. Moreover, all reactions are born out of a unique mix of thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations.
Those that engage a regular meditation practice regularly report that they are less prone to following their reactions and are more effective in dealing with whatever arises during their day. As we create more space within us, we become far more effective in our decision making, our relationships and have a more exceptional ability to focus on what is most important, as well as take more effective action.
IV. Bring Mindfulness to Your Day
There are many practices you can deploy that takes less than a minute to sharpen your focus and engage presence. One of the most powerful ones is bringing your attention to your breath and intentionally breathing deeply for thirty seconds to a minute. After all, our breath is life force itself. When we reconnect to our breathing, we connect powerfully to our awareness and mitigating the negative impact of the stresses we face each day.
Moreover, as I noted above, there are many other mindfulness practices you can deploy that will quickly bring you back to ones’ presence in short order. The key is finding one that works for you and implementing the practice several times during your day.
V. Engage Daily Reflection
The greatest leaders I know engage in some form of journaling at the beginning and the end of their day. They begin their day by reminding themselves what they most want to generate around them and set clear intentions for that day. Their journaling is more than a planning exercise. Stellar leaders explore questions, such as “given my aspirations and current priorities, what do I need to focus most on today to move them forward?”
At the end of their day, a leader will engage journaling to examine how they did at meeting their intentions. When they do this, they are making an honest yet sober assessment around their effectiveness in meeting the aims they set out at the start fo the day. This practice ensures that they will continue to enhance their efficiency in forwarding what is most vital for them and their organizations.
Conclusion
Conscious business leaders continuously expand their presence. Aware leaders realize that if they don’t, it costs them in their effectiveness, results, and well-being. Such leaders commit up to an hour or more every day to engage practices that expand their presence. The hour or so they spend each day on shoring their relationship to self-awareness, pays dividends in spades.
Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time in leading yourself—your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct.
Dee Houck, Founder and Former CEO of Visa
If this post tweaks your interest, I invite you to take my free online course entitled “Foundations of Executive Presence.” The course also includes a suggested daily routine that ensures you can most efficiently integrate these practices into your day. To gain access to this course, follow this link. And if you do take the program, I welcome your feedback and your questions!
