3 Executive Leadership Presence Tips for Women During Media Appearances

I’m Susan Harrow, media coach, marketing strategist, author of Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul®, published by HarperCollins and CEO of prsecrets.com. Today’s topic is: Three Executive Leadership Presence Tips For Women During Media Appearances.

Number One: Assume Your Authority

People take their lead from you on how you should be treated. A friend told me a story about Dr. Maya Angelou, she was sitting in a restaurant eating and this woman approached her and said, “Maya, I love your poems and I love your work.” Do you know what Maya Angelou said? “It’s Ms. Angelou!”

So sometimes people don’t follow our lead, because Maya Angelou certainly has the kind of presence where you would never think to rush up and hug her, right? If people do not follow your lead, then it’s perfectly okay to help educate them and direct them.

Number Two: Maintain Eye Contact 100% of the time

During media appearances and Zoom appearances, you want to focus on the dot [The webcam] 100 percent of the time. Why? This actually creates a really wonderful, energetic connection and you want to be thinking about hooking people in with your presence.

You do that with your gaze and the less you can blink the more authority you have. So start paying attention to your blinking patterns because you can then control that depending on the situation. If it’s a situation where you know that you need not to break the contact with a blink, then that is something great to know about yourself.

Number Three: Don’t Allow Yourself To Be Interrupted

When you’re on a panel or if you’re on a show, we have panels and sometimes you’re an individual, a single person being interviewed, let’s imagine you’re speaking and then either the host or another panelist interrupts you. You can simply say, “Wait, I’m not finished,” and sometimes with a pattern interrupt, you want to raise your voice just a little bit. “WAIT!” And then you continue on speaking or you can simply say, “I’m not done.” If somebody interrupts you just say, “I’m not done,” and then you continue speaking.

The point is, don’t let people interrupt you when you’re not finished. It’s your choice. I hope these tips have been helpful. I’d love to hear from you about your executive presence, or leadership presence for women. What other things have you done to establish your authority, to be respected, just to be taken seriously? I’d love to hear your comments below.

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