Illustra Consulting

Gone are the days when time on the job was enough to ensure upwardly mobile seniority. The skills that got you to where you are when you won your last promotion are not sufficient to push you to the next level.

I’m one of the few executive presence coaches who focuses on the cause, not just the symptoms. I work to remove the internal barriers before we jump ahead to the external presence challenges.

Here are four ways to improve your communications – whether those are over the phone, board room presentations, or electronic messages like email.

One of the simplest but most often overlooked leadership success strategies is to surround yourself with winners.

One of my clients shared a powerful story with me that I know will resonate with many of you. His was a wonderful experience of long-awaited success that he had been dreaming of his whole career.

Most leaders who speak don’t adhere to the most important technique, which I call piloting the plane.

Instead of visualizing yourself getting up and making a big, important speech, think about whether you could be cool and confident just introducing someone else who is going to speak.

Dr. Seligman has found that positive psychology is actually more important than IQ. I think that’s largely because conventional IQ tests do not measure emotional intelligence.

Here are three incredible keys to career acceleration that we should all keep in the forefront of our vision and in the daily toolkit of our executive presence development.

Too many of our leaders think that dealing with headaches is the name of the game, and their whole mindset is based on reacting to problems. I want you to think differently and make your developmental growth and that of those around you your main challenge.

I would have to say that confidence is the most important characteristic needed today to enrich executive presence and be perceived as a promotable leader.

You know you are capable of so much more. But you have become such a reliable cog in the machinery that it never occurs to your superiors to offer you a promotion.

YDo you have areas in your life or work where you feel chronic resistance on the path to success and productivity?

You may be complaining that you aren’t getting the visibility you need or the opportunity for that next big promotion – yet you aren’t promoting yourself in your industry by sharing your expertise and experience.

There is one problem we’ve all encountered that can be simultaneously frustrating and disappointing.

As 19th century writer John Ruskin said, “A thing is worth precisely what it can do for you.” Unless those around you recognize your everyday contributions, they have no way of realizing your importance.

By using centrifugal force, gravity, and the science of simple fulcrums and natural leverage, for example, two people can move a block of granite that weighs hundreds of pounds.

If you want to seize the day and capitalize on your window of opportunity to move up in your career you have to be fully prepared to jump at the chance.

If everyone on your team has the same skill set then it limits your capability and flexibility. So I chose people and designed teams with a symbiotic outcome in mind.

Steve Jobs helped to harness technologies that improve the quality of our lives and the lives of generations to come.