In Part 1 of this series, we talked about the two factors your self-confidence and Executive Presence depend upon:
- Physical Impact (PI)
- Intellectual Impact (II)
To understand Physical Impact, it would be best to start with Part 1.
II
Intellectual Impact becomes an important factor once you find yourself engaged in conversation with an individual or a group of people you’ve just met. It has to do with the effect your words and behavior have upon others during your communication with them.
You’re a businessperson, so the idea is to cultivate an unmistakable aura of respect and trustworthiness that people can feel, almost immediately upon meeting you. This is Executive Presence.
To have maximum Intellectual Impact, you need to be:
- well-read
- current
- outwardly focused
- self-aware
- generous
Let’s take a look at the first element.
Be Well-Read
When you’re meeting and talking with people in a business setting, it goes without saying that you need to ‘know your stuff.’ But knowledge of your chosen field of discipline isn’t always enough. We all know plenty of “well-read” guys who can speak ad nauseam down to the most minute detail of our industries — but whom you wouldn’t follow onto a Hawaiian Tropic tour bus!
For the kind of Intellectual Impact that executive presence requires, your scope is going to need to be much wider than that of the average technician. A leader, in addition to superior industry knowledge, needs vision and imagination — something found in no richer abundance than in the pages of great literature.
Specifically, the works of the literary masters, such as Aristotle, Eliot, Dostoevsky, Dante, etc.
Refreshing yourself on works such as these can do wonders for your perspective on modern business problems — often by showing how unmodern life and business dilemmas often are (…for an example of this, take a look at Robert Louis Stevenson’s On the Choice of a Profession, written in 1916).
There’s no need to go around, loudly quoting Shakespeare…
Moreover, you might find that reading great literature expands your vision of your industry (and your role within that industry). From the staunch finance and trade ideologies of Dante, to Aristotle’s brilliant microeconomic observations, there are many contemporary parallels to be drawn, often validating (or challenging) your current business approach.
Your philosophically enhanced scope will display itself naturally in your conversation, and (you may find) will engender a sense of confidence in others, toward you.
Obviously, there’s no need to go around, loudly quoting Shakespeare to impress people you’ve just met. But, could the business implications of Shakespeare’s Henry V, for example, add some nuances to your leadership philosophy?
At the very least, this sort of high-octane idea intake can make you a more flexible, more interesting, and more engaging conversationalist — always a powerful executive asset.
As you begin to wrap your head around these mammoth manuscripts — maybe some you thought you’d never have to see again after college — remember the caliber of company you’re in… notably, T.S. Eliot, himself, who said:
“If you aren’t in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?”
Check out ClassicReader.com, a great (and free) online resource for the classics, and a host of other excellent works.
In Part 3, we talk about the crucial element that follows being well-read: stay current. Go to Part 3, here.
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