Kim was thrilled at her promotion to product manager at a mid-sized manufacturer of women’s health supplements. As an operational and subject matter expert, Kim was viewed as the ideal choice for the role.
Unfortunately, nerves about new situations-executive meetings, town halls, defending her choices, and leading virtual meetings, were creating stress.
Kim’s concerns are not unusual. Leadership roles and promotions go along with being seen and heard –more than you’ve ever been in your career. The upside of this visibility is recognition and advancement, especially if you are a comfortable and confident communicator.
The challenge is to master a leadership presence toolkit which will expand your comfort zone in new and challenging situations.
Start with these five tips essential for powering up your presence, based on our research, and our team’s experience with over 25,000 pharma and life science clients.
1. Discover your Presence Words: How you want to be perceived
Pharma leaders are ever busy with projects, organizational changes, and days with double booked meetings. These important priorities make it challenging to reflect on your desired leadership style. Yet, finding three minutes to identify your presence words–what you want others saying about you– will add observable momentum to your career.
To discover your presence words:
- The goal is to identify how you’d like to come across as a leader or future leader.
- Choose two presence words:
Hint: One word can relate to your competence.
Examples: Expert, knowledgeable, strategic, visionary.One word can relate to your connection with people. Examples: Confident, approachable, enthusiastic, friendly Venky, a new Head of Training in a midsized pharmacy company, said he felt awkward, and was suffering from “imposter syndrome”, because most of his team members had a decade more experience than he did.Venky chose expert and confident as his presence words, and worked with a coach to live into them. Venky aspired to be a recognized authority in men’s health pharmaceuticals, and focused on messaging and building confidence as a thought leader in his field.
Once you identify your presence words, your path to powering up will be clearer. - Get your point across in 30 to 45 seconds…the preferred length when you are contributing to a discussion or answering a question in a meeting.One pharma executive complained to me that Stephanie, a new sales director, repeated phrases, went on and on with random detail, and her meetings expanded into overtime. The leader shared that Stephanie’s overtalking would interfere with career advancement.
Ouch!
As an old expression goes, she needed to learn to “Be brief, be bright, be gone!”
To get to the point,
-Use the format of a fifteen- word Headline/Main Point, and then back it up with three subpoints.
Example: Headline: Getting to the point is a key skill for leaders.
Point: Your message will be clearer,
Point: Your effectiveness will be recognized, and Point: Your point will be more memorable.
3. Be a fluent speaker.
Fluency is the smooth flow of words, at the right speed, and with minimal vocalized pauses including “ah” and “um”.
Though we don’t have to be flowing like newscasters or sports announcers, we can learn a few speaking tricks from the pros.
To be more fluent, pause for a count of two (one to two seconds) between phrases, and minimize vocalized pauses like “um and ah”. Don’t worry about being perfect though—speakers are “allowed” wording mistakes or dysfluencies on up to three percent of spoken language!
The easiest route to increased fluency is “preparation, not desperation”.
There is a big difference between knowing your topic and being able to speak about it.
Some leaders do all the research needed for an important meeting, but neglect preparing their speaking points before and during a meeting.
A little less research…a bit more time devoted to smooth delivery will serve you well.
4. Master Meetings
Pharma professionals are in meetings for over half their work week, yet polls reveal that workers view over 30% of meetings as time wasters.
Perhaps the first and best question to ask is:
Do we need to meet? Leaders who communicate information on chat channels, voice or video messages will score major points for minimizing meeting marathons.
To master meetings:
–Structure for success:
Your meeting structure checklist can include:
-Brief agenda distributed the day before
-Introducing topics and the benefit of discussing
-Assigning a time limit to topics and speakers
-Keeping people on topic and tabling other items for a future meeting Ending on an upbeat note with action items
–Include and engage participants:
Meetings are gatherings for a purpose-so make sure that yours add value to work life.
Plan your meetings for maximum engagement-the easiest way to build morale, loyalty, and trust.
-Easy to apply techniques include going around the room to hear input, encouraging discussion in breakout groups, and inviting participants to present on their areas of interest.
(Examples: How clinical studies are conducted, How to create high impact slides)
-Three to five meeting minutes devoted to social interaction creates connection and inspires friendships. Research shows that retention is increased if workers have a best friend or confidante in the office. Makes sense!
Janine reached her career goal of becoming Chief Security Officer at multinational pharmaceutical company. At her first team meeting, she spoke for fifty out of sixty minutes, believing that it was her responsibility to fill the time. Yawn!
With coaching in advance of her fifth meeting, Janine tried breakout groups on the topic of protecting client confidential information.
She felt relieved from carrying the meeting load, and as a bonus, her team provided feedback that she led the “best team meeting ever”.
5. Practice dynamic delivery
To power up your presence, consider two dimensions of delivery:
-Your sound-speech and voice
-Your nonverbal behavior or body language.
A simple analogy is to think of your message and structure as a cake, and delivery as the frosting-what people notice. You want great frosting, or no one will dig into the cake—your message.
Sam, a brilliant pharmacy clinical director, had a prominent role in an early- stage program focused on clinic services for children.
He was passionate and likable with colleagues, but became stiff, overly detailed, and dull sounding when speaking to all important executive groups. As a result, leaders seemed more interested in engaging with less experienced people on his team.
Many leaders from technical or scientific backgrounds place more emphasis on data versus delivery. However, when it comes to influence and impact with a non- technical audience, a shift from information to inspiration will yield better outcomes.
To practice dynamic delivery:
–Use Vocal Variety for impact
Emphasize at least one word in every phrase by increasing pitch and volume.
Vocal variety is a main way a leader’s enthusiasm and interest is conveyed.
Try these sentences using vocal variety on bolded words:
You will NOT be boring. YOU will not be boring. You will not be BORING
Sam said that using vocal variety felt unnatural, but agreed that he sounded more “upbeat” when we listened to a recording of his latest presentation.
PS-He received more interest for enrolling in his studies, than after previous talks.
-Remember S P A C E is power!
Pharma leaders are frequently persuading, negotiating, or handling challenges. One easy way to instantly look more influential is by expanding the space you occupy (and if you want to look weaker-let’s say if you don’t want to intimidate a new employee–contract to look smaller!)
Take up space with these tips:
-Stand up when presenting, even when others are seated.
-Spread out in a visible spot at the table.
-Keep gestures high and above your waist. Make sure they are visible in your virtual meeting square.
-Turn on virtual video when possible. Center yourself in the frame and leave three inches of room above your head in a virtual meeting for best camera presence.
-Keep you chin even with the center of your neck-where a tie knot or necklace charm would be. That head posture conveys more confidence, than tilting your head to the side.
Remember that leadership is conveyed through what you say, how you sound, and your visual impression. Your effective communication impacts your colleagues, community well-being, and business results.
Master the five key ideas above and you will be on your way to powering up your presence!
