THE POWER OF PROFESSIONAL PRESENCE: Wisdom From Day 1 at UNC CHapel Hill Executive program

Professional presence is an elusive, “you’ll know it when you see it” quality. It’s a blend of personal and interpersonal skills that send all the right signals: the impression you make, how you make others feel, and how effectively you communicate both verbally and non-verbally. It enables respected professionals to connect with others in a meaningful and authentic way by projecting confidence, integrity, and perseverance.

In The Power of Professional Presence Executive Program at UNC Chapel Hill led by professor Heidi Schultz, we gained the self-awareness to make sure others see those qualities. Using proven psychological and physical confidence-building methods,we developed a deeper understanding of how presence can reveal your leadership abilities and discovered how effective leaders use presence to communicate, influence, and inspire. Here is some wisdom points shared from Day 1 per ability to make a real difference by presenting yourself confidently to others.

• When you're delivering your message in any speech or public talk strive to keep your head up, shoulders back, stand up straight, control your movement, own your space, and keep good eye contact. Keep your weight equally distributed and be mindful of your vocal inflections. No filler words that create poor vocal clutter.
• Remember what Mark Twain said, "It takes 3 weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech". So prepare! Preparation equals confidence. Confidence equals good communication.
• In all communication it comes down to likability and believe-ability. Remember, likability is the shortest path to believe-ability. And 55% of this all comes from your body language, 38% from your vocal quality, and only 7% from your content.
• You can cultivate confidence. Studies show that only 30% of our confidence is genetic in nature, but 70% of confidence comes from our choices. This is empowering as your confidence level is in your control. Prepare, be positive, know power poses, focus on the here and now and shut down any negative talk or thoughts.
• Remember the importance of Primacy & Recency. People remember what you start with and end with so have your intro and closing strong!
• When you speak be open and face your audience. Remove any barriers. Get outside the podium. Face your audience and invite them in with a smile. Keep sternum open, wide stance, and hands in front with vertical palms.
• Don't let people in the audience bring you down if you see "airplane faces". Don't assume they are thinking anything negative as most people have airplane faces in a relaxed state. Focus on the smiling heads in the audience and present to them to build up your presenting of the message with even more confidence.
• Remember, you always look better then you feel. Assume the best and keep positive outlook. Visualize things going well and then deliver on your visualization. You can't please everyone so go for majority buy-in not universal.
• Be comfortable with silences and use strategic pauses to illustrate a point. If you need to speak for 1 hour do the .9 factor. Multiply your speaking time by .9 and prepare for that less amount so you save time for pauses, silence, and any pivots in your talk. For 1 hour talk, prepare 54 minutes worth!
• Things to avoid saying, "Am I making sense?" "I Just..." "I'm no expert, but" and avoid all the filler words "m, so, you know....
• Consider the presentation framework: PIRC. Purpose, Importance, Route, and Communication. As a result of this presentation I want my audience to "X". This is your purpose. Why should the audience care is the importance. Route is the flow and points you will take to accomplish delivering your purpose and importance message. Finally, communication is how you will deliver your message with right words, body language, vocal variety, and supportive visual/audio.
• An effective conclusion propels your audience to act in a way that propels your goals forward and makes people want to participate because of (WIIFM) "Whats in it for me".
• For presentations use fonts with no feet like Ariel!

Thank you to Professor Heidi Schultz and UNC Executive Program for great education. I hope this helps support your aims to communicate better!
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