I think the reason the concept of altitude is difficult to grasp in mastering executive presence is because it comes from knowing your audience. If your day to day is focusing on the details facing someone who is not, the adjustment is a skill.
I've not heard someone so succinctly describe this 'inscrutable phrase.' In my experience I've seen an implicit behavior on the part of leaders who 'get it' re: executive presence - they don't try to teach it to others in a meaningful way, but they ask their teams to somehow just grok it. Your piece makes this tangible and practice-able, so thank you!
Altitude is the right word, because the leverage isn't doing the higher-order work faster — it's noticing that most of what feels urgent lives at an altitude that never compounds. People who read as having presence mostly just stopped spending themselves at ground level on decisions a plain no could have handled.
How do you refrain from making it seem like you're being disagreeable with everyone, and it reduces the amount of engagement you can put into meetings, meaning you freeze in high level meetings because you're in your head thinking of saying the wrong thing
If someone is stuck in their head thinking of saying the wrong thing they likely don't have the right map of how decisions fit together, or, they do, but they haven't yet built the skills to productively guide others
I think the reason the concept of altitude is difficult to grasp in mastering executive presence is because it comes from knowing your audience. If your day to day is focusing on the details facing someone who is not, the adjustment is a skill.
Definitely. I'm reminded somewhat of this thought experiment: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/317265/flatland-by-abbott-edwin/9780241441572
Very tangible explanation, thanks for sharing! Problem altitude reminds me somewhow the eigenquestions.
Yes, absolutely. Hadn't heard of the concept before, but doing a quick check, I think these are very similar ideas.
I've not heard someone so succinctly describe this 'inscrutable phrase.' In my experience I've seen an implicit behavior on the part of leaders who 'get it' re: executive presence - they don't try to teach it to others in a meaningful way, but they ask their teams to somehow just grok it. Your piece makes this tangible and practice-able, so thank you!
I'm always amazed at how there can be people who are good at a thing without fully realizing how or why they are good at that thing
Altitude is the right word, because the leverage isn't doing the higher-order work faster — it's noticing that most of what feels urgent lives at an altitude that never compounds. People who read as having presence mostly just stopped spending themselves at ground level on decisions a plain no could have handled.
How do you refrain from making it seem like you're being disagreeable with everyone, and it reduces the amount of engagement you can put into meetings, meaning you freeze in high level meetings because you're in your head thinking of saying the wrong thing
It's a good thing to have a modest amount of disagreement and tension. See also: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/meyers-management-models-3-ron-meyer/
If someone is stuck in their head thinking of saying the wrong thing they likely don't have the right map of how decisions fit together, or, they do, but they haven't yet built the skills to productively guide others