Manage your image

- Tom Landry, one of the most successful head coaches in professional sports history, said, a crucial part of leadership is having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control, and if you're not, they're not, and they lose confidence in themselves and in you. As an executive leader, you need to inspire confidence, even with people who don't know you well. Why? Because executive leaders are visible to large numbers of people, often in small slices of exposure. By appearing too fearful or erratic or not up to the challenge, you lose their confidence and gain an unwanted reputation. The great news is this is a learned ability. With practice, you can manage that inner turmoil and project yourself as someone fully capable of handling even the toughest situations. Here's how to do it. Break it down into managing your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions. One. Practice directing your thoughts towards the number one positive priority for your situation. The number one priority is not you winning an argument or getting back at someone or being right, especially if it makes others look bad or feel embarrassed. The number one priority is always about advancing a shared purpose for greater good. Focus your thoughts, not on your inner unease, but on what matters most for the group. Two. Direct your feelings toward determination to make progress on that number one priority. It's okay if sometimes if you're nervous. Everyone does. You can still inspire confidence. Practice channeling your difficult feelings toward focused determination. Make friends with that feeling. Go to it over and over in less stressful times and it gets easier and easier to access when the pressure is on. It works. Focus determination is well suited for even the toughest situations. But focus determination to do what? Three. That's where your actions come in. Get determined to focus on that number one priority and to take the best actions to advance that priority. Actions include what you say and do including your body language and tone of voice. We can't see our own actions, so the first step to inspire more confidence with your behaviors is to understand the current impact of your actions. What do you currently do that inspires confidence or doesn't? Get feedback and look for areas of improvement. We all have them. Here's an example from someone who can easily be on your list. The celebrated basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, whose teams have won multiple championships and Olympic Gold said, a leader has to show the face his team needs to see. Before he ever utters a word, they see his face and they also see his eyes, even his walk. Coach K, as he's called, goes on, I'm always aware of how I enter a room. Before a game, I might walk into the locker room quickly with a spring in my step and a smile on my face, and as I come in, I might say something like, hey, we're going to be great tonight. Whatever I say after that will not be as important as how I look to them. Does he really mean it? Yeah, look at his face, he really meant it. We might be great tonight. We gain confidence in people like Coach K who keep a cool head and help us stay on track when it matters most.