If you are a leader who can provide clarity, remove boundaries, and create a collaborative working environment...wouldn’t that be true brilliance?

Millennials and older workers can learn from each other in the office. Chances are high that you’ve invited a millennial into an established workplace, with its own culture and way of doing things. Friendly reminder, you can be younger than 30 and still have good ideas. Second friendly reminder, an old dog can and probably wants to learn new tricks.

I was thrilled to see so many strong women and role models in In the Company of Women: Inspiration and Advice from over 100 Makers, Artists, and Entrepreneurs by Grace Bonney.  I like it so much that I gave copies to a handful of younger women that I mentor and I’ve added it to several of my recommended books lists.

We spend so much time focusing on making our clients successful that it's not often that we talk about what drives us. We took a moment to reflect on a few key questions on passion, purpose, and how we wield our skill.  We hope you enjoy reading this, and invite you to share your perspective on these questions too!

One of the simplest ways of improving your executive presence is through clarity. What does clarity mean in the context of executive presence? Clarity is the ability to tell your story in an intuitively clear and compelling way.

Like a gymnast on the beam, one of most important executive presence factors is poise. Calm under pressure. Balance in the face of uncertainty. You’ve got to be able to handle the stress, challenge and, sometimes, platitudes without flinching and without letting it get in the way of your work.

“Love what you do” sounds like something that should miraculously happen, not something you have to develop. Cultivating passion makes it sound like, well, work. But cultivating passion is exactly what you have to do to develop the consistency, commitment, motivation, and drive to live the life you want.

So how do you cultivate passion? Read on.

When you picture the archetypical “executive” in your head, you don’t typically associate that persona with openness. Culturally, we’re conditioned to think of executives as tough, no-nonsense, almost authoritarian leaders. However, there are many more executives out there in there in the world than there are spots on reality TV shows, which probably has something to do with this misperception.

So much has been written about the concept of Inspirational Leadership. We’re all looking to uncover the key to untapped potential in our teams. To motivate our teams to do more, and achieve more. To believe in something bigger than the task. Let's talk about HOW.

Thoughtfulness, in executive presence terms, means having thought something through before you respond. This is trickier than it sounds, because to think something through and provide a thoughtful response to someone, you have to listen to what they are really asking for.

It is probably the millennial in me that is hesitant to speak for the collective but I’ll give it a shot. If we are working with you we want to be there, we want to learn from you, we want to grow in this experience. We also want to be respected and listened to but I promise we want to be there and we want to do the work.

It’s almost impossible to build a connection with someone else if you aren’t really listening to what they have to say. Active listening, when you are engaged and attentive, is the number one thing you can do to build relationships and improve your personal and work life. When you really hear what the other person is saying, you can think through and give yourself time to respond.

Some days I step into my office raring to go.  The engines are firing on all cylinders, the coffee is roaring through my veins, the creative juices are flowing, and I take a red pen to my to do list. And then other days, my baby is up all night, the line is too long at my coffee place, and the fog in my brain leads me to inertia in my desk chair.

One of the biggest barriers facing women leaders today is a perceived lack of “executive presence.” This phrase is often used – and often misunderstood, even by the people using it! Intelligent, capable and talented women are being held back in their careers because they don’t meet an ambiguous standard for what an executive should look like.

Change your self-talk. I can say with 100% certainty that you are your own worst critic, bar none. Yes, it’s good to have high standards and yes, you should keep reaching for the stars, just not at the expense of your own ego! Instead of identifying the ten things that went wrong in a meeting or a conversation, train your mind to recognize what went right.

Nova gives women tools and support to achieve their dreams. Nova is our way of giving women access to the skills and lessons that shaped our careers. Nova is about giving back and raising up  – and I am so thrilled to be able to facilitate women coming together to do so!