The One Minute Presenter

A company’s finance director or CFO has always played a key role in the growth of the business in China. Aside from the usual finance related tasks, a demanding role is played dealing with regulators, media and overseas board of directors. This more visible and public role puts more pressure on CFOs to build executive presence. Many companies have found their growth constrained when their finance director is unable to take this role. Shielding finance directors from conferences and media sessions prevents companies from maximizing the potential of their CFO.

What is Executive Presence?

Executive presence is something that is not taught in business schools, but every successful leader has it. Top executives command people’s attention when they walk into a room. When there is a crisis situation, the team turns to them for an opinion. Executives with presence are placed in high profile, high stakes roles to drive the company’s reputation and business forward. Executive presence can be created by looking at it from three perspectives : executive credibility, positive image projection and executive connections. This posting will look at the first perspective:

Executive credibility

Every company has a culture that includes norms on how to dress. The key to success is to first fit in to get ahead. For an executive working in finance, dress like a finance executive: well fitting suits in blues, grays and blacks will fit in. Conservative colored shirts – blues and whites work in every situation while some executives can carry more colorful shades like pink or lilac strips. Ties allow more room for self-expression with a mix of the above colors used on various patterns like stripes, checkerboard, dots and paisley. In finance, clients expect a safe and traditional approach to business and that is reflected in the dress-sense.

Creative executives in advertising or online marketing have a greater scope to be individualistic. Out of the box thinking can be manifested in clothing colors, and hair styles. In this type of industry, where creativity Is valued, this type of presentation is acceptable. However, even in these industries as you move up the organization, executives tend to converge to a dress-code.

Look around at industry and company norms, and dress a little smarter than is expected. As Jeffrey Fox says in his book, How to become CEO, “look sharp and be sharp”. Invest in quality clothing, polish your shoes and groom your hair and fingernails. Successful executive presence starts with an executive look. The first step is to look like a confident executive. Stand out by paying close attention to the small details of personal grooming.

For part 2 read here and for part three click here.

Resource box:

Warwick John Fahy coaches senior finance executives to influence key stakeholders, like clients, regulators, and investors with the innovative model: “The Bamboo Leader -  8 executive presence competencies for multinationals in Greater China”. To arrange an initial free “Build Executive Presence” consultation (value 200 Euros), call Jeremy Potts today +86 21 6101 0486 or download a free White Paper on Building Executive Presence at http://www.thebambooleader.com

Warwick is the author of the acclaimed book, The One Minute Presenter - 8 steps to successful business presentations in a short attention span world. For free executive speaking tips visit http://www.oneminutepresenter.com/blog

For a media interview call +86 1391 786 7502.

Copyright 2010 Warwick John Fahy All rights reserved.