Not everybody likes Tom Cruise. He’s a little bit weird. We don’t fully understand the whole Scientology thing all the time, right? I once heard a comedian say he really liked the movie where Cruise played ‘the cocky young guy.’ I laughed.
But I remember reading a magazine article y ears ago about Cruise — a long, in-depth profile — and one part stood out more than anything. The writer talked about his #presence. How he held the room. All eyes seemed to draw into him. When he met people, he remembered small details of meeting them before, years ago.
The author, who had profiled other famous people, said he could only think of two others that had this: Bill Clinton and Will Smith.
All pretty famous, successful people — and while I’m sure they are held together by many factors, one of the biggest was this idea of presence.
When I coach some of my magnificent-but-didn’t-star-in-Risky-Business clients, I get this question all the time: why do some people have ‘it’ and some people seem not to? Why do some come to dominate a room and others slink back into it? We’ve seen research that 26% of a promotion comes from this idea of leadership presence.
So how do you get it?
Through decades of working with CEOs, attending seminars, reading research, and picking the brain of other coaches and presenters, I have a good idea of the formula. I can help even an introvert become the star of a networking event or trade show — although admittedly the introvert probably wouldn’t want to be.
You can find my 5-part Presence model in my book LEAD ADVANCED.