HR Seminar Singapore: Executive Presence

Last week we held our third HR seminar of 2019 in partnership with Arcadia Consulting.

Over one hundred senior HR professionals joined us to learn techniques to strengthen their executive presence. Mark Albas, Partner at Arcadia Consulting hosted an engaging, interactive session which provided some bite-sized learning points for the audience to take away.

Leadership traits come more naturally for some people, but everyone can work on developing their executive presence and their ability to influence. Focusing on executive presence not only helps your own personal brand within the business, but also impacts on your ability to inspire and motivate others. Mark shared the three main aspects of executive presence, namely:

• Gravitas
• Communication 
• Physical command

The most common misunderstanding is that communication has the most effect on executive presence. However it is actually physical command that has the most impact, and reinforces your leadership credentials. Mark provided some useful tips and exercises to improve physical command, which everyone in the audience had the chance to practice.

Arcadia has developed an approach to Executive Presence called the SAFE model:

State – Own your confidence. Taking physical command of your body boosts confidence and decreases the stress hormone cortisol .

Anchor – Techniques such as eye contact anchor you in the present and draws your audience into your message.

Flex – Tailor your approach to your audience. Flexibility in style and delivery will help your message resonate more strongly.

Engage – Say it once and say it well. Develop your flow and storytelling, and your audience will engage with you.

The SAFE model helps to overcome the fear of public speaking and provides you with the tools to avoid ‘freezing’ when presenting. After the seminar our guests enjoyed drinks and canapes and used the opportunity to further develop their network of Singapore and ASEAN senior HR professionals.

If you would be interested in attending future events please get in touch with Vincent Romano at vr@elliottscotthr.com