Shedding the Corporate Bitch
Welcome to Shedding the Corporate Bitch – the podcast that challenges the status quo and empowers bold professionals to ditch outdated expectations, rewrite the rules, and rise into leadership on their own terms.
Hosted by transformational coach and unapologetic truth-teller Bernadette Boas, each episode delivers raw insights, unfiltered conversations, and practical strategies for ambitious corporate professionals, executive leaders, and HR trailblazers who are ready to level up—without selling out.
Whether you're navigating toxic cultures, battling burnout, or aiming for that next big role, this show is your weekly dose of motivation, straight talk, and real solutions that get results.
Follow now—and start shedding what no longer serves you, so you can build a career and life that actually fits you.
Shedding the Corporate Bitch
Finish Strong with Executive Presence! (Encore)
If you were to describe your leadership style in 1 word, what would it be? Does that word convey executive presence?
In this encore episode, Bernadette dives deep into the depths of self-assessment to help you uncover your true leadership potential and develop a commanding executive presence.
Whether you're a seasoned executive or aspiring to climb the corporate ladder, this episode is packed with valuable insights designed to transform understanding of self into unstoppable leadership strength.
Key Challenges Discussed:
· Understanding and identifying your blind spots
· Maintaining composure and controlling stressors, crucial for effective leadership.
· Overcoming indecisiveness to take swift and informed actions as a leader.
· Embracing flexibility and continuous learning in dynamic corporate environments.
Actionable Takeaways:
1. How to conduct a thorough self-assessment to enhance self-awareness.
2. What to ask to gain feedback to understand perceptions and reality.
3. Defining and pursuing personal and professional development goals.
In order to advance in your career and in the minds of the decision makers around you, you need to be intentional about honing your executive presence.
Not sure how? Schedule a discovery call and let Bernadette give you specific tips based on where you are in your career. coachmebernadette.com
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And, connect with Bernadette on Linkedin - @BernadetteBoas and IG - @balloffirebernadette
For more powerful insights and personal development, visit balloffirecoaching.com and connect with Bernadette Boas on various social platforms.
When a manager receives feedback that they need to elevate their executive presence, the first question that they come to me for and ask is what does that mean exactly? More often than not, they're viewing it solely as the ability to gain respect from others, influencing others to follow them, or being actionable and results-oriented. Some view it from a single lens of it's all about how they present themselves physically and emotionally. Now, it's all of that, but it's also so much more. It's all about the mindset, behavior and leadership style of an individual. It's about their ability to empower, inspire, motivate and influence, trust, engagement and, ultimately, outcomes from those around them. So we will be diving into all of it. So you're focused on the right thing before you even receive feedback that you need to elevate your executive presence, or maybe you've received it and you want to understand exactly what you need to be doing in order to address it and be successful in your work and in your life. So stay with us.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Shedding the Corporate Bitch, the podcast that transforms today's managers into tomorrow's powerhouse leaders. Your host, bernadette Boas, executive coach and author, brings you into a world where the corporate grind meets personal growth and success in each and every episode. With more than 25 years in corporate trenches, bernadette's own journey from being dismissed as a tyrant boss to becoming a sought after leadership coach and speaker illustrates the very essence of transformation that she now inspires in others with her tips, strategies and stories. So if you're ready to shed the bitches of fear and insecurity, ditch the imposter syndrome and step into the role of the powerhouse leader you were born to be, this podcast is for you. Let's do this.
Speaker 1:If you were to witness a senior manager talking down to their people, maybe creating drama and meanings, or completely tuned out from the conversation you're trying to have with them, whether that's one-on-one or even in a group, would you have a lot of respect for them? Would you trust them? Would you want to model that for yourself as an example of strong leadership? Would you follow them into a burning building, feeling confident that they have your back, they're gonna know how to get out of that situation and even support you on the other side? Well, probably not, and so I really wanna walk through what it means for you and for others when it comes to executive presence, and if you have ever received feedback as far as you need to elevate your executive presence and if you want to move to the next level, or that's the reason that they're giving you as far as why you're not elevating up, well, you want to know for sure exactly what does that look like? What does that mean? When you say elevate my executive presence, mr Boss, mrs Boss, what exactly do you mean by that? Can you paint me a picture? So I want to paint you a picture. I want to paint you a picture of someone who exudes executive presence, and so you can take on these traits and qualities and kind of get rid of that reasoning for you not being elevated or advanced or given opportunities. At the same time, I think that there are strong traits and qualities for just being a leader in your work and life. So let's look at it for both the reason of career advancement, but also let's look at it as these are traits and qualities that any leader should have in their home and in the workplace. All right, so let's start kind of summarizing what they are and then I want to give you some tips and strategies for what you can do about it. All right, the first one would be confident.
Speaker 1:Someone with executive presence is confident. They know themselves well enough to project the fact that they believe in their skill, they believe in their intelligence, they believe in their capability, they believe in their no-transcript, completely self-aware of who they are, what they want, what they don't want, what they're willing to accept, what they're willing not to accept, what their boundaries are. They really understand their strengths, their weaknesses, the areas for improvement, their blind spots. And, you know, using that self-awareness allows them, even with their weaknesses and areas for improvement because we all have them. They're able to navigate not only kind of where their strengths are, but also navigate through their weaknesses, through their need to be coached, to get training, to be mentored, and they're willing to do that. They're very coachable, they're very learnable, all right.
Speaker 1:So confidence and self-awareness, which also lends itself to someone with a strong executive presence, has strong emotional intelligence. They have a strong ability to be empathetic, to tap into where others are, so then they can meet them where they are to help influence or persuade or inspire or motivate them to go that much further, or to make the decision that is needed or, to you know, deal with the issue or the conflict that is going on, or to take on a new opportunity or challenge. They're really kind of able to also not only kind of tap into other people, but they can tap into their own emotions. Because of that self-awareness also, they're able to tap into what their stressors are, what their triggers are, and they're able to manage through them to where they're not impacted or negatively affected and therefore don't take on what maybe it's a risk or a new challenge, opportunity, or make that decision. They're very aware of those areas to where then they can work themselves through it. So emotional intelligence as well.
Speaker 1:And with confidence, self-awareness and emotional intelligence, individuals really gain a sense of how to market or how to message what it is that they're looking to achieve and what they need from other people. They're strong communicators and they have very elevated, strong communication skills. They're able to communicate convincingly, persuasively, authentically what it is that they're working on, dealing with, struggling with need to make a decision on the plan that they're coming up with, especially when it it requires them bringing other people into the fold in order for them to be successful in accomplishing it or navigating through it. But communication skills key leadership, overall leadership skill, but also one that really demonstrates one's executive presence, if they can, you know, not only you know from a body language or a tone or a presence perspective, but through their words, through the structure of their words, through the structure of their messaging, they are able to really emulate executive presence as a result of their communication skills. And they're one going back to emotional intelligence, self-awareness and confidence, they're also one to want to constantly work on it and improve upon it, whether it is I should mention whether it is in writing or verbal. But remember, body language speaks volumes, tone speaks volumes, energy, you know, behavior speaks volumes to individuals and, as I mentioned at the beginning, if you've ever had, you know someone, a senior manager, who talks down to people or who, totally you know, looks like they're tuned out or they're not paying attention or they're multitasking, or they're multitasking or they're creating drama All of that whether that's verbal or written, or body language or tone all of that comes into play when it comes to executive presence.
Speaker 1:Those individuals also are strategic thinkers and planners. So a lot of times when people get this kind of feedback around executive presence, a lot of managers struggle to really kind of paint the picture and the first thing, or a couple of things that they'll bring up are more things like confidence. That's pretty basic when it comes to executive presence. But then they'll come up with things like I need you to be more strategic. I need you to be, you know, a strategic planner. I need you to be more strategic. I need you to be, you know, a strategic planner. I need you to be looking around the corner and anticipating what's coming next.
Speaker 1:I need you to, you know, be that visionary, which would be another one would be someone that is visionary and has purpose and meaning behind what it is that they're doing, whether it's a kind of a small project they're working on that needs and requires executive presence, or they're a head of a business or a department or a function of some sort, and it involves all of that. You know painting the vision for the team and for the business. You know making sure everyone understands themselves and others of the purpose for why it is that they're doing what they're doing, why they're making the decisions that they're making, why they're, you know, kind of taking on the new opportunities, the challenges that they're taking on. So, through strategic thinking and planning, they also then emulate being a visionary or being someone who's very purposeful and therefore able to communicate. Going back to that, able to communicate that to everyone and therefore inspire, motivate, educate, inform, persuade. All of that makes for one heck of a powerhouse leader, for sure, for sure.
Speaker 1:Another one would be relationship building and cultivating. So I actually will get feedback from my clients that they'll talk about. Yes, I'm building relationships, making sure that I talk to, I always look for key stakeholders, and so my clients will say, yes, I'm kind of getting on the calendars of stakeholders and working on building that relationship, and but yet then I find that there's gaps. I find that there's, you know, times and and and situations, decisions, coaching, guidance, advice that they're not leaning on and leveraging those relationships, they're not cultivating those relationships to really make it a win-win for everybody. And so when you think about relationship building, you want to also think about the cultivating of that. It goes beyond just kind of having an objective or having to check this off on a list. Especially when it comes to your coach asking you to build relationships, the worst thing I want from my client is just to think that I'm, you know, kind of holding them accountable to checking something off the list. I want them cultivating relationships, especially when it comes to key stakeholders, advocates especially when it comes to key stakeholders advocates, sponsors, decision makers, mentors, coaches that will help them grow in their position today but also help them advance in their career. So focus on also being a relationship builder and cultivator.
Speaker 1:Those with executive presence are very decisive because going back to that confidence, going back to that self-awareness, those triggers, those stressors, those strengths, those areas of weakness, those knowing their boundaries, knowing you know, of course, their expert, their experience, you know they have the gravitas of the position that they're in, but all of that lends itself beautifully into being able to make decisions easy or hard, doing all the due diligence around it and making those key decisions that need to be made. So decisiveness is also a key trait of an individual with executive presence. And then there's authenticity. We talked about that earlier.
Speaker 1:Leaders powerhouse leaders, as I call them are really genuine. They're genuine about their strengths, their weaknesses, their riches as I call them, bitches. They're, you know. They're genuine about wanting to build those and cultivate those relationships. Wanting to build trust, wanting to build, you know, commitment and support and advocacy with one another. Know commitment and support and advocacy with one another. They want to foster, you know, transparency, honesty, openness, healthy conflict, because they know that it'll all lead to the ultimate outcome and results that everybody wants and again, it's a win-win. And so authenticity also, you know, brings in not only the trust element but also the humility element. It brings in, you know, someone's ability to say they're wrong, made a bad decision, are weak in a particular area, need help.
Speaker 1:And, you know, being authentic, kind of just, you know, ensures that what you see is what you get. What you see is what you get In the past. I will have to admit you got about 20% of me in my past corporate career. Today you get 99% of me because there's a. You know there's a certain percentage you need to keep to yourself. But authenticity, you want people that are authentic and they want you to be authentic.
Speaker 1:Many people think that leaders want other leaders, want brown nosers and, yes, men and women. They don't. They want people that challenge them. They want people that are genuinely interested in making them successful and making themselves successful and the business, and therefore they're always looking for opportunities, pointing out challenges, risks and looking for the goals and the motivations of other people so they can create wins across the board on a regular basis. Okay, so authenticity. And wins across the board on a regular basis Okay, so authenticity.
Speaker 1:And then, of course, there's those that are just very resilient, and they recognize that there's going to be good days and calm days and there's going to be hell, chaotic, stormy days. And yet, at the same time, they're very resilient to if they get knocked down, if they grew up, if they make a bad decision or a bad call, if they hire the wrong person, if they, you know, whatever the case might be, and they, you know, anybody else would act as if the world's ending. They recognize that. You know what. We all screw up. We all make mistakes, we all have our failures and missteps. And yet right now, at this very moment in time not even tomorrow, but right now, at this moment in time there's an opportunity to make things better. There's an opportunity to learn, to grow, to evolve. So those with executive presidents are very resilient and as a result of that, they also come across very composed.
Speaker 1:You want your leaders right. You want your leaders to be calm, cool and collected. You want your leaders to I mentioned at the very beginning about going through fire. You want your leaders to recognize there's a fire, recognize the dangers, do the due diligence, get everybody you know kind of brought together to put out this fire, but do it in a way that's calm, cool and collected and not like chaotic and dramatic and overwhelming and very emotional. You want, you know your leaders and they want from you that you know you could be in the middle of the storm and you're just going to keep your composure, you're going to keep your emotions in check, while at the same time you are human. So you're recognizing and being authentic about the fact that you're scared, the fact that you're kind of in an uncomfortable situation or an uncomfortable place that you don't want to be. At the same time, you're willing to do it because it's the best for yourself, for the team, for the business. And, of course, as a result of that, executive presence requires adaptability. We're going through constant, constant change. And if you're not adaptable, if you're not willing to change, if you're not willing to learn, if you're not willing to grow, well then you know you might as well just kind of hang your hat, because leaders definitely absolutely need to be adaptable in this very expedient, chaotic, ever-changing, unpredictable environment that we're in and it doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
Speaker 1:And I talked about persuasion earlier. You know, through communication, through someone's communication skills, they're able to clearly, you know, lay out their message, their business case, their decision-making process, whatever, and able to persuade others through that messaging, through that structuring, so to speak. But persuasion, and someone who is persuasive emotes executive presence. And lastly, of course, I can't go without mentioning at the beginning I had said that I, at the beginning I had said, said that you know, some, some look into a solo lens that executive presence is about whether or not I'm wearing the right clothes and I drive the right car and I'm, you know, in the right seat at the table and you know I'm I'm my posture's right, my tone is good and, trust me, it was that person too.
Speaker 1:That energy was about 90%, and 10% was the expertise and the skill and the adaptability and the authenticity and the composure and the resilience and the confidence and everything else we've been talking about. I want you to flip it 10% on the professional appearance, because we all should be professional looking, you know, when we are engaging in a work environment, whether that is remote or not, and then 90% should be on everything else we're talking about. But professional appearance, you know it holds a lot of weight. You know you don't want someone showing up looking like. You know their clothes are wrinkled and they're dirty or ripped. You know their hair is all messed up and disheveled, so forth and so on. You want, you know, leadership is still about presence, even physically Okay, even physically Okay. So those are traits and qualities that really will help you emulate executive presence.
Speaker 1:I do want to give you some specific tips that you can start acting on and ensuring that you are arming yourself in such a way that you'll be successful in creating that presence that you're looking for as a leader, okay. So the first one would be you need to self-assess yourself, and we've talked about that. You need to self-assess your strengths, your weaknesses, your areas for opportunities, your blind spots. You know how others perceive you. Well, I'm sorry, I'll bring that up in a minute, but you need to self-assess that for yourself. You need to become self-aware, right so? And all of that self-awareness, as we said, and all this information that you would gather for yourself through your own self-assessment, will also help with not only self-awareness but confidence. So you know, all of these tips will kind of check off. You know one of the 13, or multiples of the 13 traits and qualities we talked about.
Speaker 1:And then you want to seek feedback, and you could call that. You know a 360 assessment, but you want to seek feedback from others. All right, now that you've assessed yourself, how do others perceive me? Because perception is reality. So someone else's perception of you, their experience with you, is their reality, and therefore you really want to understand the reality. You don't want to all of a sudden get surprised by, you know, either a performance review, a rejection to an advancement opportunity or a job opportunity, you know, or you get feedback in your you know, in your regular touch bases with your employees or your boss. So you want to kind of get ahead of it, so to speak, and you want to be able to gather feedback from others. Plus, it's just growth, it's just that being coachable, being learnable, being trainable you want to be able to also seek feedback and from that you can be setting goals, like you can look at this whole list of traits that we've been talking about and even these tips, but then through that self-assessment, through gathering feedback from someone else, formally or informally, you can then set goals.
Speaker 1:What do I need to work on? What do I? You know, what strengths do I possess right now but I want to elevate? If it is executive presence, what, specifically around that, do you know, do I want to work on, do I want to improve on, do I want to even master? If it is around communication, what is that? What part of communication skills, because there's a lot would that involve? So you self-assess, you get feedback, you set achievable goals and then you look to invest in your development personally and professionally. You invest, whether that's through training, through coaching, through mentoring, through those feedback sessions and self-assessments, but you really ensure, through coaching, through mentoring, through those feedback sessions and self-assessments, but you really ensure through book I can't overlook that books, videos, you don't want to ever not be learning and growing and working on your own personal and professional growth.
Speaker 1:Another one would be work on those communication skills, work on and the number one thing I would tell people, especially from an executive presence perspective, is become that strategic communicator. Now, what does that mean? And I'm going to make this brief because it could be a session in itself or an episode in itself. But strategic communication is ensuring that you are structuring your communications, your messages, in such a way that it creates that influence, that persuasion that you're looking for, that trust, that respect, and demonstrates your executive presence. And you know the structure is going to look like. You really always want to focus on the outcome, the results, the benefits, the what's in it for whomever, and then you can get into the how-to and all the details and all the minutiae underneath it. But there is a very purposeful, intentional way of communicating your or structuring your communications that will elevate your leadership. You know perception from other people, all right, and again, you can always reach out to me at BernadetteBose, at BallafireInccom, if you want to learn a little bit more about that. But be a strategic communicator outcomes, benefits and results, what's in it for them and then get into minutia.
Speaker 1:Then another area that would touch on a number of those traits and qualities we went through is honor your riches. When you've done that self-assessment, when you've gathered that feedback from others, look for both things strengths and weaknesses but really hone in and spend time on those strengths. Spend time on those talents and skills and expertise and experiences and encounters that you've had that really ground you in why you are the powerhouse that you already are, and ensure that you really use that to not only help you through the areas that you need to work on but also will help you market and message yourself to ensure that you are honoring your riches even externally to other people. Someone's not going to just come along and tap you on the shoulder and go, hey, take this big job and with that big office in the corner, you need to be able to humbly honor your riches and your accomplishments and your outcomes and your results and your achievements, you know, to other people you just can't keep it to yourself, all right. So honor your riches Now.
Speaker 1:The other one would be that composure we talked about, that resilience. You need to work on ensuring that you're managing your emotions, that your emotions aren't managing you, like. Figure out what your stressors are, what your triggers are, what your motivators are and ensure that you know, when you recognize that those things are kind of percolating, that you're able to manage those. Because, again, leader, you know, or teams want their leaders, to be calm, cool and collected, composed through the good times and the hard times, and therefore you need to figure out a way to manage your own emotions so you can project that demeanor to other people. Okay, then another one would be and this is a big one managers you need to listen more and talk less.
Speaker 1:Managers you need to listen more and talk less. Your job as a leader is to develop, grow and support your people and in order to do that, it's not just dumping and handing out assignments to your people and hoping that you know if they're having an issue or they're sinking under the weight of all the work that they have, that they're going to all of a sudden come up and raise their hand and wave the white flag and tell you what's going on. And even when they do, you need to listen to the point where, if they're not using the words that necessarily scream I need help, I'm drowning, I'm doing great, but I want more opportunities, I feel like I'm not contributing what I'm able to, so forth, and so on. You need to be able to pick up on those cues, but that takes you actively listening and talking less, okay. And then, of course, you need to kind of build that trust, build that foundation on you know, kind of doing what you say, practicing what you preach. Also ensuring that you're engaging your team and you're valuing their capabilities or their opportunities, because some may not be capable right now, but they have a great capacity to you know, learn and to contribute more and therefore you take the risk to educate them, to mentor them, to coach them, just to throw them something and allow them to take on that challenge.
Speaker 1:So you need to build trust in your team members because, remember, trust is a foundation of executive presence. You need to work on building trust by taking the risk, taking the chances, delegating to your team. You don't need to do it all when you do it all, trust me when I say that the people around you watching you observe that you're not able to delegate when you do it all. Trust me when I say that the people around you watching you, observe that you're not able to delegate, that you. Therefore, you don't trust your team or you think that you're the only one who can do it, and that will be a ding against you. It won't ever be a positive if you're not able to entrust your team to do the job that they're meant to do and or that they're capable of doing, even though their job description may not even require it. You need to allow them to take those chances, those risks, give them those opportunities and you need to then, therefore, trust them and delegate to them.
Speaker 1:And, of course, we talked decisiveness earlier, and some people aren't great decision makers, or some people really have to overanalyze, like, really analyze, really dig in, do the due diligence. And again, there's no right or wrong. There's no right or wrong to decision making, whether it's somebody who haphazardly, with very little information, makes a decision or someone who overanalyzes and makes a decision. The point is to make the decision. And yet there are a lot of leaders out there that don't like to make decisions, avoid it, delay it. They will delegate the decision out because, again, now it's not their responsibility if they delegate or even dump it out to somebody else and you, as a leader, absolutely need to be able to make those decisions, and so you need to recognize remember self-assessment.
Speaker 1:You need to recognize what your decision-making process is, and sometimes it'll be just right. Sometimes it'll be too slow, sometimes it'll be too fast. The outcome, though, it has to be just right. Sometimes it'll be too slow, sometimes it'll be too fast. The outcome, though, it has to be the decision, so then you can work on whether or not it needs to be done. You know different, better, faster, slower, whatever the case might be, but you have to be a decision maker. Identify one, two or three of them that you can start working on.
Speaker 1:Go and do a self-assessment of yourself Strengths, weaknesses. You can even identify for yourself any blind spots. Blind spots you would identify by the fact that you know someone has always told you something about yourself. You've never really picked up on it, but yet, now that you're thinking about it, you recognize that that could be working for you or against you, and yet so. Therefore, it's a blind spot that you've been given, feedback that you've kind of denied, and therefore you know it could be a blind spot for you.
Speaker 1:But what are your blind spots, as well as what are your strengths, what are your weaknesses, what are your hidden strengths? And again, that's something that other people have told you you're really good at this. You don't necessarily, you know, agree, or you don't really think about it or consider it. So what is it? So start with one to three of these, even if it's self-assess, seek feedback and then work on some personal and professional development goals. One of those tips and strategies I provided then don't hesitate to ask me for some time to discuss it, and I can create that roadmap for you and give you your first steps to take so you can be gaining that executive presence and becoming that powerhouse leader that you're meant to be. So simply go to coachmebernadettecom, forward slash discovery, call and schedule some time with me. I'm very honored that you were here with us this week and I'll look forward to having you right back here next week for another episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Talk to you soon. Bye.
Speaker 2:Thank you for tuning into today's episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. Every journey taken together is another step towards unleashing the powerhouse leader within you. Don't miss any of our weekly episodes. Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, spotify or wherever you love to listen. And, for those who thrive on visual content, catch us on our Shedding the Bitch YouTube channel. Want to dive deeper with Bernadette on becoming a powerhouse leader? Visit balloffirecoachingcom to learn more about how she helps professionals, hr executives and team leaders elevate overall team performance. You've been listening to Shedding the Corporate Bitch with Bernadette Boas. Until next time, keep shedding, keep growing and keep leading.
