Executive Presence: The Art of Commanding Respect Like a CEO

Conclusion The Art of Commanding Respect Like a CEO

MANY PEOPLE, a lot of them card-carrying cynics, will tell you there are only two ways to reach the level of CEO, and in both cases you are born to it: You either share the last name of the founder and somehow managed not to get kicked out of grad school before the reigning relative stepped aside, or there is something about your presence that sets you apart, that makes you some combination of brilliant, charismatic, empathetic, smooth, persuasive, strategic, and full-on cool. Simon Cowell of American Idol fame, who possesses only a few of those attributes, refers to the latter criterion as the “it factor,” and by implication one can conclude that you have it or you don’t. Although that may ...