6 Daily Habits That Will Make You Look Smarter and Powerful

6 Daily Habits That Will Make You Look Smarter and Powerful
Building your executive presence now will be a tremendous advantage to your career in the future

1. Look the part. Executives within your organization likely dress on a similar level of formality. Whether that's business attire or sweats, they set the norm for their circle of leadership peers. Noticing those trends and mirroring them in your own wardrobe is a starting place. Of course, bringing your own sense of style along is key.
2. Have an opinion. Leaders speak up on issues that matter to them when they have the opportunity. So should you. If you're concerned about thinking up something relevant or generally like to have more time to mull over points before forming an opinion, that's great but do a little research ahead of time on the topic so that you have some constructive and ready-made feedback to contribute.
3. When entering a room, take a moment before flying through the door and finding a seat to notice who's in the room. Pick the seat you want and take it, intentionally.
4. Ask great questions. Being known for asking great questions about how the issue at hand will impact customers, staff, suppliers, partners, etc. will not only help you form your opinion about key topics, you'll be noticed for having the interests of important stakeholders in mind.
5. Sit up straight with your feet firmly on the ground. Focus on projecting your voice to the furthest person in the room without shouting. Speaking too quietly for everyone to hear and having to be asked to speak up can be embarrassing. It also erodes others' sense of how confident you feel in your point. Our body language not only impacts what other people think, it impacts how confident we feel. Check out Amy Cuddy's TED Talk on power posing to learn more.
6. Avoid qualifying statements such as "I think...," "I'm sure you already thought of this but...," and "I don't know if this is where we're going with this but..."

If you have aspirations of earning a promotion within your organization, starting to build your executive presence now will be a tremendous advantage to you in the future.

Thank you to Robin Camarote for conducting these 6 steps.