Welcome back to the Look and Sound of Leadership.

An ongoing series of executive coaching tips designed to help you be perceived in the workplace

the way you want to be perceived.

I'm Tom Henschel, your executive coach, and today we're talking

about the executive executive. Courtney, an old friend and fellow executive coach, was exploring an interesting topic with one of her clients, a woman named Divia.

During her coaching conversations with Courtney, Divia had wondered what did it actually mean

to be executive. Discounting her company's specific culture and quirks, what, Divia wondered, do great executives share no matter

the corporation or industry?

When Courtney reached out to me asking for my thoughts about divious question, I was intrigued.

Courtney and I have known each other a long time.

We enjoy talking about most anything, coaching being one topic we visit often. We scheduled a

Zoom call to share our thoughts. I began by asking her, do you know what Divia's idea is about

it? What does she think executive looks like?

She's not sure, said Courtney.

She's seen a lot of different kinds of executives. She's seen leaders she thought were a hot

mess but got promoted anyway, and she's seen coworkers who are top-notch who can't

get noticed. It doesn't look consistent to her, which is what prompted the

whole conversation in the first place. I asked and what about you? Where's your

thinking on this? She she said I've been asking

myself a question which is I asked which is if we could deconstruct what it means to be executive, how would we reverse

engineer it? What elements, what qualities would I want to be sure went in the

mix? Oh that's great I said and how are you I want to be sure went in the mix.

...