Managing in the Age of Uncertainty

How do you get people to remember you -- and standout?

“Executive presence is how you show up so that people listen to you, trust you, and have confidence in you handling important work.”

I’ve rarely heard a crisper definition of something so important to career success: Your presence on a team or in an organization. Thank you Cassie Divine — writing as Career <Hack> here on Substack.

What I love about meeting new people is hearing their stories. Cassie has had an amazing career arc, starting as a communications consultant and ultimately becoming a senior operational leader at Intuit. Across her career, Cassie found a passion teaching people how to build “executive presence.”

While the velocity of change today is unprecedented as organizations re-imagine themselves in the era of AI, what hasn’t changed is how you “show up” as a human being in a group setting. Presence is a mindset, Cassie tells me, a mindset that ensures people remember you and the way you stand out on a team.

Readers of this newsletter know that I believe the predictability of the corporate ladder is dead or dying — and being replaced by the way someone tells a career story. Presence is a a key part of any successful career story. So I asked Cassie if she would share her wisdom about building a consistent mindset for executive presence with readers of Managing in the Age of Uncertainty.

Why Executive Presence is So Important

“It’s easy to lose your voice,” Cassie tells me about working in organizations. It makes sense: you’re in meetings all day long, often with dozens of people jockeying for attention, often on Zoom where participating is even more challenged.

What’s at stake? “Your reputation,” Cassie says. She shares a secret with me that my own experience has told me is true: When a meeting is over, leaders often wonder why people are invited to a meeting if they don’t have a voice in the meeting. It’s a humbling reality that can affect your career trajectory — in just one meeting.

“Your mindset starts with wanting people to hear you,” she tells me. “What you say in any group setting is how you differentiate yourself as someone who matters.”

Wow — literally, this feedback about your soft skills is something any person in the job market today needs to hear about managing career growth and advancement. Differentiating yourself as someone “who matters” is an ambitious outcome — but Cassie tell me that with the right mindset anyone can stand out in the crowd. But how do you do it?

What Matters to be Someone who Matters

One of the common themes I find with people who tackle big ideas is their consistent use of frameworks — a formula to predict success.

Cassie’s framework for executive presence is based on three pillars:

Homework: How to Practice and Build Executive Presence

When I was at Cisco, I hosted the annual operations reviews for the CEO with the management team. One of the frustrating aspects of the reviews was how frequently some executives would start with a “long wind-up” explaining what was in the pending presentation. Think of a long wind up or extended intro explanation as “anti-presence” — especially with the CEO in the room.

Cassie’s framework’s framework provides an excellent way to practice building the opposite of “anti-presence.” Here are three questions to ask yourself about your readiness to build executive presence:

How you show up under pressure or ambiguity? Think about situations where you were challenged or you couldn’t ascertain the root cause of a problem. How did you respond? As Cassie told me, “How do you convey ‘I’ve got this’ even if you don’t have all the answers?” Ask your peers or teammates for input. Get feedback on your behaviors when all eyes were on you.

How you convey ideas to a senior audience: When you look back at meetings you’ve been in, how ready are you to deliver the “punchline” of your message? Are you an inductive communicator where you need to lead people to an answer? Or are you a deductive communicator where you can start with the answer? It’s critical to recognize the more senior the audience in the room, the most important it is to start with the answer — the punchline as Cassie says. Think back about your experiences. Talk to your colleagues. Ask them if you’re an inductive or deductive communicator. If you like to lead people to answer, it’s important to know — so you can start practicing your punchlines.

How you signal credibility with your body language: I know for myself, I can think of a few dozen times early in my career where my body language let me down and conveyed frustration. What about you? How self-aware are you of your body language? As Cassie said to me, does the look on your face send a message without saying a word? You might have think you have a good poker face, but do you? What would your spouse or partner say? Ask them.

Former Cisco CEO John Chambers told me that “you learn the most about people when they are under pressure.” In the Age of Uncertainty, it seems like everyone is under pressure to adapt to AI and the new era of efficiency it has spawned. “When things go wrong it can be a reputation killer,” Cassie concludes. “But it can also be a reputation builder — you just have to be ready.”

Amen. Are you ready? How strong is your mindset for executive presence?

Try Career Story Builder

Recently I launched an AI-powered tool called “Career Story Builder” to provide a mentor, coach and buddy to help people write best-sellers about themselves — and why they’re ready for the next role.

Give the Career Story Builder a try. It’s free and unlimited. I’d also love to hear your feedback about how to make it better. It’s new and I’m sure it can be improved. Send me a DM with any thoughts.

In Summary: Principles of Managing in the Age of Uncertainty

• I left Cisco to answer this question with research and evidence: What does the manager of the future look like? What are millennials and gen-z seeking in a manager? Which behaviors, tactics, skills or processes matter? What’s it going to take to attract and keep the best people over the next decade? In short, how to be a great manager.

• Based on this research, the core philosophy of this newsletter is rooted in one idea: successful managers in this moment in time, for this generation of talent, need to be “career dot-connectors.” The next-gen doesn’t expect to spend their entire career on your team — that’s an idea boomers grew up with. A job on your team is like a chapter in a career story to the current generation. If you want the best people on your team, you have to connect the dots between roles on the team and the career opportunities of the people working on the team.

• What is the“Age of Uncertainty”? If the industrial age was about taking predictable steps up the ladder, the age of uncertainty is about finding or discovering the path of a career without any predictable steps, without an obvious ladder — it’s why being a career dot-connector will differentiate you as a manager.

• How to be a Great Manager in the Age of Uncertainty: Be a Career Dot Connector is available on Amazon.

• What kind of manager are you? Take my free self-assessment and learn about yourself.