Executive Presence

Talent and hard work do not always lead to promotion. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, a researcher who has spent years studying power and influence in the workplace, argues that the missing ingredient is often executive presence, the quality that makes colleagues and senior leaders see you as someone ready for a bigger role.

The book asks two questions: whether you have what it takes to lead, and whether the people who decide your future believe you do. Hewlett explains what executive presence is, how it is judged, and how you can recognize it in yourself and build it. Her research breaks it into three parts: gravitas, communication and appearance.