Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges
Have you ever left a nerve-racking challenge and immediately wished for a do over? Maybe after a job interview, a performance, or a difficult conversation? The very moments that require us to be genuine and commanding can instead cause us to feel phony and powerless. Too often we approach our lives’ biggest hurdles with dread, execute them with anxiety, and leave them with regret.
By accessing our personal power, we can achieve “presence,” the state in which we stop worrying about the impression we’re making on others and instead adjust the impression we’ve been making on ourselves. As Harvard professor Amy Cuddy’s revolutionary book reveals, we don’t need to embark on a grand spiritual quest or complete an inner transformation to harness the power of presence. Instead, we need to nudge ourselves, moment by moment, by tweaking our body language, behavior, and mind-set in our day-to-day lives.
Amy Cuddy has galvanized tens of millions of viewers around the world with her TED talk about “power poses.” Now she presents the enthralling science underlying these and many other fascinating body-mind effects, and teaches us how to use simple techniques to liberate ourselves from fear in high-pressure moments, perform at our best, and connect with and empower others to do the same.
Brilliantly researched, impassioned, and accessible, Presence is filled with stories of individuals who learned how to flourish during the stressful moments that once terrified them. Every reader will learn how to approach their biggest challenges with confidence instead of dread, and to leave them with satisfaction instead of regret.
Leadership Presence
BRING THE TECHNIQUES OF THE STAGE TO THE BOARDROOM.
For more than a decade, Belle Linda Halpern and Kathy Lubar have applied the lessons and expertise they have learned as performing artists to the work of their company, The Ariel Group. Halpern and Lubar have helped tens of thousands of executives at major companies around the country and the globe, including General Electric, Mobil Oil, Capital One, and Deloitte. In Leadership Presence, they make their time-tested strategies available to everyone, from high-profile CEOs to young professionals seeking promotion. Their practical, proven approach will enable you to develop the skills necessary to inspire confidence, command respect, build credibility, and motivate others. Halpern and Lubar teach you:
* How to handle tough situations with heightened confidence and flexibility
* How to build your relationships to enhance collaboration and business development
* How to express yourself dramatically and motivate others
* How to integrate your personal values into communication to inspire others and become a more effective leader
“Learning the skills of the true performance experts, readers will understand why Leadership Presence is the key to dynamic and authentic leadership. BACKCOVER: As a leader, you are always in the spotlight. Leadership Presence teaches how to be masterful under that bright light…connecting more profoundly to those you lead and to yourself. A thought-provoking and highly practical guide to realizing your leadership potential.”
Jay Conger
Professor, London Business School
Author, Building Leaders
“Based on years teaching senior executives at the Columbia Business School I can say that the ideas in this book are easy to apply and make a dramatic difference in leadership effectiveness. Infused with the magic of theater and illustrated with compelling stories, Leadership Presence is a fantastic resource for executives and executive educators!”
Professor Michael J. Fenlon, Associate Dean for Executive MBA Programs, Columbia Business School
“In Leadership Presence, Halpern and Lubar reveal what great leaders have always known: that the secret to having a commanding presence isn’t about personal power, but about empowering others. Its inspiring stories will speak to anyone who interacts with others. It will be especially useful for experienced leaders who feel they aren’t coming across as powerfully as they’d like.”
Kenneth H. Blanchard, Co-author of The One Minute Manager and Full Steam Ahead!
“The foundation of success in business (and in life) is the ability to authentically engage and connect with others. Using the profession of acting as the perfect metaphor, this book is a masterful guide for achieving true leadership success. I loved the mix of personal stories from clients and well-known actors and found Leadership Presence to be a powerful teaching tool. This book isn’t just for business leaders, it’s for anyone who wants to bring more passion, empathy and presence to all their relationships. I highly recommend it!”
Cheryl Richardson, author of Take Time for Your Life and Stand Up for Your Life
“The ability to inspire and move others is difficult to define, yet impossible to ignore. Leadership Presence unlocks the secrets of one of the most decisive and powerful aspects of human communication. If you want to better understand and develop leadership presence in yourself and others, read this book. Like its subject, this book is compelling and impossible to ignore.”
James E. Copeland, Jr., Former Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
Finally there is a book where the insights of theatre, transformation and organizational learning have been brought together. Leaders of organizations have much to learn from those who have spent their lives understand….
