Leadership Influence: Why Your Reputation Matters More Than Your Track Record

Executive Presence can be the difference between being ready for senior leadership and being seen as ready for it. Rachel had the experience, knowledge and trust of the people around her. She had trained others, supported colleagues into bigger roles and could do the job standing on her head. Yet for 20 years, public speaking anxiety and the thought of a promotion interview kept her saying no. Her story shows that getting promoted is not always about becoming more capable. Sometimes it is abo...

Speaking Up in senior leadership meetings can feel harder the moment attention starts to drift. Out comes a mobile phone, someone looks at another screen, and suddenly you’re questioning whether you’ve lost the room - even when people may still be listening. Holding attention isn’t about controlling everyone around the table. It’s about creating clarity, staying connected to your message, and giving people a reason to care. Strong leadership communication starts by making the relevance clear:...

Executive Leadership Transitions can feel strangely unsettling. You’ve earned the senior role, but the conversations are less straightforward, decisions carry more weight and there is no obvious person to tell you whether you’re getting it right. In this episode, Liz Boswell explores why stepping into executive leadership can knock the confidence of even the most capable women. The problem may not be your capability at all. The environment has changed dramatically and the first step is to fin...

Leadership communication gets harder when you know your subject so well that everything feels important. You start explaining, add more context, throw in another example and suddenly you’re rambling without actually getting your point across. At senior level, it’s not about proving how much you know. It’s about making it easy for people to understand what matters. Strong executive communication means knowing what to include, what to leave out and where you want the conversation to go. Because...

Avoiding presentations might feel like a sensible way to manage public speaking anxiety, but it could quietly be limiting how others see your potential. Strong leadership communication isn’t about being the most polished person in the room. It’s about giving people the opportunity to experience your judgement, ideas and ability to lead when it matters. Ready to stop avoiding the presentation and start planning it properly? The Leadership Presentation Planner helps you get clear on your audien...