Shital Kakkar Mehra is India’s leading Executive Presence Coach for CEOs. With over 20 years’ of experience, Shital has personally trained over 45,000 professionals across Asia, including numerous CEO’s from leading multi-national and progressive domestic companies. Her reputation as a cutting-edge expert comes from her depth of knowledge and the unique way she blends the Indian corporate ethos, with global best-in-class practices.
Shital has conducted workshops for a diverse set of organizations across Asia. These include Aditya Birla Group, Accenture, BASF, Bayer, Colgate, Deloitte, Dr. Reddy’s, EY India, GSK India, JCB, Johnson & Johnson, Kotak Bank, L & T Ltd. , Mahindra Group, Tata Steel and PWC, amongst others. She has also been a guest speaker at several leading management institutes and associations such as INSEAD (MMB), IIM Bangalore/Lucknow/ Nagpur, ISB-Hyderabad, IIT Kharagpur/Mumbai, BMA, NHRD, Bombay Chamber of Commerce and FICCI.
Shital is an acclaimed public speaker and best-selling author.Her first book, Business Etiquette: A Guide for the Indian Professional (Harper Collins) has sold over 50,000 copies, and has been translated into several regional Indian languages. It can also be found on the library shelves of global academic institutes including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Oxford and Cambridge. Her articles are regularly published in leading media publications including Economic Times, Business Today, Times of India, Mice Talk amongst others.
Shital has worked with hundreds of CXOs and star performers, helping them enhance their Executive Presence. Her work in this field has lead to India’s first-ever research-based model POISE on Executive Presence. Her second book, “Executive Presence: The POISE formula for Leadership” was published by HarperCollins India in July, 2020. The book been declared a best-seller by Amazon, based on preorder numbers.
Shital is an active philanthropist and is the Co-Founder of Katalyst, an NGO for underprivileged girls. Also, she serves on the board of Third Sector Partners (TSP), a premier Executive Search firm that enhances leadership caliber in the socio-developmental sector.
An avid reader and a passionate traveler, Shital embraces opportunities to observe cross-cultural communication and learn from cultural diversity, both of which serve as a bridge between her work and hobbies. Read more about her: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shital-kakkar-mehra-0546a41/
As a highly experienced executive presence coach, in your opinion what is 'executive presence'?
EP: Executive Presence – we admire it in others and want it for ourselves! Also called Personal Presence, Leadership Presence or the ‘it’ factor, this intangible, difficult to define yet must-have trait is found in business and political leaders across the world. In cricket, Sachin Tendulkar has ‘it’, football greats Pele and Zidane display ‘it’, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs embodied ‘it’ and most world leaders have ‘it’ in abundance. While its directly linked to your performance at work, its how others perceive you at work. In short, its your ability to inspire trust that you can get the job done.
2. With years of experience in coaching employees of so many companies across the globe, in today's corporate world what is the need for executive presence?
In today’s competitive world, technical and intellectual skills are not enough to guarantee success as a business leader. While in-depth industry knowledge is the foundation to your career, your ability to deliver and articulate a confident message which engages your audience, and is consistent with your company’s value system, and at times, even a calibrated response in stressful times, is a leadership skill which inspires trust. EP will help you achieve your career goals faster and present the best version of yourself.
3. What are the ways in which one can build a good and strong executive presence?
It’s important to note that Executive Presence can be developed through a combination of self-awareness and coaching. In other words, it’s a skill and not a trait, making it learnable. You can learn to be a leader who can influence, inspire and motivate those around you. A frequently asked question is ‘ Is it possible to build Executive Presence’? Yes, it’s possible. Like any other skill, once you build awareness on your strengths and gaps, you can get coached on your shortcomings. As billionaire Warren Buffer famously remarked that his number one tip for success is: invest in yourself.
4. 'Communication' is a word closely associated with executive presence'. In order to develop a strong executive presence, how can one develop and strengthen his/her communication skills?
Communication is a critical leadership skill as the role of a leader is to constantly communicate and engage with stakeholders. An integral part of a leader’s role is to influence stakeholders by inspiring, engaging, motivating and impacting them. The ability to impact people positively, while you continue to retain your core personality is a modern day ‘influencer’. Interestingly, merely getting your work done is not an influencer skill, especially if it involves negative tactics like bullying, fear or coercion. On the other, communicating effectively while making people believe they are a part of the journey, motivating them and mobilizing them to deliver is influencer skill on display.
5. Being an introvert a hindrance to executive presence development. Do you buy this argument?
Not at all! The biggest myth is that extroverts make better leaders. Leadership is not just about being heard, it’s about creating impact and making a difference. Introverts have their strengths - they are more analytical, make better listeners and are better at building long-term relationships as they focus on one-to-one interactions.
6. How can a leader strike a balance between having a strong sense of command as a leader and yet be empathetic and make people around feel comfortable?
It’s a fine balance and we have seen it on display during the pandemic. While leaders have to command as it’s required to get the job done, leaders who have emerged as winners are those who have enhanced their leadership style by including empathy, respect for the employee/ vendor/ environment, displaying authentic leadership.
7. Maintaining an even keeled composure when the going gets tough is perceived to be a challenge. How can this be achieved by a leader when under pressure?
Maintaining poise under pressure, when everybody around you is panicking – are leaders born with this trait or can is it a skill which can be acquired? Research shows that while this trait exists in its natural form in a small percentage, it can be acquired with commitment and practice. A crisis can appear in many forms and sizes. A truly big one goes beyond a company’s immediate stakeholders and spills into the public domain. At such times, it is crucial that the leadership be honest and open, for nothing generates more negativity than a lack of honesty and transparency.
8. What qualities does 'professionalism' constitute?
It is an entire gamut – it is a combination of a robust value system, delivering as per deadlines committed and inspiring trust by maintaining transparent lines of communication.
9. How is the professionalism of an employee gauged?
Employees who display professionalism have high levels of self-awareness, embrace disciple and have a strong work ethic. These while help them meet their deadlines, manage stress levels at work, maintain work-life balance, build focus focus and works towards increasing their likeability quotient. It’s a fact, people like to work with and do business with people they like!
10. In this digital age, how important is it to build a strong and professional online presence, regardless of whether you're working or aspiring to start working?
In the last century, leaders were mysterious and people knew very little about them, adding to their charisma. Today, technology has proven to be a big game-changer where even leaders have to learn to survive with a ‘fish-bowl’ existence, translating into more visibility. Also, they have to understand that their followers are constantly wanting to know more about the ‘real’ person behind the image.
Even if you are not a celebrity or a leader, a reality in today’s time is that most people meet you on-line before they meet you in person. Punch your name into Google and see what shows up – this a true glimpse of how you are seen in the digital world. The content you’ve put online defines you and based on your online presence, people will make judgments on your success, your economic strata, your personality and at times even your character. And, here is the scary part – some people may choose to not meet you, may decide to not do business with you or retain / hire you if they cannot relate to or outright dislike your online presence.
11.What tips would you as an experienced corporate trainer and executive coach suggest to build a strong and professional online presence?
Define your personal brand invest time on curating a strong online presence, network online within the right circles and highlight your achievements so that it of ways create a ‘pull ‘factor – we are always attracted to people and products who are engaging and interesting.
12. You've articulated previously in one of your podcasts on leadership that leadership is like climbing Mount Everest. However, while we do see employees rising to top leadership positions after decades of working their way through, we also see certain employees rising to top leadership positions in the organizations that they work for, within a relatively short span of time. What do you think are the reasons behind this?
There are various factors. While industry expertise is the solid foundation, they are focused and motivated to upgrade and enhance their EP, aligning it to their organisation’s culture and industry standards. A good attitude will always emerge as a winning trait!
13. Madam, finally trust and credibility are the key pillars of not just executive presence but success in general. We often hear from individuals who are successful at their places of work say that their management will agree to go ahead with the ideas that they bring to the table. How can employees develop high levels of trust and credibility in not only their superiors but fellow employees too?
Leaders take ownership, have the ability to motivate and inspire employees to want to be a part of something greater than them, especially in the face of adversity or turbulent times. Effective leaders inspire trust and have an innate sense of who they are and work to the best of their ability to achieve their goals. Simply put, these are leaders who walk the talk and understand that reputation matters.
Dr. Travis Bradberry in his Emotional Intelligence 2.0 in a LinkedIn article shares that people make snap judgments when they meet you. Their judgments are based on two basic questions - ‘Can I trust this person?’ and ‘Can I respect this person’s capabilities? ‘Clearly, inspiring trust and earning respect are integral to creating a good first impression and are the foundation of doing business. Intertwined with taking ownership is leading with character which inspires loyalty, breeds dedication and assures a solid reputation. A simple definition of integrity is ‘doing the right thing when no one is watching’ or as an ‘alignment between thoughts, words and action’. Some people turn to the ethics of a particular religion for their moral principles; some turn to moral philosophy or spirituality while others develop their own sets of ethics based on their personal experiences. Look at the choices you have made before, and observe how much you have lived by those principles. Now, think about your mistakes, acknowledge them, and do your best to change for the future.
