Develop Your Competence

Executive coaches try to help clients develop “gravitas.” This allows others to perceive you as exhibiting competence and importance. The concept includes dignity, maturity and grace under fire. Someone with gravitas can inspire instant respect.

I got thinking about ways to show gravitas apart from face-to-face situations. Your character, attitudes, and manner have a lot to do with people taking you seriously.

With gravitas, you make definite and coherent statements. You take stands on principle, have a direction in life and work. You know a lot and always want to know more. You can back up your points if challenged, show respect for others and avoid trivialities. All this can come through in writing, on video or on the phone.

You would also have eliminated certain bad habits in your prose and speech:

• Tentative or uncertain phrases, such as “I think,” “maybe” or “kind of”
• Adjectives and adverbs that have no specific meaning, like “awesome” or “really”
• Gratuitous swearing, rambling stories or silly comments