Creating an executive presence with Anna Wildermuth

 

How you present yourself and communicate with your peers is critical to successful leadership and moving up in the ranks. But for many people, a powerful executive presence can be elusive as they struggle to understand what’s holding them back. Anna Wildermuth, Founder and CEO of Personal Images and an award-winning executive image consultant, talks with Diana about some of the most common struggles when it comes to looking and acting the part of an executive leader.

You can connect with Anna on LinkedIn or by visiting the Personal Images website.

 

Polishing Up: What to do when you lack polish

By Anna Wildermuth

Perhaps one of the most common, vague, and even hurtful pieces of feedback that leads a client to hire a coach is, “You need a little polishing.” It’s vague because the giver of the feedback can’t quite put his finger on the problem—he simply realizes that something about this individual isn’t where it should be. The recipient of the feedback tends to be equally baffled. “I need polishing? What does that mean? I’m not a piece of furniture!”

In such a situation, my role is to uncover the root of the feedback so that we can work on it together. My approach involves assessing the client on four questions. Read more...

 

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About the Author

Diana Thomas

As a proven successful executive, Diana brings decades of experience, expertise and education to her coaching with business executives, teams and learning/talent leaders to increase their impact, inspire committed followership and engagement, and build strong diverse teams that pull together to achieve Winning Results. In addition to coaching, Diana is a partner and trainer with Clean Language for Coaches Resource Center. She is the co-author of the 2018 strategic leadership book, Be More Strategic in Business: How to win through Stronger Leadership and Smarter Decisions. Diana began her career as a McDonald’s restaurant crew member in 1979, and rose to become Vice President of Training, Learning & Development for McDonald’s USA. In this role, she led all aspects of training and development including the restaurant training curriculum at Hamburger University, McDonald’s global training center of excellence.

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