1 Quick Way to Step Up Your Executive Presence

Happy May! It's Q2! We've wrapped up Q1, and now we are in Q2. At the beginning of the year we set new year's resolutions and goals for what we want to accomplish by the end of the year. Much like we do, companies set goals as well. Have you stopped to look into how good (or bad) your company is doing?

What is executive presence? A definition I found online states, In general, executive presence is a persona that lets everyone around the person know that he or she is in charge, confident and capable of leading others. I really started looking into and thinking about executive presence when my supervisor said on my end of year review, "Cydney continually volunteers and seeks opportunities that develop her executive presence and I am excited to see where it will take her." I started thinking hmm maybe I should start paying attention to what exactly I am doing.

One quick way to step up your executive presence is by looking at your company's earnings report. Quarterly my company has an earnings call where the CEO, CFO and COO discuss the quarter's earnings with "the street". If you work for a publicly-traded company, your company is required by U.S. securities law to report their financial earnings four times a year. The U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) publishes the company’s earnings so investors have a transparent look at a company’s financial position. This information is typically shared on an investor briefing site for your company.

I've participated in several mentor circles and had several mentors and a common trend among all of them is the push to look at the earnings report. In fact, I have heard of some mentors making it a requirement that you come prepared to talk about the earnings report. My takeaway here is, if you want to be an executive you need to start thinking like an executive. All of their decisions and guidance is typically based around the earnings report.

So what does the earnings report tell us?

1. How the company is doing?

• The company's revenue-How much money the company earned during the quarter.

• The company’s expenses. How much money the company spent during the quarter while doing business.

• The company’s profit for the quarter. Also known as net income, this is the amount of money left, if any, after subtracting expenses from revenues;bottom line earnings.

• Earnings per share-This is the earnings per each share of company stock. Earnings per share is usually one of them most important portions of the earnings report because of stock price.

2. How your role is positioned?

Take a look into what the company is investing in and not investing in. This can be a clear indicator of the future and where your company is going. If you are in a dying part of the business, you might want to retool yourself. Look into roles that are in the area the company is investing in most. Can you do those jobs? Are you qualified? If not you have some work to do. Try to network with someone in that area of the business to get insight.

I'm definitely not an expert when it comes to balance sheets and the earnings report, but this is something I have learned along the way that I thought was important to bring to people's attention. Let me know your thoughts or if there is anything I should add!