Early in one of the most high-stakes roles in my career, we were in the middle of a massive restructuring. The pressure was real and so was the scrutiny. One evening, after a long day I walked with a colleague into the parking garage. He stopped next to my car and pointed to a dent on my front quarter panel. He then asked if I was going to fix it. I stated rattling off excuses because life was full. Kids, family and everything else competing for attention and besides, it still ran. He looked at me and said something that stuck. “Don’t give them as excuse to make you look bad. I see that dent, and I see an excuse. It wasn’t about the car. It was about signal. I fixed the dent, not because it mattered to me, but it mattered to someone else.
At a certain level of leadership there is an expectation that you have a higher ambition signal. Your presence, your tone, your composure under pressure, all of it is being read, interpreted and assessed. This isn’t about vanity or perfection. The higher up you go the larger the shadow you cast. It’s about control of your professional reputation. When under scrutiny, the smallest things can create unnecessary friction. A careless detail like an unfixed dent can quickly become a part of a narrative. Narratives travel fast in corporate environments. E.g. Renee doesn’t pay attention to details, just look at her car! If you don’t manage what you are signaling, someone else will do it for you. Don’t let their interpretation become your reputation.
Executive presence is often misunderstood as style or polish. At its core it is about signaling respect and stability. The way you show up consistently, matters. The reality is you cannot control everything that people think or say, but you can control what you project. In business, and in any high-visibility role, perception and reputation are closely linked. If you want to operate at higher levels, you have to remove easy targets. Not because they define you, but they can be used against you if you are not paying attention.
