Presence is considered an essential quality for leaders, and a lack of presence can take a professional’s leadership development off track. McGill professor and “Forbes” contributor Karl Moore compares a leader without presence to stage actors who do not maintain their audience’s interest.
The good news is presence can be learned, according to Muriel Maignan Wilkins, co-author of “Own the Room: Discover Your Signature Voice to Master Your Leadership Presence.” In an interview with “The Washington Post,” Wilkins said a common myth is “that people who have presence are people who are naturally born with it.” Her research has proven this statement to be false. Rather, “having leadership presence is really about being adaptable and catering your style to the situation that you’re in” – to improvise, one might say.
Enter The Ariel Group. The company defines presence as the ability to make authentic connections through dynamic communication and defines its mission as helping business professionals develop that ability. It does so in a unique and innovative way: by drawing on best practices of not just adult learning, but actor training as well.
This week, The Ariel Group and global learning company Pearson announced a partnership to offer Presence Essentials, an online training course offered via Intrepid Learning Hub’s online learning environment. With Presence Essentials, learners will assess their skills, learn the four elements of a powerful presence, create their own personal value proposition and practice stage presence techniques that will help them with their business communications.
Ariel Group CEO Sean Kavanagh said the partnership allows The Ariel Group “to achieve three objectives: (1) to help our clients address the leadership skills vacuum in early career professionals, (2) to build a scalable solution that allows broader access to vital leadership content and (3) to create an online experience that mirrors the experiential, creative and intimate classroom learning on which we built our brand.”
Pearson is known for its global reach and range of educational products and services. Its professional and training development group partners with organizations to provide online learning, blended learning and professional development. As one of the companies listed on Training Industry’s Top 20 Workforce Development and Content Development lists for the past several years (and its Training Outsourcing list for the first time this year), developing a presence course with The Ariel Group is a mutually beneficial partnership.
As Pearson’s senior vice president of business development, North America, Kenna Ose, said, the partnership “will increase access to a state-of-the-art online learning experience that will enable organizations and employees to build and hone their presence, improve performance and business outcomes, by allowing professionals in the 21st century workplace to maximize the impact of their communication and collaboration with colleagues around the globe.”
Kavanagh said this new partnership will help companies not just increase the skills of their employees but “create an environment built on authentic connections, or what we call a ‘Culture of Presence.’” Businesspeople “too often…focus on the transfer of data at the expense of building relationships. Presence is a skill that allows you to do both by connecting with the head and the heart of others,” he added. The Ariel Group exemplifies this idea by connecting with Pearson’s head and heart to develop Presence Essentials.
A recent special edition of Training Industry Magazine noted that “effective leadership is engagement,” and to engage employees, leaders must build community, authenticity, significance and excitement. These traits sound similar to The Ariel Group’s four elements of presence: being present, reaching out to employees, expressiveness, and self-awareness. Now, thanks to The Ariel Group and Pearson’s new Presence Essentials course, more leaders will be able to learn how to develop these traits.
