Executive Presence | Sylvia Ann Hewlett | Talks at Google

Do you exude confidence and credibility? Can you command a room? Sylvia Ann Hewlett, one of the world's most influential business thinkers, cracks the code of Executive Presence (EP).
You might have the qualifications to be considered for your dream job, but you won't get it unless you can signal that you're "leadership material" and that you "have what it takes." Professionals are judged on presence as well as performance. Using a wealth of data, Hewlett reveals EP to be a dynamic mix of three things: how you act (gravitas), how you speak (communication) and how you look (appearance).
Sylvia Ann Hewlett is the founding president of the Center for Talent Innovation, a Manhattan-based think tank where she chairs a Task Force of 82 multinational companies focused on fully realizing the new streams of labor in the global marketplace.
Sylvia's books can be found on Google Play: goo.gl/OFqhbv

[@bezalelGR]

Sylvia Ann Hewlett is a Cambridge educated economist, an expert on gender and workplace issues and she's was 68 in this video (Wow!) Her speech really made an impact on me. Thank you for this!

[@andrewbrown3304]

Absolutely fascinating. What a wonderful teacher. Best advice I've heard in a long time.

[@tashathorbourne8620]

Highly insightful presentation. She mentions gravitas as being particularly challenging for African American leaders. I believe this has to be looked at more thoroughly at a deeper level. Often black leaders have to balance that tricky fine line of Gravitas, Likablity, and here's the biggie - Humility. This can be challenging for leaders trying to forge paths in spaces where they have historically been left out. Too much gravitas/confidence can be misconstrued as arrogance and can equate to being less likable and lacking humility.

[@romansokolovskii6941]

This was one of the most useful hours I spent on KZbin. Many thanks!

[@realSimoneCherie]

Agreed

[@georgikayryakov9132]

This speech is such a gem. I will re watch a few times.

[@manilaspade1005]

This woman is right on point. She’s giving us great tactics to deal With this .

[@DavidPerez-sq3cj]

This presentation is both enlightening and deeply disturbing. The key takeaways seem to be: the most successful ladder-climbers lose weight, dress sharply, learn to communicate well, and get promoted by mirroring the qualities existing executives perceive in themselves (whether they have those qualities or not), or by playing to the worst stereotypes that exist in society as a whole. This a great playbook if you want to play the game as it is. Then again, if the world seems too full of racist, sexist, self-serving, sociopaths among the executive ranks, it is because of talks like this that perpetuate the same. If you play be these rules, you might win, but you may adopt some or all of the bad things that corporate America represents.

[@meinungabundance7696]

there are not too many options for women: 1) play the game and adapt to it, without loosing your identity adn 2) establish a company yourself! Why are so few women thinking about this? Why there are so few Steve Jobs, Elon Musks or Bill Gates around? If women would be able to build their own companies, there would be no "glass ceiling" .

[@hannahminasfoskett]

Nobody should ever tell you not to talk with your own accent. Yes speak clearly, yes speak with correct grammar but, be yourself. Gravitas is about being a better version of yourself, not someone else. Accents can work in your favour. A scottish accent (specifically edinburgh) has been voted the most trustworthy accent in the UK. An accent can make you less threatening, more serious, or humorous, it can make you more likeable and above all memorable. My northern English accent I feel has only ever worked in my favour, and if it worked against me it was towards people i wouldn't want to work for or with.

[@ciro5872]

"No one should ever tell you"... And you already lost the concept of Presence, which is not reality but appearance

[@realSimoneCherie]

@@ciro5872 I agree generally, but asserting your individuality is a risk, and some people (for personal, but valid reasons) are risk averse.

[@sandylien]

I echo your speech very much. I remembered one occasion I was going through a 3 days internal assessment, and one of the question I got in between the interviews was about g my actual age. As an Asian, I looked younger than my actual age and it was hard to match with my experience I had demonstrated to the assessor that I am matured enough to be assessed as ready! I got all sort of questions about my other colleagues around the world to proof my age.

[@ricemonsterr124]

Hi Sandy, I'm in the same boat as you! I look younger than my age also because I'm Asian, so it's hard to prove to interviewers that I'm capable for the job, which is why I'm watching videos like this. I hope your assessment went well :)

[@michaelbishop9157]

Sounds like a terrible problem to have !

[@tashylareine]

I enjoyed this discussion and found it extremely insightful. It's so important to find ways to set yourself apart and be self-aware so that you may work on the characteristics you exhibit that may be working against you. Thank you for sharing. :)

[@analyndizon8675]

Hi Maam in Executive leadership in Stanford I had 3 webinar to be finshed but I had to continue again to have certificates from Stanford that was 2022 I remember thank you

[@bonnietran3702]

most of this is true. she articulated it well. so much has happened since 2014.

[@reggaelvr68]

Especially watching leaders and their devices in meetings 🤐

[@Nimiao2024]

Enjoyed the discussion and learning, esp. how to make efforts to sugar coat in someway as a women leader

[@saidfarid6382]

Hello Professor Thank you so much for your interesting lecture,i do appreciate your job.I wish you peace and happness under the sky of prosperity. Take care and have a good time. All the best. Your Student from Algeria.

[@lisawynne-magnuson9469]

Well done! And Thank You!

[@solarhydrowind]

They say when you speak a foreign language you have a different personality in that second "language", as you do in your native "language". I wonder if the same is true for class based or regional accents? My great grandmother taught people from Boston and New York who wanted to pass as another class to speak differently. My Fair Lady, only maybe self taught, like this! Some teenagers self teach themselves to speak a class based lingo. Right now none of this matters? The most important thing, i think, that matters is the climate. P. S. Loved the last question about what if you don't want to be two different people; last question so everything!!!

[@shawnsimon5480]

Having read many of the comments from Google listeners on this talk I was very disappointed and surprised to hear their many cocky, rude, "know it all "attitudes . Really pretty pathetic and suggests the highest levels of insecurity, lack of EQ, and the kind of self- leadership that is totally self limiting. Sound like my how perfect you are ! I always say and believe that I live in the biggest room and never leave it . That of course is the "room for improvement" . I hope one day you too find and are open to living in that room.

[@Matt-wg9xn]

It's been 3 years but I hope you've learned that insulting someone you want to take your feedback never works.

[@ravisop]

Thank you so much Sylvia. Enjoyed the talk.

[@patricehorner5476]

What is her microphone brand? It is so inabtrusive and enhances professional presence. I like the way she intersperses a smile in her gravitas. Excellent presentation. Thanks.

[@shotakiguchi]

rode headset

[@ninirema4532]

Super very smart mam most interesting lecture All women are facing critical situation insecurity in home /room and out room /home.????

[@aminrafiq132]

BRAVO!!!

[@MrTangocrazy]

Frankly I found the book much better than the talk - can't say the talk was particularly insightful

[@darlenecuker9711]

This is very good.

[@joyful]

this was great. 8 yo vid. can't believe i hadn't seen this before.

[@cliffcox7643]

haha, we used to call this "Command Presence", one of the qualities of leadership, as well as command voice, it's all from the military that was adopted by the civies. I detect no presence in the video, but the concepts are valid.

[@lacrishakaufman]

The woman at 33:00 made a communication blunder by taking your message about phones TOO personal! lol Classic example, on the spot!

[@GenXatwork]

The point about the device’s is interesting because I have seen leaders be the worst offenders looking at their phones or computer during netting’s or conversations.

[@InCog2020]

One thing I've noticed in so many of these Google talks is the number of people with their heads down, playing with their devices the whole time. I realize they work at Google, but there is such a thing as courtesy to the speaker. Perhaps it's a millennial thing?

[@samahj8567]

+gmecomber Its not a millennial thing.

[@alexmontoya6384]

You don't know what it means to multi task or be busy. You just assume the worst

[@philmcgroin]

Phil McGroin

[@january8457]

@Incog. I agree it's a millennia thing, so disgusting!

[@lacrishakaufman]

@@january8457 It's really not though. Research show that just as many boomers and older generations have phone addictions.

[@Zlata1Z]

42:42 appearance

[@fiammettaantonino335]

I'm sure her experience is world class and that she has some very important messages to deliver - that I personally agree with, but her expressions and mannerism look fake and completely not spontaneous. as an example she cracks a joke and smiles and 0.1 millisecond after the joke is over she is able to change her facial expression to a very serious expression, giving away that the joke just made was completely programmed and something used for the sole purpose of winning an audience. I think what a leader should have is a level of spontaneity and humbleness that makes other people relate with them. Besides this, all great content

[@mikevismyelement]

i fucking hate her. she is so fake

[@enigma-yu4jo]

Welcome to corporate America. Build a well designed facade for everyone to buy into

[@briandotkoma3722]

Thanks for this, you're right. Spontaneous leadership > programmed but some actors, are simply put: better actors ;) they do the same shit, some just come across more organic in their mannerisms and is not the whole of the corporate/political world a staged play with its own rules etc, where it turns into a game, where people go fully blown neurotic 'cuz they forget themselves through the process ... go ask any honest corporate "psychopath" or "narcissist"... Oh wait, they can't be "honest". Lmfao. Society, jeeze :) maybe ask a psychologist, oh wait. Nope, everything but science, and even science, comes down to an innate ability to believe yourself... and lets not start about how naive most people are if they are put in front of them a persona that hypnotizes them with their presence =:)

[@meinungabundance7696]

She IS prepared, but this does not mean that she has "mannerisms".

[@whatyouneedtoknow]

You can find out more about Emotional Intelligence in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/bXXFcphviZ55os0

[@jaydotdiver]

Mitt Romney isn't watching this video though. Just sayin'

[@lacrishakaufman]

We can still learn from him though, huh?

[@sadhanaomYoga]

Thank you so much.

[@melissahicks3863]

I think it's really sad that she chose to get rid of her accent. I am from Eastern Kentucky and I have a strong accent of which I am proud. I would never try to change my accent because it represents my family and everything that I love. I have to say that I stopped listening to her discussion after learning that she chose to get rid of her accent.

[@apoorvamahajan7576]

That is an individual call one makes! She is choosing to highlight what gets a person’s hard-work noticed and what can be the barriers to leadership opportunities because others have unconscious biases that can prevent you from reaching your true potential. And the insights she shares are based on research where others have responded, its not her own mindset she is trying to impose

[@Lewis1k]

Speaking clearly often times blurs those accents. Try listening to a fourth grader and streasing clarity volume and pace. You go from mumbling to clear communication.

[@lacrishakaufman]

And you proved her point exactly!

[@ajjudge7983]

The problem is that in the UK of earlier decades (I speak as a 50-something Brit), class as defined through accent was a deal-breaker in professional spheres. Sad but true. We live in (somewhat) more enlightened times today. Another issue is that regional accents from the UK are often reported to be unintelligible in the US. I understand why Sylvia made her choice, based on those factors. And I'm thankful that the tide is turning now.

[@DarrenStephens1]

People who aren't leaders and don't aspire to be leaders, people like geonerd, can feel free to dismiss this information out of hand. We don't listen to them, and they're not skillful enough to be compelling in any way, so we don't care what they haphazardly attempt to communicate. (That same lack of skill comes from 118Columbus's younger people who just have to "be themself.") Yes, geonerd, you've worked for people like Sylvia. You will never be a person like Sylvia, or be as successful as the people she has trained. Now get back to your loathing. Nothing for you here.

[@fingerhorn4]

Darren Stephens There is no loathing in geonard's INTELLIGENT assessment which, unlike your assessment of him, contains critical thinking, cogent observation and an unwillingnesss to be taken in by corpo-babble. As for the presentation, this woman delivers conflicting information. On the one hand she talks about "authenticity", yet in the same speech she replaces authenticity with the promotion of corporate pseudo psychology which is a combination of artificial "gravitas" through easily shattered "techniques" and the massaging of one's culture, accent and poise in order to sycophantically "please" those in positions of power with entirely shallow and one dimensional "adjustments".

[@Jennifer-ix7dk]

At 50:00 what would you do if you were a woman. lol

[@symphantic4552]

F A B L U S

[@pameladeniselong]

Did she just say Affirmative Action after 200 years of slavery plus 100 more of Jim Crow was “unfair chance?” This didn’t age well.

[@miskittt]

Please listen again before getting in a tizzy. She said that black people have to cross the white barrier of whites thinking that the only way a black person can have a little position is through affirmative action. She is damn correct on that.

[@dunyacaliskan7495]

And 50 years of neither now. It is unfair. Make college affordable, enact decent social welfare programs, but do not impose racist quotas.

[@kwikky22]

@@dunyacaliskan7495 white people have no unfair advantages in America.

[@kwikky22]

@@TheSpark878 Her exact words: AA leaders say they realize they struggle with gravitas themselves. There is the specter of affirmative action. It is as if we have to interview for our jobs all the time because perhaps way back we got an unfair chance.

[@RanmaSyaoranSaotome]

What a pity she chose to trade her warm, rich Welsh accent for some RP anachronistic relic of the past.

[@melissahicks3863]

Totally agree!!

[@briandotkoma3722]

Spontaneous leadership > programmed but some actors, are simply put: better actors ;) they do the same shit, the most intelligent won't buy into it, and know it's programmed and in a way unorganic, that's how she comes across, and sadly: she must have had a very rough childhood, trying to prove herself in comparison to "those at the bottom", which she "surpassed". This neo-liberal society sickens me. some just come across more organic in their mannerisms and is not the whole of the corporate/political world a staged play with its own rules etc, where it turns into a game, where people go fully blown neurotic 'cuz they forget themselves through the process ... go ask any honest corporate "psychopath" or "narcissist"... Oh wait, they can't be "honest". Lmfao. Society, jeeze :) maybe ask a psychologist, oh wait. Nope, everything but science, and even science, comes down to an innate ability to believe yourself... and lets not start about how naive most people are if they are put in front of them a persona that hypnotizes with a presence =:) thats why artists are cooler, they're actually honest in letting you know it's a facade, instead of tricking people into "who they truly are"

[@montgisard7225]

My icon is Santa Claus

[@suemclennan8974]

0

[@whitepeoplergullible9241]

Imagine 100 percent of the population behaved like this. Useless leaders aping like they deserve a cut of some other useless facade.

[@meinungabundance7696]

But 100% dont have a genetic material to be a leader, so no worry.

[@maristoldboys5466]

She needs to verify her facts properly. Her example of Mandela charming the 1995 Rugby World Cup Champions, the South African Springboks who were supposedly 100% white is incorrect. Their star winger Chester Williams is a coloured man, as they say. Her delivery is also rather limp and uninteresting.

[@valleylady9092]

Some of the facts she states regarding her own upbringing and education should be taken with a grain of salt too. 'Thick' working class Welsh accent! That is outrageous! And the school she attended...I attended there too....was a Grammar School! English Grammar was a core subject. Heaven knows why she feels the need to trash her home town, education, etc. One should never forget one's roots.

[@briandotkoma3722]

@@valleylady9092 trashing it is not forgetting it, but she's obviously ashamed and is trying to deter a sense of self-insecurity

[@dunyacaliskan7495]

And she suggests, by dint of by white, they were all oppressive to the colored people.

[@sereine123]

Making sweeping generalizations on Asians - an incredibly diverse group - and African Americans - unfair advantage. If she truly thinks African Americans are given an unfair advantage because of affirmative action, then she needs to conduct more thorough research to give substance to her talks.

[@pinokodayo]

I believe she was saying that in the research, many African American respondents expressed they often felt they had to continuously "interview" and continuously re-audition, or prove, their positions in leadership because *others* around them might seem to think they had an unfair advantage. I don't believe she was implying herself that she believes affirmative action gives African American leaders unfair advantage.

[@lacrishakaufman]

Listen next time, that's now that she said.

[@ArrogantBaSStard]

I had to desperately get through her yelling and fakeness to just get the message.

[@dddmmm21]

It was a good talk but poisoned but too much gender/race baits, and now we see 9 yrs later where it took us.

[@maricelaleufontela1712]

The numerous and distracting "you know, right, so, fillersc contributed to her ineffectiveness as a speaker! It undermine her professional image as a subject matter expert. Itcwas excruciating painful to listen to her.

[@eztli]

good talk, ruined by the cliched women victimization

[@bevjones5205]

I NEEDED TO TAKE A DOUBLE LOOK BACK A THE DATE OF THIS VIDEO, ALTHOUGH, I DO NOT THINK IT MATTERS EITHER WAY. THIS IS A PERSON I WOULD NEVER WANT MY DAUGHTER OR SON TO LISTEN TO OR FOLLOW. I AM A WOMEN OF COLOR, BUT WHAT OR WHO IS SHE ATTEMPTING REPRESENT IN THIS MESSAGE. I BELIEVE THAT HER IDEOLOGY ABOUT PROFESSIONALISM AND LEADERSHIP, HER VIEWS ON POWER ARE SOMEWHAT WARPED, AS IT IS REFLECTED IN THIS SPEECH AND ITS ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS!!! NO ONE ASPIRES TO REACH THE HEIGHTS OF SOME WHITE MAN'S HANGING FRUIT! KNEES DOWN AND CHIN UP, NO WOMAN, YOU ARE SO MISSING THE MARK. HOWEVER, I AGREE WITH HER AT 100.01 ABOUT THE FEEDBACK ON SHARING. OTHERWISE, I WOULD LIKE TO ASK WHAT WAS IN THAT GLASS..., NO REALLY?

[@Elizabeth-fn9fd]

BEVY J I really wanted to read your comment but the “all CAPS” was off putting. I do agree with your first two sentences. I don’t find her credible at all.

[@118Columbus]

How old is this woman, Sylvia Hewitt? I am seeing aging and sagging skin, bags under the eyes, and other distracting signs of age. Google is a young organization. This talk is for the older boomer generation. The younger generations want people to be authentic and be real and just be yourself.

[@johnchen6310]

I don't know what are you saying that she is old and not young. So are you like a youthful immortal? You will never age? Are you GOD? You pass judgement like GOD.

[@julienradoff9680]

***** she should get some tats i guess

[@johnchen6310]

Get some?

[@ValleyoftheRogue]

She is now 70 years old. It isn't her looks that is her problem. Your fake concern about them is YOUR problem. My issue with Hewlett goes way back, when she was trashing the women's movement (and being dishonest to boot) while benefiting from the very real gains of that very movement. She is an elitist whose audience is an itty-bitty, almost negligible number of privileged women. This despite all of her claims of coming from a modest background. She doesn't care about the lives of real women.

[@diegomoreno5927]

Yeah, like shouldn't she be raising funds for charity at a cocktail party? What's she doing cougar-ing the youth?

[@robfrazier7854]

she looks sickly and doesnt really have exec presence when speaking

[@saturnjupiter8002]

mediocre talk, better presented in the 1980s

[@saidfarid6382]

Hello Professor Thank you so much for your interesting lecture,i do appreciate your job.I wish you peace and happness under the sky of prosperity. Take care and have a good time. All the best. Your Student from Algeria.

[@briandotkoma3722]

Spontaneous leadership > programmed but some actors, are simply put: better actors ;) they do the same shit, the most intelligent won't buy into it, and know it's programmed and in a way unorganic, that's how she comes across, and sadly: she must have had a very rough childhood, trying to prove herself in comparison to "those at the bottom", which she "surpassed". This neo-liberal society sickens me. some just come across more organic in their mannerisms and is not the whole of the corporate/political world a staged play with its own rules etc, where it turns into a game, where people go fully blown neurotic 'cuz they forget themselves through the process ... go ask any honest corporate "psychopath" or "narcissist"... Oh wait, they can't be "honest". Lmfao. Society, jeeze :) maybe ask a psychologist, oh wait. Nope, everything but science, and even science, comes down to an innate ability to believe yourself... and lets not start about how naive most people are if they are put in front of them a persona that hypnotizes with a presence =:) thats why artists are cooler, they're actually honest in letting you know it's a facade, instead of tricking people into "who they truly are"