One of my favorite quotes from Thomas Edison is, "If we all did the things we are capable of doing we would astound ourselves." I believe leadership is a journey of learning and growing.

I have worked with leaders for 17 years. But I'm also a leader myself, and I can honestly say I feel deeply the privilege and responsibility that come with being a CEO. It is incumbent upon us to become all we can be, not only for ourselves, but for our companies.

For years when we went into companies to discuss how we could help their leaders be most effective, we heard people say, "Our leaders need to develop executive presence."

The core philosophy we share with leaders is that everyone can develop the qualities in themselves. We all have strengths, but where we have gaps, we can make small changes in our behavior that make a big difference in how others see us as leaders.

As we started working with leaders, providing them with assessment feedback, noticing the impact it was having on them, and their teams, a real story unfolded, and the book All the Leader You Can Be became what it is now - a guide to leaders who want to understand their strengths, and also appreciate how to enhance their leadership.

Executive presence has to do with the whole of the person. It's much more than presentation skill, charisma or savvy. It shows up in three dimensions of the leader's persona - character, substance and style. It's now clear that for a leader to influence and make an impact, it is important for them to also develop qualities such as authenticity, integrity, resonance, practical wisdom, and vision.

People believe what they see.