學會高管風度 走上人生巔峯

Dear Annie: My company is on a June fiscal year, so we’re having our annual round of employee evaluations now, and mine was (again) pretty discouraging. I’m really good at what I do, with great technical skills, which my boss acknowledged. But he also said I’m not ready to move up to the next level of management because I lack “executive presence.”

親愛的安妮：我的公司在六月份結束一個財政年度，因此我們現在正在進行一年一度的員工績效評估，而我的評估結果（再一次）令人失望。我對自己的工作非常擅長，有着出色的技術能力，我的老闆也承認這一點。但他說我還沒有做好在管理崗位上更進一步的準備，原因是我缺少“高管風度”。

One of the reasons I left my last employer was that my boss at that company kept saying I was “not ready” for a promotion despite being great at my job, so unfortunately this isn’t the first time I’ve heard this. But what can I do about it? What exactly does “executive presence” mean, anyway? —Stymied Again

我之所以離開上一家公司，原因之一正是由於那家公司的老闆總是認爲，雖然我的工作非常出色，但我還沒有做好升職的“準備”。所以，很可惜。這已經不是我第一次聽到同樣的評語。但我該怎麼辦？“高管風度”到底指的是什麼？——S.A.

Dear Stymied: Interesting question, since “executive presence” often determines whose career takes off like a rocket and whose doesn’t. Yet it’s hard to define. Most of us know it when we see it, in any CEO or public figure who commands attention with a seemingly magical combination of charisma and credibility. And, since this kind of personal magnetism seems to come naturally to the people who’ve got it (which is usually a carefully cultivated illusion, but more about that in a minute), it’s tempting to think you have to be born with it.

親愛的S.A.：很有意思的問題，因爲“高管風度”往往會決定誰將一飛沖天，而誰將停滯不前。但我們很難明確定義什麼是“高管風度”。如果我們看到萬衆矚目的CEO或者公衆人物，他們像變魔術一樣將超凡魅力與可信度組合在一起，這時大多數人都會知道什麼是“高管風度”。而由於這些人似乎自然而然地表現出這些個人魅力（其實它通常是一種精心培養出的錯覺，稍後會詳細談到這一點。），因此我們禁不住會想，這些氣質肯定是與生俱來的。

Wrong, according to Sylvia Ann Hewlett, author of a new book called Executive Presence: The Missing Link Between Merit and Success. She set out to break “executive presence” down into its component parts and then analyze each one, relying partly on a detailed survey of 268 senior executives.

《高管風度：優點與成功之間缺失的環節》（Executive Presence: The Missing Link Between Merit and Success）一書的作者西爾維婭•安妮•休利特認爲，這種觀點大錯特錯。她對268位資深高管進行了詳細調查，據此將“高管風度”進行了分解，並對每一個部分進行了分析。

Your situation isn’t unusual, she says. Lots of people are terrific at what they do, but they hit a plateau mid-career for the same reason. “It isn’t a question of competence at your job,” she says. “It’s a question of getting people to give you the chance to prove you are capable of more.” Learning the subtle tricks that add up to executive presence is often how people get that chance, and “it’s not as complicated as it may seem.”

她表示，你的情況很常見。許多人在本職工作中表現出色，但卻因爲同樣的原因，在職業中期遭遇瓶頸。她說：“這與一個人在本職工作中的能力無關。而是要讓人們給你機會，證明自己能夠做到更多。”學會構成高管風度的那些微妙技巧，往往可以幫助人們得到那個機會，而且這個過程“並沒有看起來那麼複雜。”

The executives in Hewlett’s study pinpointed three essential elements of “presence”: Gravitas (how you act), communication (how you speak), and appearance (how you look). Gravitas, especially confidence in your own abilities and knowledge, is by far the most important of the three, according to 67% of those polled, although it overlaps a lot with communication, which got 28% of the vote. Appearance—by which the executives in the survey meant mostly grooming and fitness, not movie-star good looks—came in at a tiny 5%.

休利特調查的高管指出了“高管風度”的三個基本要素：莊重（如何舉止），溝通（如何說話）和外貌（外表如何）。莊重，尤其是對自身能力與知識的自信，是三者之中最重要的一項。67%的受訪者選擇了該項，雖然它與溝通有許多重合之處。選擇溝通的受訪者比例爲28%。受訪的高管們認爲外貌應該是指儀表和健康，而不是像電影明星一樣俊朗帥氣的面容。選擇這一項的比例僅有5%。

Luckily, all of these can be learned, and Executive Presence tells how. Take gravitas, for instance. Hewlett defines it as “grace under fire” and the self-confidence to stay calm in high-pressure situations, but there’s more to it than that.

幸運的是，這三項都可以通過學習掌握，具體方式可以從《高管風度》一書中找到答案。以莊重爲例，休利特把它定義爲“臨危不懼”，即便面臨高壓局面依舊能夠保持冷靜的自信，但這只是一個方面。

“A big part of gravitas is a knack for conveying tremendous amounts of knowledge and giving people the impression you could go ‘six questions deep’ on the subject you’re talking about, but in a way that’s concise,” Hewlett explains. “Attention spans are so short now that, whether it’s in a speech or in a meeting, you have to show how you can add value in a way that’s both compelling and brief.”

休利特解釋說：“組成莊重的很大部分是一種技巧，一種傳達海量知識的技巧，並且要給人留下這樣一種印象——對於正在談論的話題，你甚至可以通過“6個問題來深入探討”，但你採用的是一種簡潔的方式。不論是在演講還是會議過程中，人們的注意力持續的時間非常短。因此，你必須能證明，自己如何通過一種激發興趣的簡短方式來增加價值。”

The most charismatic leaders do this while seeming as if their remarks are off the cuff—and Hewlett says anyone can pull it off, through practice, practice, practice.

最具有個人魅力的領導者在這樣做的時候會給人一種感覺，他們的話都是信手拈來——休利特認爲，只要堅持不懈地練習，任何人都可以做到。

Delivering a painstakingly prepared message, while seeming to talk off the top of your head, doesn’t come naturally to anybody, even if it looks that way. When Hewlett was a graduate student at Harvard many years ago, her faculty advisor was the late economist John Kenneth Galbraith, a famously riveting public speaker. His secret, he once told her, was that he rewrote every speech 12 times. Then, he said, “I introduce a note of spontaneity in the thirteenth draft.”

既要傳達煞費苦心準備的信息，又要讓自己看起來是在脫口而出侃侃而談，沒有人天生便具有這種能力，即便表面看起來好像如此。許多年前，休利特在哈佛大學（Harvard）讀研究生時，他的指導教授是已故的經濟學家約翰•肯尼斯•加爾佈雷斯，也是一位令人着迷的著名演說家。他告訴休利特，自己的訣竅是每一篇演講稿都要重寫12遍。然後，他說道：“到第13遍時，就有了一種即興感。”

Maybe you’re pretty good at this already. You don’t say whether your boss went into any detail about exactly why he thinks you lack executive presence, but if not, your first step should be to ask him. “Ask for honest feedback about why this boss sees you this way,” Hewlett says. “Make it very clear to him or her that you really want to know, and that you’re not going to take it personally or get defensive.”

或許你對此已經非常擅長。你沒有說老闆是否曾詳細解釋過他爲什麼認爲你缺乏高管風度，如果對方沒有解釋，你的第一步應該是主動追問。休利特說：“對於老闆爲什麼會對你有這樣的看法，應該尋求誠實的反饋。要讓對方清楚，你真誠地想要知道原因，但你不會把它視爲對個人的攻擊，也不會採取自我防衛的態度。”

Mentors can be a big help in telling you exactly where you need to polish the skills that add up to executive presence. So if you haven’t got a mentor, now might be a good time to find one—ideally a higher-up you don’t report to directly. Good luck.

導師會提供巨大的幫助。他會告訴你需要磨練哪些技能，來培養自己的高管風度。如果你沒有導師，或許現在就應該找一位——理想的人選是與你沒有直接上下級關係的高層。祝你好運。

Talkback: Have you ever been told you “lack executive presence” or were “not ready” for a bigger job? What did you do about it? Leave a comment below.

反饋：是否曾有人評價你“缺乏高管氣度”或“沒有做好準備”接受一個更高的職位？你如何解決這樣的問題？歡迎留言評論。