Cabane has great insights I can't do justice to or summarize, highly recommend her books and presentations. There aren't a lot of short answers on presence, bu

Cabane has great insights I can't do justice to or summarize, highly recommend her books and presentations. There aren't a lot of short answers on presence, but exceptional Presence is necessarily physical, so I've found that the ways to develop it require developing technique. In a meeting, people naturally listen to the best programmer, deal maker, explainer, or whatever else people do that is the currency of the realm. Think of a musician who has a diminutive personality, until they have an instrument in their hands and suddenly they're a huge presence. It's the effect of their physical performance and skill, which is something you can't fake, that is the effect of competence in a domain. Charisma isn't domination either, as domination is crude and simple, whereas having charisma means you're the person people want to listen to, not the one they just can't talk over. In that sense, great actors are usually good enough at something else that they can summon the confidence from that into a role.