Executive Presence (Post-COVID): It’s Not a Vibe. It’s a Signal.

Executive presence used to be a fairly simple and mildly irritating checklist. Gravitas. Communication. “Polish.”

In other words, how well you could project confidence, leadership, and gravitas!

Post-COVID? That definition didn’t disappear. But it cracked open.

Because work no longer happens in one room. It happens across screens, Slack threads, shared docs, hybrid meetings where half the room is there, and half is a floating head on a screen.

And for women, the measuring stick didn’t go away. It just became multi-channel.

So let’s talk about what executive presence actually means now, what’s shifted since COVID, and why women are still navigating a slightly rigged system with remarkable composure.

What Executive Presence Was (and Why It Was Narrow)

Research has long defined executive presence as a blend of **gravitas, communication skills, and appearance.**

That model became dominant in leadership conversations. But let’s be honest — “appearance” has historically carried a lot of coded expectations.

• Be polished.
• Be composed.
• Be confident.
• But not too confident.
• Be assertive.
• But not “abrasive.”
• Wear makeup, but not too much. 
• Manicured nails, but not bright or long. 

Women have been navigating that double bind for decades.

And while organisations have become more aware of bias, awareness and behaviour are not the same thing.

What Changed After COVID

1. Presence Became Distributed

Before COVID, visibility happened by proximity. If you were in the room, you were seen.

Remote and hybrid work disrupted that. And research shows remote work impacts women differently depending on career stage and visibility access.*

Executive presence is no longer just how you carry yourself in a room. It’s how visible your thinking is across platforms.

It’s:

• The clarity of your Slack updates.

• The structure of your decks.

• The tone of your video calls.

• The follow-up email that signals leadership without overexplaining.

Presence now travels digitally. Across a phone, a laptop and a computer at home. 

2. Screen Presence Became a Filter

Leadership is now judged through lighting, audio delay, camera positioning, and how you land in a two-inch Zoom square.

Bias didn’t disappear online. In some ways, it intensified. Studies on the double bind show women are still evaluated through contradictory expectations around warmth and competence.²

On video, nuance flattens. Confidence can read as cold. Warmth can read as junior.

So women often find themselves doing subtle emotional labour to manage perception, including adjusting their tone, softening statements, and cushioning recommendations.

It’s exhausting.

3. Gravitas Now Includes Nervous System Regulation

Post-COVID workplaces are noisier. Faster. More fragmented. And in that environment, steadiness stands out.

Gravitas used to be equated with dominance or formality. Increasingly, it’s about emotional containment.

Can you:

• Stay regulated when tension rises?

• Make clean decisions?

• Speak concisely under pressure?

• Avoid spiralling out loud?

In hybrid chaos, calm is influenced.

4. Authenticity Entered the Chat (Finally)

Recent leadership research argues that executive presence is evolving to include authenticity, inclusion, and adaptability.*

That’s good news.

The complication? The ideal is evolving faster than the bias.

Women are still asked to be authentic but within comfort zones defined by others.

So the real shift is this:

Executive presence is no longer about performing confidence. It’s about reducing doubt. 

And where does this doubt come from? The system!

The Post-COVID Executive Presence Equation for Women

Executive presence now is the ability to reduce doubt quickly in environments with less context.

Doubt about:

• Your credibility.

• Your authority.

• Your clarity.

• Your belonging.

And here’s the liberating bit:

You do not need to become louder. You do not need to become sharper. You do not need to become someone else.

You need to make your leadership easier to perceive.

What That Looks Like in Practice

1. Structured Communication

In high-noise environments, clarity reads as competence.

Try:

• “My recommendation is…”

• “The risk is…”

• “The decision we need is…”

Short. Clear. Done. Full stop. Period. End. Of. Sentence. 

Executive presence is often just structured thinking delivered cleanly.

2. Documented Credibility

Remote work rewards visibility of thought, not just output. (Remember Leaving Cert maths where you had to show your workings out along with the answer?!)

So:

• Recap key decisions.

• Share thinking early.

• Keep a running record of impact.

This is not self-promotion. It is professional sustainability.

3. Clean Authority

Answer the question asked. Stop over-cushioning your competence. Let silence breathe. Stop bracing before the meeting. Stop apologising. 

The old model equated presence with dominance. The emerging model recognises steady containment as powerful.¹⁴

Quiet authority is not passive. It’s controlled.

4. Navigating the Double Bind Without Letting It Own You

Research continues to show women face systemic bias and contradictory expectations in leadership roles.²

So instead of trying to eliminate the bind, aim for predictability and consistency.

Be:

• Direct and respectful.

• Warm and boundaried.

• Confident and open.

Presence grows when people know what to expect from you and it’s solid.

The Most Interesting Shift

Executive presence used to be about how you showed up. Post-COVID, it’s also about how people experience you across mediums.

Can your leadership be felt without proximity? Can your clarity travel digitally?

Can your nervous system hold a physical and virtual room?

That’s influence now.

And ironically, it’s created more space for leadership styles that were historically undervalued - thoughtful, relational, steady, self-aware.

Executive presence is no longer about fitting into a mould. It’s about making your competence visible in a digital world. 

And women? We’ve been navigating complexity like this for years.

References

Catalyst. “The Double Bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership.” 2024.

Harvard Business Review. “Research: How Remote Work Impacts Women at Different Stages of Their Careers.” 2024.

Harvard Business Review. “The New Rules of Executive Presence.” 2024.

Hewlett, Sylvia Ann. Executive Presence: The Missing Link Between Merit and Success. New York: HarperBusiness, 2014.