The Executive Edge: Mastering the Power of Presence
Posted on July 28, 2025 by Jacqui Connor, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.
For high-performing leaders, stillness is a strategy. Pausing sharpens decision-making, presence, and long-term impact.
The Executive Edge: Mastering the Power of Presence
Slowing down. Rest.
How often this can feel like one of the hardest things.
In yoga, shavasana is a primary relaxation technique – essentially lying still on the floor between more obviously active poses. For so many, it is one of the hardest postures to conquer despite being the simplest. Most of us have the ability to lay flat. But being still in the body can amplify the noise within – the to-do list, the annoyances of the day, the big issues we try to ignore.
This is where mastering the power of presence begins.
Meditation can feel excruciating or even impossible for similar reasons. Stillness can bring discomfort – but it also brings truth. And in leadership, truth is power.
Slowing down, even briefly, is essential not just for wellbeing – but for performance. It’s a critical factor in gaining the executive edge. It allows for wise decision-making, considered choice, and intentional presence. It doesn’t mean being slow, lazy or inactive – it means being attuned and aware.
Take Gareth Southgate. In British football history, he famously missed a sudden-death penalty during Euro ’96. Years later, he reflected that he’d rushed the moment. Rather than being fully present and ‘in the zone’, he simply wanted to get it over with. His mind wasn’t anchored – he lacked presence.
A Guardian-cited study backs this up: 58% of players who took their penalty in under a second missed. Those who took their time – who accessed presence – fared much better. It’s a powerful metaphor for executive life: knee-jerk reactions vs. considered poise.
Years later, as England manager, Southgate approached penalties differently – slowing the moment down, training players to pause with presence. The result? England’s first World Cup penalty shoot-out win.
The science supports this. Arianna Huffington cites research from Microsoft’s Human Factors Lab showing how five-minute breaks between meetings reduce stress and sustain performance. Beta brain waves – the ones associated with stress – drop and stay lower even during following tasks.
Presence, not just productivity, becomes the differentiator.
One client of mine told me she had no time to herself—her kids joined her in bed, even in the bath. She rushed from one task to the next. She was exhausted and overwhelmed. In session, we worked on boundary-setting and clearing the beliefs that kept her from claiming space. The change was radical. She became more grounded, more present, and clearer in all aspects of her life. That clarity transformed her leadership and her business outcomes.
Presence isn’t soft. It’s powerful.
Remembering to stop – even for a short moment – is essential. It prevents burnout. It keeps us from acting out of disempowerment or reactivity. It stabilises us. It anchors us in wise leadership. It gives us the edge.
Whether in a high-stakes moment, a back-to-back workday, or the balancing act of life, practising presence becomes the key to performance.
So ask yourself:
How well do you rest?
How often do you pause?
How consciously are you leading?
Because The Executive Edge isn’t about doing more – it’s about doing it with presence.
