Leading with Presence

A reflection on presence, embodied leadership, and what remains distinctly human in a digital age.

While I’ve held a number of leadership positions over the years, both publicly and in private mahi, I haven’t been loud about it.

This whakataukī was once used to describe my approach:
‘Kūmara e kōrero mō tōna ake reka - the kūmara does not speak of its own sweetness.’

To be fair, some of my ‘quietness’ was likely due to not always having the confidence to put voice to my thoughts and/or not wanting to rock the boat (yes, even when the boat should have been rocked).

Getting into this 30 Days of Blogging has me reflecting on what leadership actually is at this time.

What clearly sits with me is that impactful leaders invoke a feeling of confidence, of inspiration and perhaps of having people feel safe and seen.

Although their words can be important (and I do love words), it’s their presence, the energy they carry, that can have a lasting impact.

It’s a particular quality of what I might call old-school leadership. Not in a nostalgic sense, and not as something to return to, but as a way leadership lived very clearly in presence.

You looked someone in the eye.
You knew where you stood.
A person’s word carried weight because they carried weight.

It was embodied. They walked their talk.

The way leadership is understood and practised today has shifted. Just think of some of our current world leaders to see this expressed in varying forms.

Leadership has become something that can be described, taught, and shared across organisations and systems. It not only lives in rooms, but in documents, strategies, presentations, platforms, and screens. Values could be articulated at scale. Intent could be communicated widely. Influence is extended beyond physical presence.

Alongside this shift, something subtle became noticeable.

Leadership became easier to describe than to feel.
Easier to talk about than to truly experience.
Easier to signal than to embody.

This isn’t good or bad, just different.

I quite like this quote by James MacGregor Burns ‘Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth.’ While expressed in 1978, I believe it still holds weight today.

Now, as we move further into a digitally enabled and AI-supported world, this distinction feels more present again.

AI can analyse, synthesise, draft, predict, and accelerate. It can support decision-making and amplify our capacity to do. It changes the pace and reach of leadership in ways that are still unfolding.

What it doesn’t do is create presence.
It doesn’t hold a gaze.
It doesn’t sense the energy in a room.
It doesn’t feel when something is unspoken.
It doesn’t regulate nervous systems through steadiness.

Presence remains a very human experience and is something that will need ongoing conscious attention.

Presence shows up in how someone listens without rushing.
In how they hold uncertainty without filling the space.
In how they stay grounded when answers aren’t clear.

It’s not loud.
It’s not performative.
It doesn’t need to prove itself.

In a world increasingly mediated by tools, it brings leadership back into our body, where trust generally forms first.

I’m not at all rejecting modern leadership or technology. This rather is a reflection on integration. And a call not to lose our humanness in this rapid expansion.

It raises such questions as how do we use powerful tools while staying embodied?
How do we lead online without disappearing as humans?
And, how might we build trust, not just through clarity and capability, but through being seen, heard, and felt?

Here’s a few further reflections you may also like to consider:
What does leadership feel like when it’s working well?
What helps people feel steady, trusted, and oriented?
And how might presence quietly return to the centre of leadership, not as a statement, but as a lived experience?

Tomorrow, I’ll be exploring what it might look like to slow down when the world keeps speeding up.
Keen to share your thoughts, join the Leading Lights Public Community.

​#anewcompass #leadinglights