Executive presence comes up OFTEN in my conversations, and mostly with this question: How do I get more of it?

While you can argue about the exact attributes that lead to presence, there's one that hardly ever gets mentioned and I believe may have the biggest impact of them all:

Your nervous system.

I'm guessing it's a fair bet to say you've been angry at some point in the last week. Maybe multiple points.

A lot of people, especially women, have been taught that anger isn't an acceptable emotion to express. It's too much. Too aggressive. It's impolite. Upsetting. It might hurt someone.

But there's something we're not taught about anger: When it's grounded, it's powerful.