I spent years in the corporate world, working across different roles and geographies, including London, New York, and South Africa. Those experiences exposed me to a wide range of leadership styles and organizational cultures. They also gave me a close view of how leaders were evaluated, often in ways that were not explicitly stated.

Strong performers who delivered results were not always the ones who advanced.

I saw extremely capable leaders not advance because they were seen as 'not ready' — and I saw their counterparts who were less competent or who had less expertise, but who were seen as a little more 'steady and influential', advance instead.

Clearly the perception of 'not ready' had a lot to do with how these leaders were being assessed and the speed at which these leaders were (or were not) advancing.

As I advanced in my own career I began to develop a more analytical approach to what was behind this 'not ready' signal that some leaders were sending. I became interested in how leadership skills are perceived by others, particularly under pressure, and how that influences trust, decision-making, and advancement.

At Signal Leadership Ventures, we work with leaders at all levels — most of whom have at some point received some form of the 'not ready' feedback. They were left to figure out how to improve their 'readiness' on their own.

That is what led me to focus on this work.

My aim is to make executive presence specific, learnable and actionable so that the path to leadership readiness is one that leaders and their managers can discuss and track using a common language.

This work is grounded in real-world experience and published leadership data. It draws on what I have observed in corporate environments and what I have seen repeatedly in my work coaching leaders across different industries, levels and cultures.