Having impact and owning the room

- When I was early in my career, I got a large promotion. It was two positions more senior than the level I had been. My boss informed me that whilst it was unusual for someone to jump up this many levels, she was convinced I would be able to do it, not because of my specialisms in the field, but because of my ability to, as she phrased it, "Own the room." She said that whilst I still had many skills to learn, I'd already developed the most important, of being able to command a room of senior stakeholders, get buy-in from my ideas and communicate compellingly. I was surprised, but humbled, and took the opportunity and gave it my best shot. What became more and more apparent as my career developed was that whilst I was not an expert at systems or processes, I was an expert at presence. I was an expert at walking into a room and commanding attention. Put it this way. I come from a large family with four older brothers where…