4 ways to invest in your executive presence

The #1 content request over the last few months has been how to influence and lead as an individual contributor.

After a bit of research, I found the perfect person to learn from: Catt Small

So this article is all about my key takeaways from our interview where she pulls from 14+ years of experience designing products like Etsy, Asana, and Soundcloud to share techniques you can use to level up your influence and scale your impact as an IC.

But before we dive in, don’t forget that Catt agreed to give the Dive community $100 off her Staff Designer course (just use the code DIVECLUB). It’s one of the most popular courses on Maven for a reason ✌️

Alright let’s jump into it…

4 ways to invest in your executive presence

Catt describes executive presence as the ability to inspire confidence in others.

When facing an ambiguous problem, you want people to believe you can achieve the desired outcome. This confidence lays the foundation for having real influence in your org.

So here are some ways you can build your executive presence 👇

1 — Reduce risk

I met with the VP of UX at Shopify this week and he said something that stuck with me…

When he’s reviewing your designs he’s not deciding whether to endorse the work or not. He’s deciding whether to “underwrite the risk” associated with your project. If you fail, he assumes responsibility.

So when presenting your ideas, it’s not just about how compelling you can make your vision for the future. You also have to make it feel attainable.

Catt pointed at Micah Bennett as an example of someone who does this well. When presenting her work, she illustrates a vision of the future and ends with a roadmap breaking down exactly how something could be sequenced and built.

“Anytime [Micah] presented something people would say: “Do it. Go figure it out”… and this is what great influence looks like”
— Catt Small

2 — Own the work

Designers are often hesitant to take credit for the work. But if you want to invest in executive presence it’s important that you own the thing that you did instead of talking passively about it.

• ❌ “This thing was designed to do _______”

• ✅ “I designed this thing to do _______”

I’m definitely guilty of this, which is why I found this specific piece of advice from Catt so helpful:

“If you’re uncomfortable taking credit for your work, reframe it as teaching for the benefit of others”
— Catt Small

By sharing what you’ve done to reach a certain outcome, you’re helping other people do that too.

It reminds me of this motto at Shopify that’s posted outside the CEO’s office 👇

3 — Get out of the execution trap

But what if you don’t feel like you have strategic work worth owning?

I know I’ve been there. Sometimes you see this referred to as the “execution trap” where you wait downstream for a problem to be handed to you.

The easiest way to move upstream as a designer is to strategically invest in your relationship with your PM.

Are you having regular 1v1s? Catt says you definitely should be…

Make it a priority to figure out what their goals are and where they spend their time.

Consider asking if you can be a fly on the wall for more strategic conversations. This is where you see how the business really works.

Eventually you can offer your services as a way to help them reduce their own risk. Maybe something like:

“I noticed {XYZ}… if you’d like, I can illustrate a couple examples of the decision you’re trying to make”
— Catt Small

Which leads me to my next point 👇

4 — Proactively increase your altitude

You’ve probably heard someone say “do the role you want to get promoted to” before… well if you want to start acting like a staff designer, you need to find ways to see the bigger picture.

That’s why Catt talks about the importance of sitting in on those meetings with your PM. She even has regular 1v1s with her engineering lead to understand the technical challenges the company is facing.

Those conversations help you build the context necessary to understand what opportunities might exist.

This is what it takes to increase your altitude at the company and position yourself as the obvious choice to tackle that next ambiguous, interconnected problem.

Eventually you’ll see a shift in what you’re assigned 👇

“You go from being told what to do to being told to achieve an outcome and you just have to figure it out”
— Catt Small

But it all starts with being proactive.

If you want to go deeper…

1. The full episode (below) is a gold mine

2. You can use the code DIVECLUB to get $100 off Catt's Staff Designer course

Interview with Catt Small

Some highlights:

• Ways to get out of the execution trap

• The key to having “executive presence”

• Catt’s advice for better time management

• How designers can encourage people to think bigger

• How Catt has evolved the way she does async videos

• Understanding the different archetypes of staff designers

• Behind-the-scenes of the massive “Goals” project at Asana

• + a lot more