Command Presence...

Ever walk into a store and be shopping, minding your own business, and suddenly you are looked to as the authority figure at that store, possibly even mistaken for the manager or owner of that store, simply by the way you are presenting yourself???? It happends to me all of the time; however, it never clicked to me what you would entitle it as until I was taking my Commissioned Security Officer training and my instructor pulled me aside stating that what was going to make me successful was that I had "command presence".

It sounded nice so I nodded and went on my way; however, his words echoed in my mind -- especially as specific examples would occur -- similar to the shopping store incident which is all too familiar to me as I work in a career path of merchandising in retail stores.

Another example was when a group of security officers went to a theatre to guard a movie that was in preview stages with myself being among them. A person from the client theatre came to the group and asked who was in charge; I knew that I wasn't the intended, but that person didn't even speak up. The client turned to me and said, "Come. You look like you are in charge." I wasn't going to argue with the client and make our group look unorganized; therefore, I accepted the responsiblity and moved forward.

I usually have the attention of people I am talking to because of this presence as well. It isn't an arrogance, but more of a self-confidence that exudes and makes others perceive me as the authority figure in charge.

Now, when I am being interviewed, I tell the story about my command presence when they ask in the interview process about your strengths and weaknesses.

Why do you suppose that some people have this natural innate ability to portray themselves with this command presence while others sit back, observe and watch, and appear like a flower hanging on a wall, with no exceptional presence at all? Does it have some sort of a psychological basis to it??? or, just a natural born ability that is inbred in us prior to birth or learned after we are born???

I guess this might go hand in hand with why some people are born leaders and others are followers. This might have some more to do with it as I have been criticized for my being a take-charge type of person rather than one to sit back and let decisions be made by others (in a place with too many chiefs and not enough indians, I don't survive too well).

So far, my "command presence" is getting me places these days. I am certainly very grateful for that.

Do you have "command presence"? How do you best utilize it to your advantage? Do you ever take advantage of something knowing that you have command presence?

Just curious.