Leadership Discoveries #29: Leading with Gravitas: Antoinette Dale Henderson on Finding Your Voice, Presence, and Influence
What is Leadership Discoveries?
Leadership Discoveries™ explores how accomplished leaders exercise judgement, navigate complexity and create impact. Drawing on her experience as a senior executive, executive advisor and leadership scholar, I bring listeners inside candid conversations with CEOs, founders, board leaders and innovators. Together we explore the decisions, experiences and leadership thinking that shape organisations, careers and performance. Leadership Discoveries is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your favourite podcast platform.
Episode #29
In this episode, I speak with Antoinette Dale Henderson, Founder & Owner of Gravitas Programme, about Leading with Gravitas: finding your voice, presence, and influence. Antoinette is a TEDx Speaker, 2x Author, and Executive Coach. Drawing on over 25 years of experience in leadership communications, including 16 years holding senior positions at the world’s top PR consultancies, Antoinette reflects on why gravitas is so important to leadership, her keys to impact & influence, and how we can get more people into the room when they’re not being heard.
We also explore what we’re missing at the human level in today’s world, what happens if learning goes away, and her advice for leaders at the early stage of their career.
Here's a small sample of what you will hear in this episode:
What "gravitas" actually means - and why leaders misunderstand it
The six components of the Gravitas Wheel
Whether gravitas is a gendered issue
Where AI is strengthening leadership - and where it's eroding it
What emerging leaders should focus on first
To learn more about Antoinette’s work, connect with her at AntoinetteDaleHenderson.com and on LinkedIn.
Check out the episode and show notes below.
Show Notes
Leading with Gravitas: Antoinette Dale Henderson on Finding Your Voice, Presence, and Influence
[0:27] Welcome back to Leadership Discoveries!
[0:53] Connect with Shirley at ShirleyKavanagh.com and on LinkedIn. To learn more about Antoinette’s work, connect with her at AntoinetteDaleHenderson.com and on LinkedIn
01:20] The early experience of being bilingual and the odd one out that shaped Antoinette's empathy and leadership work
[03:14] 18 years in communications consultancy and the strategic, creative, and financial skills it taught her
[05:04] Why bilingualism sharpens precision and emotional intelligence in leadership communication
[07:26] Unpacking "gravitas": its Latin roots and the misconceptions leaders hold about it
[10:17] Defining gravitas as commanding respect and being heard while staying authentic
[13:00] Is gravitas a gendered issue? How feedback and cultural conditioning differ for men and women
[18:04] Building the Gravitas Wheel: six components rooted in global leadership research
[19:27] Breaking gravitas into Gravis and Vita: groundedness and life force
[24:40] Where AI is helping - and where it's eroding - human leadership capability
[27:33] Steve Jobs, "joining the dots," and the risk of losing the ability to learn from lived experience
[31:42] The 20-60-20 approach: keeping humans at both ends of AI-assisted work
[32:35] Advice for emerging leaders: building self-awareness, expertise, authenticity, presence, connection and purpose
To learn more about Antoinette’s work, connect with her at AntoinetteDaleHenderson.com and on LinkedIn