Executive Credibility & Presence - with Sally Darvill Croxford

Showing up with Executive Presence when the stakes are high - with Sally Darvill Croxford 

About Sally Darvill Croxford:

Former head of Adobe’s EMEA People & Places organization holding full responsibility for all HR & Facilities related strategies and operations within EMEA which was 2,000+ employees across 28 countries.

Sally is passionate about helping to grow people & organisations. This coupled with a unique blend of experience as a Senior HR Executive & Coach working in blue-chip & SME technology companies who are pioneers in driving high growth, transformational change & business evolution, fuelled her to set up her own business providing Leadership Coaching & Consulting.

This included driving organisational design, development & optimisation, talent attraction & development, workforce planning, compensation & rewards, workplace experience's & real estate, diversity & inclusion, representing adobe externally at customer and industry events and conferences, executive coaching and development.

Sally has also worked for SAP, Business Objects and Siebel.  She has a genuine passion for helping people & organisations on their respective growth journeys.

Throughout Sally’s career journey she has also had the opportunity to partner with, & coach some extremely talented executives, leaders & teams.  Supporting them in driving the business agenda or their own personal/professional journey helping them realise their full potential & achieve their goals. 

Sally and I know each other from our time working together at Adobe and I loved catching up with her in this informal chat about Executive Presence, being in the room with very senior people, and bringing your best self when the stakes are high.

Themes covered:

> Dealing with senior people confidently

> Important conversations

> What it takes to perform with credibility & executive presence

> The biggest factors in your success

> Striking a balance between business and people

> Representing the region while meeting the needs of corporate and 'going native'

> Self-management - dealing with stress, nerves & emotion when the stakes are high

> Business Acumen, knowing your business

> Being authentic & genuine

> Self-awareness & impact

> Building a team and having a team agenda

> Being open to development & growth mindset - learning

> Be willing to be challenged

> It's OK to not always know the answer - giving the wrong information is worse 

> The bigger picture and bringing storylines together

> The importance of listening to and knowing your audience

> Handling pressure - make sure you are prepared, understand the expectation of the audience, be focused, limit distractions, remember to breathe

> Get feedback from someone you feel safe with who can highlight what to work on

> Cut the fillers

> Work-life balance: being a mum, a wife, a sister, a friend and balancing that with work.  Boundaries.

> Building relationships and trust is critical

Keywords:

Confidence, Executive Presence, Strategic, Business Acumen, Authenticity, The Boardroom, Genuine, Self-awareness, Impact, Success, Teams, Competencies, People Management, Growth Mindset, People Strategy, Nerves, QBR, Self-Management, Handling Nerves, Work-Life Balance, Role Modelling