1. LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT
54 Engineers Australia | August 2014 Engineers Australia | August 2014 55
LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT
by Nat Warren-White
M
y father was an
engineer who became
the CEO of a small
utility company based
in the State of Maine
just across the Canadian border in
the US. He grew up in Portland
and spent his entire working life
at the same firm. When I was 16,
he and my mother took our family
on a ‘grand tour’ of Europe. What
interested Dad the most, as we moved
from the UK across the Continent,
was the varied designs of the water
towers he discovered en route.
Dad was a great one-on-one
communicator who struggled with
standing-up in front of large groups,
a task he feared but had to face often,
particularly towards the end of his
career when he was called upon to
address stockholders, regulators, and
civic groups who appreciated and
respected his honest and authentic
approach to delivering important
messages. He was a man of integrity
and he believed strongly that the
“facts speak for themselves”.
When I was in my early 30s and
a new dad myself, I went to my
father for advice and support while
struggling with the dilemma of how
to pursue the work I loved most in
life, acting, and still remain gainfully
employed – an actor’s existence is
often feast or famine! Dad looked at
me square in the eye and said: “Natty,
you can do something many people,
including me, find very difficult, even
painful! You can get up in front of
people and perform, moving them
with your words. That’s a skill I wish
I’d learned early in life. It would have
saved me a lot of trouble. Maybe you
can teach others to do what you do.”
While continuing to pursue an
acting career, I went on to teach
acting at several Boston universities
and conservatories and eventually
was drawn into the world of
executive coaching which led to my
20+ year relationship with the Ariel
Group. Perhaps most rewarding was
the chance to coach my dad as well.
Unfortunately, that opportunity didn’t
present itself until after he’d officially
retired. Still, helping him tap into
the true power of his ‘leadership
presence’ allowed us to connect in a
way that neither of us imagined was
previously possible. He understood
the world of acting about as much
as I did engineering. The coaching
process helped us both appreciate
what had seemed so foreign for most
of our lives together. For this I am
deeply grateful.
What my father, the engineer,
inherently understood in his bones is
that we communicate most effectively
when we speak from the heart. It is
through the heart that we are best
able to reach people’s minds. At the
Ariel Group, we have arrived at a
working definition for ‘presence’:
“Leadership presence is the ability to
authentically connect with the hearts
and minds of others [through the
use of physical, vocal, emotional, and
intellectual expression], in order to
move/motivate them toward a desired
outcome.”
In our work coaching leaders
at Ariel, we focus on helping
people who have learned to rely
predominantly on numerical data
and graphs find the right stories and
metaphors to help paint vivid pictures
making their messages land more
powerfully. Our goal is to actively
support leaders from all sectors as
they work to access and develop their
expressive natures.
My first executive coaching client
was the engineer/founder and sole
owner of a small software firm based
in Boston. When I met him, his
company had just been purchased by
a much larger conglomerate and he
was in the process of making a major
shift in his role from solo leader,
used to calling his own shots, to one
who was suddenly responsible to a
much larger group of shareholders,
board members and regulators, not to
mention his own management team
and direct reports. He was desperately
struggling to find his footing and
the resulting ‘fight or flight’ response
he experienced caused him to panic
in front of the audiences he was
required to face. We worked together
for many months and he discovered
the power of diaphragmatic breathing
and positive mental imaging among
other tricks of the trade.
These acting techniques definitely
helped him relax and get things
better under control, but the real key
to success came one day when I was
visiting him in his home office and
noticed a framed photo hanging on
the wall behind his desk. I asked him
about it and his face immediately
broke into a winning and relaxed
smile as he described his passion for
‘gentleman farming’ and particularly
for the mysterious world of
beekeeping. The photo showed him
wearing the complete apiarist’s outfit
and carrying a smoker. He looked
both excited and at ease. The more
we talked about bees, and the science
and art of caring for them, the more
his passion showed through and the
more expressive and comfortable his
presence became.
In the end, I urged him to
carry a jar of his sweet honey,
produced by his prize bees, into
his next presentation in front of an
intimidating audience. He practised
using the honey as a metaphor for
the work his software company was
producing. When he spoke from this
personally passionate place he relaxed
and came alive in a way I, nor anyone
else, had witnessed before. Suddenly,
his coveted data took a back seat to
this powerful creative metaphor. His
nervous fight or flight symptoms also
abated and he instantly became a
more present, effective and inspiring
speaker. By tapping into his own
passionate life story he emerged
as the true leader he had always
harboured inwardly but struggled to
project outwardly.
This story reinforces a couple of
clear lessons I’ve learned during my
nearly 25 coaching years:
• Trust that the people we are coaching
have what they need in their own life
experience to support their leader-
ship presence with consistency and
impact. We are all born expressive;
years of formal education beat it out
of us (unless we train to be an actor!).
• Tap into the natural intuitive abili-
ties we all share, but have forgotten
or abandoned. They’ve been over-
powered by our predominately left-
brained educational prowess. With
a little practice we can re-access a
levelofcreativityandcommunication
acumen that we have either forgotten
or never before realised.
• Learn to use stories and metaphors
toframeimportantmessagesinorder
to help them land more effectively
with any audience. This process re-
quires a decisive mind-shift and a
bit of consistent practice in order
to become facile with this age-old
form of interpersonal communica-
tion. This is what actors are doing
all the time. Engineers can learn to
do it too!
At Ariel we coach leaders using a four-
fold approach called the PRES Model:
• The first step in the model asks:
What does it take for you to be fully
“Present”, in the moment, connect-
ing honestly and openly with both
yourself and closest to you?
• The second step asks: what can you
do to present more powerfully?
Reach out and connect with others
using empathy, stories, metaphors,
anecdotal evidence, and, yes data,
that is relevant and appealing to
your audience.
• The third step asks: how you can be
more “expressive” using your body,
voice, and the space surrounding you
to effectively get your message across
so that it excites, amuses, moves,
intrigues,andinspiresyouraudience.
• The fourth step asks: how “self-
knowing”youare.Howawareareyou
of how your presence impacts others
andwhatcanyoudotoadjust/modify
it to achieve the strategic outcomes
you are aiming for?
Together the four PRES components
combine to create 100% of your Lead-
ership Presence. The big question is,
are you using them all to their greatest
potential? What can you do today to
bring more of yourself to the crucial
leadership challenges you face and have
lasting positive influence on the people
you are leading? This is the challenge all
leaders must face including those who
comefromanengineering,background.
What can you do now to tap into a
more right-brained, creative approach
to your leadership communication
style? You do not have to change
who you are at your core. Just as
my father, John White PE [Canada],
was able to develop his presence to
support the roles he stepped into late
in life, you can too. Contrary to the
commonly accepted belief, you can
teach old dogs new tricks, even old
engineering dogs! 
Nat Warren-White MA RDT is a senior
consultant with the Ariel Group which
brought him to Australia to train a
team of local actors to deliver Ariel
programs here and throughout Oceania
and the Asia-Pacific region.
Engineers
with
presence
We worked together for many months and
he discovered the power of diaphragmatic
breathing and positive mental imaging among
other tricks of the trade.
“
LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT