Do you command the kind of attention that attracts the right people (clients, employees, partners, etc.) to you? Do you create that “je ne sais quoi” impression that moves others towards a desired outcome? If not, then you may want to consider how you can embody and access your states of personal presence that allow you to be at your continual best within your world.

Wisdom from the ancient Asian Martial Arts (Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi) tells us that there are 5 “strategies” (or ways of being and doing) within everyone that affects how we act and interact in the world. For the sake of ease and simplicity, I have loosely translated these into the 5 States of Personal Presence: Purpose, Passion, Power, comPassion and Perspective.

Your Purpose -- Being internally energized by your ultimate reason for being and doing in the world. Comes to you through both a connection to a higher spiritual (divine) entity that is larger than yourself, as well as sound connection to what currently exists in (and is valuable to) the world.

Your Passion -- Getting excited about what matter most to you, which then propels you to reach out, engage and enroll others to your cause.

Your Perspective -- Having an astute perception, deep insight and sound judgment with respect to your complex, paradoxical and ambiguous reality. Figuring out what’s happening, and then generating and choosing best alternatives based on degrees of risk, probabilities of success, and contingencies available for a given course of action.

Your Power -- Committing to and holding firm to a principle, idea, feeling, or course of action that matters to you, and employing your resolve (strength of will) to realize your intentions.

Your comPassion -- Making room/space for, giving way to, and well understanding others (where their energy is), which results in a deeper connection between and among living beings. This allows for a blending of thoughts, ideas and courses of action, as well as allows for something new to emerge.

Lacking the ability to access these personal states of personal presence can limit your leadership effectiveness. Each state is important in allowing you and others to see either what’s possible or what’s missing in your world, and then inspiring everyone to achieve important outcomes.

Also, these five states can combine and work together. Without the combination of Passion and Power, it is much harder to move forward by arousing hope, courage and determination towards achieving a desired Purpose. Without Perspective and comPassion, it is difficult to step back in order to learn and understand others, which then can facilitate them to move together with us. Passion and Perspective can combine to connect us to the world of possibility to help us craft our Purpose. And our Power and comPassion are needed to connect us to our current reality so that our Purpose is grounded in what is true in our world.

To be a more complete leader (one who has resourceful access to all five states of personal presence within themselves), first consider which ones of these states are your biggest strengths, and which ones are least developed in you. Then consider what you need to hold onto, what you need to add on, and what you need to let go of in order to become more versatile in your ability to employ the various states. And, remember that all these states are available in you -- you just need to allow yourself to uncover, notice and exercise them so that they serve you well.