ACCORDING to Ginny Villegas, AICI CICI, managing director of Flair Image Consultancy, 'In the virtual world, executive presence is even more essential for leaders. It's more challenging to create this executive presence at virtual meetings and presentations. As the focus is on your face, upper body and voice, it requires more effort to groom and dress professionally and to take care of your voice tone and projection. Needless to say, non-verbal communication is also key: eye contact, the smile, the forward movement and appropriate hand gestures. Executive Presence would also entail mastering the technical aspect of presentations and meetings or at least, to make sure, that you have a competent technical support.'

Villegas continues, 'Through leadership branding training and coaching, you can be empowered to develop your personal brand and harness your identity, talents and credibility. Differentiation is key. It is knowing your competitive edge and what will make you stand out among your peers. This will allow you to craft your leadership brand statement or tagline. In my case, my brand tagline is also my business brand: Flair Image. As an image consultant, I always want to project my image with Flair.'