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Know Your Own Executive Presence Strengths & Opportunities:
Click here to pinpoint the specific area in your executive presence that’s keeping you invisible to senior leadership and guarantees you stay working hard as a pack mule who never gets promoted.
Are you working hard, delivering results, and doing everything expected of you—yet still struggling to get recognized, influence senior leaders, or move to the next level?
Being great at your job is important, but results alone may not be enough to move from director to VP or become a more influential executive. The way you communicate, build relationships, contribute in meetings, and make your impact visible can dramatically change how others experience your leadership.
In this episode, Laura sits down with Tracy Nolan, Senior Vice President at Humana and an experienced board member, to unpack what effective communication and influence actually look like at the highest levels of an organization.
Tracy shares lessons from her own career—including being passed over for an opportunity despite being a high performer—and explains what she learned about looking beyond her immediate responsibilities. From presenting to a board and building relationships with busy executives to speaking up during uncertainty, this conversation reveals how leaders can create influence without bragging, pretending to have all the answers, or playing corporate politics.
By the end of this episode you'll know how to:
🔎Communicate more effectively with boards and senior executives by starting with the headline and using other techniques
📈Increase your visibility and position yourself for advancement by demonstrating an enterprise-level perspective
🏗️Build greater trust and influence as a leader by bringing meaningful questions and challenges into meetings, seeking input before controversial decisions, and communicating honestly.
Play the episode to learn how to communicate, build relationships, and show up more strategically so your hard work translates into greater influence, visibility, and leadership opportunities.
Access the Executive Presence Scorecard assessment here.
To learn more visit www.speakupwithlaura.com. New Speak Up podcast episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday early in the morning.
About our guest:
From being the youngest executive and only woman on a retail board to leading 24,000 employees through the historic Sprint/T-Mobile merger during COVID-19, Tracy Nolan brings powerful insights on transformative leadership and breaking glass ceilings. As the current SVP at Humana and a board member for Dress for Success Worldwide, she offers a unique perspective on balancing strength with compassion in leadership.
Some highlights of Tracy's career include:
- Managing $31B in revenue with a $6B operating budget
- Leading through multiple crises, including 9/11 and natural disasters
- Mentoring women from office managers to executive leadership roles
- Led transformative initiatives at Fortune 100 companies (Humana, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon)
- First female Regional President at Verizon (Upstate NY) and Silver Stevie Award winner (Female Executive of the Year, 2022)
- Harvard Business School Women on Boards graduate and NACD Directorship Certification holder
Tracy combines practical leadership strategies with inspiring personal stories, showing that impactful leadership isn’t about choosing between strength and empathy—it’s about leveraging both.
The Speak Up Podcast helps high-performing professionals develop executive presence through strategic communication, executive confidence, and leadership influence. Each episode provides practical strategies to help you speak up in meetings, communicate with senior leaders, present ideas with clarity, build executive visibility, strengthen your leadership presence, influence without authority, stop overexplaining, answer difficult questions with confidence, and become a trusted executive leader.
Whether you're preparing for your next Vice President promotion or looking to communicate with greater credibility and gravitas, you'll learn actionable executive communication skills that accelerate career growth.
Topics covered in this episode include:
- How to get promoted from director to VP
- Why high performers get passed over for promotions
- How to communicate with senior executives
- How to build executive presence
- How to build influence without playing office politics
- How to become more visible to senior leadership
- How to get recognized at work without bragging
- How to influence senior leaders
- How to get executive buy-in
- How to present to a board of directors
- How to demonstrate strategic leadership
- How to think like an executive
- How to speak confidently in executive meetings
- How to build relationships with senior leaders
- How leaders should communicate when they don’t have all the answers
