As a new year begins, many professionals turn to vision boards, resolutions, and ambitious goals. These practices focus our attention on what we want to do or achieve.
Before deciding what comes next, there’s a more foundational question worth asking:
How do you want to be experienced?
Presence is not personality. It’s not performance, polish, or visibility.
Presence is impact.
It’s what others feel when you enter a room.
It’s the tone you set in conversations.
It’s the emotional and behavioral imprint you leave behind long after the meeting ends.
And like anything meaningful in leadership and work, presence doesn’t happen by accident.
It is designed.
Presence Is the Foundation Beneath Every Goal
You can meet every objective on your list and still leave confusion, tension, or disengagement in your wake. Likewise, you can miss a milestone and still be experienced as grounded, thoughtful, and trustworthy.
That’s because presence operates beneath performance.
It shows up in:
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How you carry yourself into moments of uncertainty
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How you respond when challenged or under pressure
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How you listen when others are trying to be heard
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How you regulate your emotions before reacting
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How safe, clear, or supported others feel around you
Your presence is shaped less by your intentions and more by your patterns. And patterns — once noticed — can be redesigned.
From Resolution to Regulation
The start of a new year often brings a rush to plan and produce.
Designing your presence asks something different.
It invites you to consider:
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How grounded do I want to be under pressure?
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What energy do I want to bring into important conversations?
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How do I want others to feel after interacting with me?
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What behaviors help me stay aligned when things get difficult?
Presence isn’t sustained by motivation. It’s sustained by regulation — the ability to pause, choose, and respond with intention rather than habit.
This is the core insight of The Power of Presence: your influence grows in direct proportion to how well you manage yourself in real time.
Presence Is a Practice, Not a Personality Trait
One of the most persistent myths about presence is that you either “have it” or you don’t.
In reality, presence is practiced.
It’s built through:
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Pacing instead of rushing
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Curiosity instead of assumption
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Clarity instead of control
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Responsiveness instead of reactivity
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Alignment between words and actions
Designing your presence doesn’t require becoming someone else. It requires becoming more intentional about how you show up as yourself.
Design Prompt
✍🏾 As the year begins, ask yourself:
How do I want people to experience me — and what specific behavior would make that experience real and consistent?
Choose one behavior to practice this month.
Small shifts in presence create lasting impact.
A Closing Thought
As this year unfolds, your success will be shaped less by the goals you set and more by the intention you bring into everyday moments.
Presence is a choice.
And it can be designed.
About Developed by Design
Developed by Design is a LinkedIn reflection series with expanded editions published on this site. Each edition offers space to pause, reflect, and make intentional choices about how you work, interact, and show up — because career success is not accidental. It’s designed.
About Daphne
Daphne B. Latimore is an Organizational Strategist, advisor, and author of The Leadership Trilogy: Human Capital at the Core, You Should Be a Coach, and The Power of Presence. With more than 30 years of experience guiding organizations and professionals through growth and change, she brings a practical, behavior-centered lens to leadership, culture, and performance.
Through her work, Daphne helps individuals and teams move from intention to impact by designing how they work, interact, and show up — rather than operating by default. Developed by Design reflects her belief that career success is not accidental, but shaped through small, purposeful choices practiced consistently over time.