In 2014 Sylvia Ann Hewlett published a book called Executive Presence: The Missing Link Between Merit and Success. It describes executive presence as “a dynamic, cohesive mix of appearance, communication, and gravitas.” The book draws in part on a survey of 268 senior executives.
Of those executives, 67 percent named gravitas as the most important of the three. Communication came second with 28 percent. Appearance came last with 5 percent.