Dear Reader,

Over the last few years I’ve got into reading biographies. It’s a great way to get a ring side seat to someone’s life and see how they became who they became.

The one I’ve just finished reading was riveting.

Here are some things I learned about this person. Can you guess who it is?

🎬 He was a “blue baby” born 6 weeks prematurely and was lucky to survive.

🎬 When travelling in Europe as a student he was so poor that one night he couldn’t afford a place to stay. So to keep warm he stood in cow dung up to his waist (I know this sounds like nonsense, doesn’t it? But it’s true.)

🎬 By his own admission he was not a good student. He played truant, belonged to a gang and got in trouble with the police.

🎬 He lost his mother when he was 18 and by 21 he was married and grieving the loss of his infant son.

🎬 When he auditioned for drama school he tried something new and daring, knowing this might mean he was rejected but it worked, and he was accepted.

🎬 He cut his teeth acting in the theatre where he learned his love of improvisation.

🎬 As a 24-year-old actor in L.A. in 1960 he was offered a starring role in a TV series receiving $10,000 a week (that’s the equivalent of $110,000 dollars in today’s money). This amount of money was unheard of at the time. But it didn’t feel right. He turned it down and accepted a role in a play in New York for, wait for it... $110 a week.

🎬 He not only starred in one of the most famous political films of its time but stepped in at the last minute to save it as co-editor, editing it from a whopping 300,000 to 12,300 feet of film.

🎬 He had some close shaves, narrowly escaped getting kidnapped in Paris and being in a plane that had engine failure for 9 minutes.

🎬 His first role as a director won him an Oscar.

🎬 He had a reputation for being incredibly stubborn (read “pain in the butt”).

🎬 He campaigned for the environment for decades.

Have you guessed who it is?

Well, to his friends he was Bob.

To the rest of us he was Robert Redford.

It’s fascinating seeing how a life develops. You don’t think of Robert Redford as getting into trouble with the police or being penniless when travelling Europe, do you?

You think of him as a glamorous movie star and The Sundance Kid.

But he didn’t arrive on the planet as the golden boy of Hollywood. He learned lessons along the way that meant he became a great actor.

He went from being the reckless guy who liked to party to being able to resist external pressure and make an unpopular choice but a choice that was right for him, in choosing to act in theatre and not follow the big bucks into television.

He showed calmness and focus under intense pressure in stepping up to co-edit the film “All the President’s Men” and getting it out the door and into cinemas.

He showed conviction and strength of character (a positive reframe on stubbornness if ever) in knowing and communicating what he felt needed to be done. For example, that moustache in “Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid” was his idea and he refused to get rid of it saying it was authentic for an outlaw at that time.

These are all examples of showing executive presence and gravitas: understanding and using the power of pausing, not yielding to pressure, showing calm and focus, and knowing, standing by and influencing others with your values.

When I work with clients who want to strengthen their leadership skills we use exercises and improvisation techniques that let them practice and develop these qualities.

We take situations and conversation they want to practice, and they see how their choice and delivery of words feel. They practice how to be grounded and focused so, when others they’re leading aren’t, they can be the steady anchor in a stormy sea.

Learning how to do this amplifies their presence and their impact.

And it’s this practice that builds up their leadership communication skills. I know these exercises work because I’ve seen the transformation of my clients and heard them say “Wow, that felt SO much more comfortable and yet so much more powerful!”

If you’re at a stage where you need to dial up your executive presence and bring some gravitas to your communication, drop me a line.

There is one final thing I should say, though - I can’t guarantee turning you into the next Robert Redford.

See you next time,

Mica

P.S. What's your favourite Robert Redford film?

Copyright @ Mica Allan Consulting, 2026

Was this forwarded to you? Sign up for “The Spell”
Work with me: Mica Allan Consulting​​​​​
Email me: Mica Allan​​​​

Address: c/o 600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA, 98104-2246​

​
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​