When executives from some of America's most successful companies need help training their managers in the art of "executive presence," they often turn to longtime Fort Collins resident Debra Benton.

      "Debra is very influential," said Stuart Blinder, former chief financial officer at Lever Bros. "She has a grounded and useful street-smart approach to being a successful executive."

      For 20 years, Benton has consulted with companies such as Kraft, Pepsi, Lockheed Martin, AT&T and Hewlett-Packard. She is the best-selling author of seven books on executive development and leadership. Her work has taken her to 22 countries on five continents.

      "The concepts Debra espouses are teachable," said Rick Ambrose, vice president and general manager of tactical systems at Lockheed Martin. "Anybody who is willing to work at adapting these skills is able to learn them."

      Benton's teachings focus on executive behavior and how behavior influences one's ability to succeed in an organization.

      Benton says most people want to do better in their careers, and they think working harder on the technical side is all that matters. Competence, she says, is generally there. What bosses are looking for is executive maturity as expressed in behaviors.

      "I tell clients the truth in a caring, straightforward manner," said Benton. "Then I tell them what behaviors to substitute: how to relate to managers and executives; how to set themselves up for the next level in the organization; how to modulate voice and facial expressions; and, how to talk clearly and audibly with purposeful delivery."

      With daily consulting fees of $15,000, it's easy to forget that Benton has humble, middle-class beginnings.

      Benton spent her childhood in Fort Collins. After graduating from Poudre High School, she enrolled at Colorado State University. Benton finished her education in 1974 and was immediately hired as a management trainee at Control Data Corporation.

      Benton said she was part of an experiment the company was conducting to see if women had "management potential." The company's CEO had made the decision to hire the first-ever class of women into its management training program. Benton represented her region in this program.

      "I really thought I was a hot shot," recalled Benton. "I was making more money than any of my peers, and I was the only one with an expense account."

      After completing training in Minneapolis, she returned to Denver to begin her career with Control Data. It wasn't long before she encountered bumps in the road.

      "As women," Benton said, "we had no examples growing up of how to behave in the corporate workplace. We didn't know how to dress, or even what to eat at a business lunch."

      A couple of years into her career, Benton received news that sent her reeling.

      "I was called into my boss's office," she said. "He basically fired me. He said I didn't fit into the network - that the chemistry wasn't there, and it just wasn't working out."

      Benton's misfortune turned out to be a watershed event in her life. After some soul-searching, she proclaimed her own personal independence day on July 4, 1976. The daughter of entrepreneurs, she formed her own company, Benton Resource Management.

      Benton billed her company as an "executive outplacement service." Her timing proved to be impeccable. The energy crash of 1977 followed, and Denver oil companies cut countless executives.

      With affirmative action making headway, sending out-of-work executives to Benton's outplacement service made good business sense.

      Over the next eight years, Benton helped transition more than 2,000 executives from one workplace to another. Along the way, she interviewed each executive about the reasons for their termination. Through these interviews, she began to piece together a novel concept.

      "It was a fuzzy concept based on words such as 'fit' and 'chemistry' and 'bond,' " Benton said. "I learned that successful people have an intangible ability to relate, or to connect, with their coworkers.

      "Put simply, a leader is a person who is always able to sit at the head of the table, even when the table is round," said Benton. "Regardless of technical competence, if you don't have this ability, it will hold you back.

      "On the flipside, there may be people better qualified than you, but if you have an ability to influence people, to persuade them, and to make them feel comfortable, that will make you a leader."

      Benton said her lack of these qualities is what got her fired. She realized that without people skills, she wouldn't go far.

      "The 'people' side could make or break a career," said Benton. "And I realized these skills are 100 percent teachable. I decided this is what I wanted to teach."

      At the time, Benton was fond of the work of syndicated columnist Bob Greene. Although she had never met him, she telephoned him out of the blue and attempted to use her new concepts to persuade him to write about her.

      To her surprise, Greene spent an hour with her on the phone. Later that week, Greene devoted a full column to Benton, the Coloradan who teaches "charisma."

      After Greene's article appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Time and Newsweek contacted Benton for interviews. Time's coverage resulted in calls from the CEOs of three different companies.

      "They asked me to consult with their staff on my concept of 'executive presence,' " said Benton. "I didn't even know what to charge for my services. I had heard about a business consultant in California who charged $1,500 per day, so that's what I told them I charged."

      When the Time story was released, Benton immediately received requests for appearances on "Good Morning America," "Today" and CNN.

      It wasn't long before Benton began putting her ideas into book form. Her first book, "Lions Don't Need To Roar," (Warner Books) appeared in 1991 and was followed by "How to Think like a CEO" in 1993 (Warner Books).

      Today, Benton has written seven books that have sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and her work has been translated into 17 languages. Her concepts are respected across the globe.

      How important is Benton's concept of executive presence?

      "I think it's very important," said Ambrose. "If communication is 80 percent visual, the last thing you want is for people to turn you off before you even get a word out of your mouth."

      Benton is now working on her eighth book, her first collaborative project. The book, which will be co-written by another Fort Collins writer, will take her full-circle to the beginnings of her career.

      "This book will focus on what I - and other women my age - have learned over the last 30 years," she said.

      According to Benton, the conditions for women in the workplace have improved, but not as much as one would hope.

      "There's never going to be parity, and maybe there shouldn't be," she said.

      Benton now lives with her husband, Rodney Sweeney, in Livermore, although her business remains based in Fort Collins.

      She still recalls with clarity the day she decided to strike out on her own. "I had no idea what I was doing, but I wasn't afraid to do it," said Benton. "That was the key."

      The top five things people do to sabotage career advancement

      Executive coach and president of Benton Management Resources Inc. Debra Benton studied 100 client cases to determine the top five self-sabotaging behaviors that impede career advancement. Benton found people:

      Talk too fast. Speed makes what you say seem unimportant, if you're heard at all.

      Give too much detail. When asked the time of day, they explain how to build a watch.

      Are judgmental toward others. (The world) doesn't suffer fools lightly and most everyone is a fool.

      Are critical of themselves. Too much self-talk about inadequacies.

      Use weak body language and speaking voice from nervous gestures to poor posture to a timid tone of voice.