How to be taken more seriously?

Hi all - I have learned so much from this collective group, so wanted to start with a 'thanks' to this community!

I feel like I'm struggling being taken seriously by colleagues at my company, particularly my boss and senior leadership. I work in a corporate function for a large company with a very high-visibility role and I'm the only one in my position, serving thousands of associates. I often do a lot of presenting and have led large-scale initiatives even though I am in a senior manager role. Often times after presentations, my boss will say "you did a great job with that" or even some of the C-Suite level will come up to me and say "we threw a lot at you yesterday, are you okay?". I'm sure these are efforts to be nice (and maybe I should be grateful I'm not in a toxic workplace), but sometimes it makes me feel like people are patting me on the head when I do a good job or coddling me when things get tough. I'm not sure how to get past this reaction from senior leaders. I also don't see Directors or Sr. VPs being lauded when they're asked to contribute to a high-stakes call or asked if they are okay after they deliver a huge project - they just show up, deliver, and move onto the next thing.

My goal is to try and get promoted to Director, but I'm genuinely curious if anyone has ever experienced this before and what I can do to garner more respect or command...Maybe it's more executive presence (which I've taken classes on and read books on - but clearly it's still a gap for me!). Thanks in advance for your advice!