Ever walked out of a board meeting thinking, “Did I just bury them in too much detail?”
You're not alone.
I hear this a lot from new clients and offer five tips today to help you avoid this challenge.
Before I get to the detail, a quick update.
How to avoid 5 c-suite communication clangers
I recently watched a brilliant exec drown their key message in 40 slides of background.
The CEO checked out by slide 8.
In fact, he was gone well before that.
Instead, here are five things you can do to avoid clangers like that while also connecting the dots so your decision-makers know what matters.
More focus, less fluff
↳ Focus the time with decision-makers to drive progress
↳ State how your focus aligns with the strategy
More value, fewer words
↳ Connect the dots between your ideas so your audience doesn't have to
↳ Use AI to cut word count after your messaging is clear
More impact, less activity
↳ Don't focus on what you've ‘done' – they know you are busy
↳ Focus on the impact those tasks have delivered
More insight, less information
↳ Only include facts that are relevant to your goal
↳ Don't just state them, explain why they matter
More forward, less back
↳ Keep ‘what we've done' short
↳ Connect it to the future
Your decision-makers don't need to know everything you know.
They need to know what matters and why it matters to them.
I hope that helps. More soon.
Davina
PS – What's your biggest challenge when presenting to senior leadership? Send me an email and let me know. I’m developing another free lightning learning and can factor your questions in.
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PRESENTED BY DAVINA STANLEY
I love what I do.
I help senior leaders and their teams prepare high-quality papers and presentations in a fraction of the time.
This involves ‘nailing' the message that will quickly engage decision makers in the required outcome.
I leverage 25+ years' experience including
- learning structured thinking techniques at McKinsey in Hong Kong in the mid 1990s before coaching and training their teams globally as a freelancer for a further 15 years
- being approved to teach the Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto in 2009
- helping CEOs, C-suite leaders and their reports deeply understand their stakeholder needs and communicate accordingly
- seeing leaders cut the number of times they review major papers by ~30% and teams cut the amount of time they take to prepare major papers by ~20%*
- watching senior meetings focus on substantive discussions and better decisions rather than trying to clarify the issue
My approach helps anyone who needs to engage senior leaders and Boards.
Recent clients include 7Eleven, KPMG, Mercer, Meta, Woolworths.
Learn more at www.clarityfirstprogram.com
(*) Numbers are based on 2023 client benchmarking results.
