FREE MASTERCLASS – What do Boards want to know?

FREE MASTERCLASS – What do Boards want to know?

Do you ever wonder if Board members are a different breed?

Do they have different needs because they are different people, or because they have a different role?

In my experience it's a bit of both and a bit of neither too.

I will share my thoughts more specifically in next week's free MasterClass What Boards Want to Know.

I will answer participant questions while also covering a range of topics including
1. What to focus on in your papers and presentations
2. What does it really mean to be more strategic?
3. What bugs Boards about executives and consultants who present to them
4. How to make the most of your time with the Board

Those joining the live session will receive the first section of my new book, Elevate, which helps you lift the quality of thinking in your team's papers without rewriting them yourself.

>> Register here for one of the two sessions (scheduled to span most time zones)

Kind regards,
Davina

PS – Registrations are also open for my Board Paper Bootcamp. Learn more here. This will be an intimate group, and from what I know about the early birds, it will be a wonderfully rich series of conversations.

How to craft great headlines

How to craft great headlines

Do you waste the most important real estate in your communication?

Titles and headlines grab your audience's attention, making them curious about what you have to say. Yet many documents I see waste this opportunity.

They either use one or two words that say things like: Update, Performance, Finance or similar. Or they run on and on losing me in their detail.

How to find the right balance? How to draw out something short yet insightful from potentially screeds of analysis?

I recently ran a MasterClass to help you learn to craft headlines that do justice to your paper or presentation. 

During our session we discussed how you…

1. Ensure each title packs a punch

2. Link your slides together to form a coherent whole

3. Hook your audiences attention

We explored these ideas, and more, both through the prepared content and in answering participants questions.

The recording is available inside in the Past Events area within the Clarity Hub.

 

Access here – https://clarityfirstprogram.com/clarityhub 


More soon,
Davina

How to be less busy and more successful

How to be less busy and more successful

I thought this was a good way to start the year as we turn our eyes back to work after the new year break.

The last couple of years have been pretty crazy. If nothing else we have all needed to step in to cover colleagues while they take their turn with covid. Add to that the substantial adjustments required of us all to optimise new ways of working and it's been ‘busy'.

So, how to get above all the extra ‘busyness'?

Richard Medcalf is a personal friend, a leadership coach to some of the top CEOs on the planet and someone who has helped me deliver more while being less busy.

He's running a webinar called “Making Time For Strategy: How to Be Less Busy and More Successful,” based on his new book, 
Making Time For Strategy, on Wednesday, February 8.

>> 
You can register for the webinar here to be there live or catch the recording.

In this 60-minute session, you'll:

  • Clarify what your most strategic activities really are.
  • Understand why your previous attempts at freeing yourself up haven't worked, and what to do instead.
  • Identify which of the four main strategies will work best for you right now.
  • Leave with practical ideas to implement straight away.


This will be an insightful hour for anyone wanting to be a more strategic leader. 
Register here.


I hope that helps. More next week.

Kind regards,
Davina


PS  Even if you can’t attend, do register, as you'll be able to access the recording. Sydneysiders … this will be 3am for you, so most likely you'll want the recording.

RELATED POSTS

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.

Why length doesn’t matter

Why length doesn’t matter

Do you often wish other people's communication was shorter?

Or, perhaps you are asked to shorten yours?

This is a common request that I think is misguided.

Let me explain why.

Stakeholders don't ask you to make your communication shorter because it's hard to read. They ask because it is too hard to read.

So, when you use ‘TLDR' … which for those of you who aren't familiar with this term means ‘To Long, Didn't Read', try this one instead:

THDR – Too Hard, Didn't Read

To see an example and get some more ideas to help you with your communication, watch this recent workshop I ran.

>> Click here to watch

I hope that helps.

Davina

 

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.