One of my clients came to me with a high-stakes pitch to request a budget and head count for her team. She had built a beautiful and thorough deck with revenue charts, growth graphs, staffing history, and supporting data. Buried somewhere behind all the data and charts was the one thing she actually wanted: additional money for technology and head count to grow her team.
So I asked her if the presentation was clear and compelling to her leader.
“Considering I had to go to the very end of my deck to get to what I’m actually asking for, probably not,” she responded.
A key shift leaders must make as they advance at work and present to higher level audiences is to tighten and elevate their message. When I coach leaders inside organizations, the number one piece of feedback I hear from their executives is this, “They come to meetings with PowerPoints full of data. We just want the key points, the highlights; otherwise we start tuning out.” At the executive level, the time shortens and the stakes rise to make a clear and compelling argument. You might have only 15 or 20 minutes to change hearts and minds.
I get how vulnerable this feels. It is why I am still tempted to overprepare when I present to executive teams.
Research actually shows that an over-supply of data can weaken the very argument you are trying to make. For instance, when London Business School researchers Niro Sivanathan and Hemant Kakkar tested this on pharmaceutical ads across experiments with more than 3,000 people, the warnings did the opposite of what they were designed to do. Participants who heard the full list rated the drug as significantly less dangerous than those who only heard the serious risks. The reason is that people do not add up your evidence, they average it. Thus, when presenting to executives, your weaker points drag down the strong ones and your message becomes diluted. As a result, leaders may tune you out.
The goal with any executive meeting, and even your emails, is to move people from their current state to a desired future state. We often overlook the logical and emotional transformation we are seeking and approach these encounters from our own perspective, trying to jam in as much detail and information as we know.
Here are four simple steps you can take to ensure your next presentation keeps senior leadership’s attention.
1. NAME THE TRANSFORMATION FIRST
Before you open your slide deck, ask yourself, what transformation do I want this person to make in the time I have with them? Consider where they stand on your topic at the beginning of the meeting and where you want them to be by the end of the meeting. Every data point or story in your deck either moves them along that journey or it goes in the appendix.
I often ask myself before any high-stakes conversation, “What’s the one shift I need this person to make, and what’s the bravest, most direct way to ask for it?”
2. CHOOSE THE TOP 3 DATA POINTS
Senior leaders cannot hold 10 problems or several major data points in their heads, especially when you are trying to present your case in 30 to 60 minutes. Choose the three most compelling data points that help you make the desired audience transformation. For my client, she focused on how the business has grown, the team has not, and the team’s scope has expanded into 20 other things. When communicating this, she focused on one problem per slide with a strong headline in plain language.
Ask yourself this: Based on the transformation I want my audience to make in this meeting, what three compelling data points or stories do they need to know to make this transformation?
3. MAKE A SPECIFIC ASK
I have been guilty of presenting all of the problems and then failing to say what I actually want. Instead of burying the lede, open with the ask, walk them through the problems, and close by restating exactly what you need. For example, in my client’s case this meant leading with, “I’m asking for two additional team members and the budget to support required technology enhancements.” Then, restating the ask as she finished her presentation.
It’s worth remembering that leaders are busy and inundated with data, problems, and requests. They are not thinking about yours as much as you think. How are you being clear so they aren’t left to guess?
4. QUANTIFY THE COST
The data point that can often change minds is quantifying the cost of the status quo. Namely, what happens if we do nothing? A generic phrase like, “There will be some support gaps if we don’t approve this ask” does not compel others to action. However, specific scenarios are more convincing. One way to do this is to spell out the consequences and tie your ask to what your senior leadership loses sleep over: client retention, revenue, efficiency, innovation, or client risk. For example, spelling out exactly how many client requests will go unanswered each week or how client satisfaction scores will dip provides a more persuasive argument to take action.
The next time you are preparing to present to the C-suite, look for the slide where you make your ask. How far back is it? Move it to the front, say it out loud at the start, and remind them of it at the close. Executives are busy, their inboxes are full, and time is short. Clear and crisp arguments help cut through the noise so they can take action on what matters.