How to nail an executive presentation
Thrive in the gauntlet
A high-stakes executive presentation is one of the most stress-inducing meetings for any leader. I have seen team members completely fold under pressure and take time off both before and after the presentation to recover. I have been on both sides of the table, and it isn’t as hard as people make it out to be. Okay, fine, it is hard, but I hope this post will give you a framework that will remove any guesswork from you and lessen your load.
Pre-Meeting
Carve out enough time - Executive meetings are typically scheduled well in advance, so you should have sufficient time to prepare for them. I recommend setting aside at least two weeks to give yourself ample time to prepare. An everyday mistake leaders make when asked how long they need to prepare is, say, one week or less. I understand why they do this; they want to convey urgency and a bias for action. However, if the executive is not in a hurry, request at least two weeks. A poor presentation will completely negate any brownie points you might have won by demonstrating urgency.
Determine the medium - If you're a regular reader of my Substack, you know what I’m going to say next. Unless you’re a great speaker who can hold people’s attention and actively prevent yourself from spewing verbal graffiti (or confetti?), a well-written document beats a slide deck every time. I've written extensively about this in a previous post and in my book, so I won’t elaborate further here. But in short, a well-written document outperforms a slide deck every time. The level of detail you can include in a document is unattainable in a slide deck, which relies more on the speaker to convey the message rather than on the content itself. That said, I understand that companies and executives can be somewhat dogmatic about the medium, and you might not have a choice. If you are forced to create a slide deck, I HIGHLY recommend writing a document for yourself to keep your facts and thoughts coherent in your head. When questioned in the live meeting, you can refer to your document for assistance. Lastly, whether it’s a slide deck or a document, send it out in advance, but not too early. I suggest sending it out a few days before the meeting. If you send it a week or more prior, most executives will ignore it or add it to their reading list and likely won’t get to it before the meeting. A few days before the meeting usually works best.
Get the details right - When crafting your content, figure out two things. 1) What do you want out of the meeting? 2) What do the executives want out of the meeting? Or maybe it’s a mix of both 1 and 2. But the key is to clearly know the answers to both 1 and 2 while crafting your message.
Some things you might want from the meeting:
Approval for a project
Stress-test some of your assumptions with the group
Diving deeper into the details of a project
Plain-old information sharing
Some things executives might want from the meeting:
Is this project/initiative/program worth undertaking?
Is this project/initiative/program showing the right results?
Is this project/initiative/program on track?
How can they help?
The most problematic executive presentation is when the executives think a specific project or program is a waste of company money and want the team leader to justify it. A close second is when the executives are worried that a critical project is off track and want the leader to walk them through the project’s status and the plan to mitigate the risks.
If you have to convince executives that your project is not a waste of time, you have to show two important things:
Present data and research to illustrate how many customers will benefit from the initiative and its impact on the company's revenue, growth, and other factors. At Amazon, we referred to this as the ‘so what?’ test: What is the significance of doing the project? What are the consequences of not pursuing it?
Provide data and research to demonstrate how your project will enhance the company's position in the market from a competitive perspective. Executives care a lot about the competitive angle.
If it’s a status presentation, it’s important to highlight two things:
A transparent overview of the issues and their impact on the project's timelines, including the consequences for the company of missing the original deadlines.
What actions are you taking to address the issues and risks mentioned in section 1? This should include steps such as a) Reducing scope, b) Adding more personnel, and c) Some elbow grease and burning the midnight oil.
Get early feedback - Seek feedback from everyone willing to provide it. If you have a supportive leader who will be one of the decision-makers in the presentation, ask for their opinion on your document or slides. You can also reach out to the executive(s) directly, but instead of sending them the document or slides, ask what information they would like to see in the upcoming presentation. If you simply send them the draft document or slides, they will likely ignore it and wait for the final presentation, as the chances of that document changing are nearly 100%.
Trim the fat - Take a look at your content and figure out if you can cut the length in half. Try to cut down as much fat as possible from the content. Time is money; executives understand that more than everybody else and will appreciate others who share the same sentiment.
Appoint a scribe - The person who is presenting can’t be the person taking notes as well. Find and appoint a scribe before the meeting to keep track of comments and action items. This scribe can be an AI assistant as well!
Live Meeting
A common pattern I've noticed among leaders preparing to present to a tough crowd is their tendency to ease the tension in the room with small talk or lighthearted banter. I can say with high certainty that this approach rarely works. Regardless of how many laughs you elicit before your presentation, its success or failure will hinge on the content and the presenter’s attitude. Don’t waste time. Wait until the decision-makers are in the room and just get started.
After starting the presentation, the first step is to clearly outline what you believe the audience (and you) want from it, including any decisions you want them to make during the meeting.
As you present your content, remember that the goal is to not just get to the end of the presentation. The goal is to answer your and the room’s questions. If you have done your homework, you will know what those questions are before the meeting, and in the meeting, your goal is to get the answers to those questions. The safe part of your brain will tell you to get past the controversial sections of the presentation quickly. The right thing to do is to spend most of your time in those parts.
If you don’t know the answer to a question from the room, don’t hesitate to say no and offer to find the answer after the meeting and close the loop asynchronously. You can also throw the question to the room to see if anybody else in the room might have the answer to that question.
It’s common to assume that most executives are rational human beings, but that isn’t necessarily true. If you're unlucky, you might have to deal with an irrational executive who wants to further their agenda for personal gains or is a sociopath and takes pleasure in throwing darts at you and watching you squirm. They might say things like, "I don’t believe your data," or, "I don’t think customers want this," and so on. The easiest approach is to turn it back on them and seek their help. If they are not convinced by your data, ask them what data they would like to see and how you can get it. If they believe customers won’t like it, ask them what would. You get the idea.
Lastly, if the presentation becomes particularly contentious, it means that the song is not over. You will most likely get another chance to convey your message. Replay back the meeting in your head and figure out how you can become better next time around.
After the meeting
Send an email to the attendees thanking them for their time and commit to a date by which you will get back to the unresolved questions from the meeting. If you have done well, revel in the positive feedback and praise you will most likely receive from the people in the room. If the meeting didn’t go well, don’t fret. Learn from your mistakes and live to present another day!
That’s it folks! If you have a particularly tough executive presentation coming up and need some help, you can find time with me here.
P.S. If you enjoyed this post, consider sharing it with your network!