“My training experience with 2Connect early in my career helped me to know how to adjust my communication with leaders and executives. Nearly two decades later, I am still using the strategies 2Connect introduced to help me navigate executive-level presentations.”
Ellis Wheby, Director, Patient Services and Distribution at Tarsus Pharmaceuticals
As we celebrate 25 years of helping professionals develop their communication skills, one theme consistently rings true: different audiences have different needs. And as professionals move up in organizations, audiences change as do expectations. If you find yourself presenting to more leaders and executives, below are four non-negotiable strategies that Marisa, and other successful communicators, put into action when communicating with leaders.
- Communicate a clear purpose up front – Provide leaders what they want at the start – your purpose and why it matters to them and the organization. Miss this and you become noise.
- Provide less content…a lot less – Senior leaders prefer discussion over lengthy presentations. Anticipate you will only get to present 30-40% of your allotted time – the rest will be consumed by valuable discussion.
- Anticipate and prepare for difficult questions – Most tricky questions can be anticipated. Spend time before your presentation thinking through possible questions and how you will provide a direct answer.
- Address questions as they arise – Don’t hold all questions for the end. That doesn’t serve the needs of your leaders. And if a question comes up that you know you’ll answer later in your presentation, provide a high-level answer and let them know you have more details coming up.
Whether your objective is landing a job, providing an update, or getting that big initiative approved, use these strategies to better meet the needs of executives.
If you are seeing gaps in your organization, schedule a call to talk through how we can support your or your team’s growth.
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