Are you somebody who frequently needs to make presentations in front
of the C suite in your company, because there are meetings where you
need to get buy in because there are ideas that you need to share or
maybe reports and data that you need to share as well.
But one of them is the biggest mistakes that I see executives make
when they are making presentations in front of C-suite, is that
they're making presentations from the past.
So what do I mean by that?
What I mean is that executives, when they present in front of C-suite,
they present as though they would have presented in the past how they
would have presented that to their past bosses, how they would have
presented when they were in college or how they would have presented
when they were in their previous managerial or more junior level
positions.
And that's what I meant by they present from the past, because you see
when you are in front of C-suite the C-suite executives, that is the
senior most executive leadership team in your company.
And C-suite are very, forward-thinking, they're very future driven
results driven as well.
And they see very far out in this time and space horizons very far
into the future.
So if you're somebody who is an executive and you're presenting in
front of C-suite and you're presenting from the past, then the way
that you show up the strategies that you're going to be using, aren't
going to be matching their expectations, or aren't going to be
matching what they're looking for.
So in this video, what I want to share with you are three key
strategies on how you can improve your presentations in front of
C-suite, so that they're going to understand the meaning behind what
you're saying so that you can better be able to get buy-in from them
as well.
And you can position yourself as a leader in that boardroom.
So go ahead.
I'm going to jump right in.
And by the way, if this is resonating with you, give me a thumbs up as
well.
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Strategy number one, link to corporate objectives.
You are making a presentation in front of C-suite.
And the whole aim of the C-suite executives is to be involved in
strategic directions.
Remember all the C-suite executives, the CXO, their whole role is to
support the CEO with respects to where are we going?
How are we going to get there?
What is the direction?
What are our top priorities?
So when you're making a presentation, you're presenting your idea or
your maybe you're presenting your recommendation.
Anytime you present your idea or your recommendation outside of the
context of the found of a founding problem, then it's going to be
left out for criticism.
And that's why the most likely reason why I see executives having
their ideas rejected the most likely reason why their ideas are not
prioritized or their ideas are not accepted because of that.
So here's the thing when you're linking to your corporate objectives,
the key is to understand my idea, my recommendation, what is the real
problem that it solves for the corporation?
What is the big picture overarching objective or the mission that this
company has and the CEO providing that mission?
Because they're the ones that have the guiding directions.
So understand what is, what problem, what is the real problem that my
recommendation and my idea solves.
So when you link it to that corporate objective, now you have the
correct context in your presentation in front of C-suite.
Strategy number two is to build the business case.
So when you're making your presentation, one of the biggest mistakes
that I see executives make is going right into the recommendation,
straight up into the idea, without building a business case around it,
because let's face it, your executive leadership team, they have so
many ideas, so many different directions, so many goals that they need
to prioritize.
So if you're going in and you're going straight up for the
recommendation and you haven't built the business case for it, they're
not going to see why your idea and your recommendation is the top
priority.
So it's important to be able to, first of all, going back to the first
strategy, link it to the corporate objectives.
But secondly, build a business case because when it comes to executive
decisions, they're going to prioritize based on how do we see that
this recommendation is going to help us to achieve what's most
important to us.
And what is most important to them?
One of the things that is most important across the board is how is it
going to help our customers?
How's it going to help build our customer base?
How is it going to help serve our customers even better?
Because that's what gives the company a competitive edge, right?
So if you're somebody who's hearing this and you understand, yes, it
is important to build a business case, but that's something that I've
always been weak in and that's really something I don't know how to
do.
How do I build a business case?
How do I see it?
How do I position it?
What do I need to say exactly?
If that's what you're wondering, then I invite you to work with me.
Below this video, in the description, there is a link and that's where
you can book a call to talk to myself or a member of my team.
This is we're going to explore whether or not it's the right fit for
us to work together.
Because every single week I train a team of executives on exactly how
to build your business case.
Exactly how do you present in front of C-suite executives, leadership
teams, so that they understand what you're proposing so that you can
ensure that you give your most powerful foot forward.
But also that you can convey your idea in such a way that now they
know what is it going to cost them.
They don't buy into it.
You're going to be able to position it that way as going to empower
you, to be able to communicate with certainty and clarity and
confidence as well.
So that's something you want to achieve for your career and step up
into higher levels of leadership, then book a link below, and I look
forward to working with you on the inside.
And the third strategy is to choreograph the interaction.
Yes, you can design how that interaction will go.
You can choreograph the whole thing.
Keep in mind that when you're presenting to C-suite, they will ask
deep questions just as a result of their business acumen, the depth of
their knowledge and insights as well.
So just be prepared for the depth of insightful questions that they
ask due to their business acumen.
So that's step number one, to choreographing the interaction.
Step number two is to be able to articulate and show up, to be able to
position your recommendations, position your arguments as well, so
that you can be able to come across, build in trust and familiarity.
So that's two, two very important ingredients.
Trust and familiarity.
Number one is trust.
This is how you can build trust that they can trust your leadership in
carrying out the projects.
They can trust you in recommendations because you also are coming with
your, your, a depth of insights and wisdom, and they can trust your
ability to be able to follow through on the recommendations that you
suggest.
The second aspect remember was familiarity.
So when you show up and you present in front of C-suite, that you
present with familiarity causing in them a feeling of familiarity,
that you are one of them and that you belong in the boardroom as well.
So trust and familiarity, two ingredients.
And finally, as you are choreographing the interaction, it's also
important that you are prepared for questions that come along the way,
and to be able to prepare to include them, involve them in the action
plans, because the executive, the C-suite, they're the senior most
leadership team in the company, and they're prepared to be involved in
it.
In fact, they want to be involved in it.
So how can they be included in your strategic plan?
How can they be included in the recommendations you are proposing, or
the decisions that you are getting their buy-in from?
And when you, as you're creating that sense of urgency in that C-suite
what is their involvement exactly going to be?
Right?
So those are the three strategies on how you can make your most
powerful presentations in front of the C-suite.
So in summary, in overall, a presentation in front of C-suite requires
a completely different mindset, a different mindset from the
presentations you've given in the past from presentations you've given
throughout college from presentations you've given throughout your
junior years.
And even from presentations that you gave in senior management as
well, it's a completely different ball game, a different mindset, and
a different way to prepare for these presentations and just know that
when you in front of C-suite and it is important to create a sense of
urgency to get buy in from your recommendations as well, and to be
acknowledged and recognized for your wisdom, but have the mindset to
know that you're not just there to get a hold of resources and budget
as well from them.
It is also about being able to choreograph what is the way that we're
going to move forward.
So with that, I have another video prepared for you.
If you want to understand how do I communicate as an executive, then
that is showing up right up next.
I've created this video before.
And so this is going to show you some steps on how you could
communicate more effectively as an executive.
That video is coming right up next.
Don't go anywhere.
And I will see you there.