Presenting to senior people

The most common complaint from senior audiences is not that presentations were wrong but that they took twenty minutes to say something that needed two.

How senior audiences listen

The differences that matter.

They want the decision required, early.

They have limited time and multiple items.

They will interrupt, and the interruption is engagement rather than hostility.

They think in terms of risk, cost and trade-off rather than in terms of the work done.

They generally do not want the methodology unless they doubt the conclusion.

And they will read the pre-read, or not, and you cannot know which.

The opening

Which does most of the work.

State the recommendation and the decision required in the first thirty seconds.

"I am asking for approval of X, at a cost of Y, and the main risk is Z."

Then the reasoning.

Which is the reverse of the instinct to build the case and arrive at the recommendation, and which is the single change that most improves these presentations.

Being interrupted

Which will happen and should be planned for.

Answer the question when asked rather than deferring it to a later slide, since deferral is read as evasion.

Which means knowing the material well enough to move around in it.

Accept that you may never reach your prepared structure, and that this is not a failure.

Have the key numbers memorised rather than on a slide you have to find.

And return to the thread explicitly after an interruption resolves.

The trade-off

What senior audiences look for.

Every recommendation costs something, and a presentation that does not name the cost is not trusted.

State what you considered and rejected, and why.

State what could go wrong and what you would do about it.

State the confidence level honestly.

And name the assumption that, if wrong, changes the answer — which is the question you will be asked anyway.

Numbers

Handled properly.

Know the ones you present, including how they were derived.

Present few of them, and the right ones.

Be able to say what the number would be under different assumptions.

Say "I do not know, I will find out" rather than estimating on the spot, which is remembered if it turns out wrong.

And have the detail available without putting it on the slide.

Length

Which is generally over-run.

Prepare for half the time you are given, since questions consume the rest.

Prepare a two-minute version and a ten-minute version of the same content.

Finishing early is received well.

And if the agenda over-runs and your slot is cut, the two-minute version is what you deliver — which is why it exists.

The pre-read

Which changes the meeting.

Where a document is circulated in advance, the presentation should not repeat it.

Assume some read it and some did not, which means a one-minute summary before moving to discussion.

Some organisations require silent reading at the start of the meeting, which resolves the problem and is worth proposing.

And the document should be structured for the reader who reads only the first page.

Status and manner

The behavioural part.

Speak at normal pace rather than accelerating, which nerves produce.

Do not over-qualify, which reads as lack of conviction rather than as appropriate humility.

Disagree where you disagree, briefly and with reasons, since being told only what you want to hear is the standard executive complaint.

Do not fill silence while they think.

And do not thank them excessively for their time, which lowers status without any benefit.

The follow-up

Which determines what actually happens.

Send a short written summary of what was decided, the same day.

Include the actions, owners and dates.

Answer any outstanding questions promptly rather than at the next meeting.

And note what they asked about, since it indicates what they care about and should shape the next presentation.

If it goes badly

Recovery.

A decision deferred is not a rejection, and generally means information was missing.

Find out what was missing, directly, from someone who was there.

Come back with it rather than with the same case restated.

And separate the reception of the presentation from the merits of the proposal, which are frequently confused by everyone involved.