The Most Effective Ways to Present Information to C Level Executives
You’ve worked hard to develop your company’s business plan, marketing campaign, and sales collateral. Now you’re ready to present them to your company’s leadership. You’re excited to get everyone’s feedback and make quick adjustments. But will your company leadership see the value in your ideas? You can’t miss the mark and succeed in presenting your business plan or marketing campaign to your company leadership. This article will show you how to effectively present information to your company leadership.
Build a Simple Presentation
The first step in presenting information to your company leadership is to think through the presentation materials you will use. This can include your PowerPoint presentation, your notes and handouts, your visual aids, and anything else you plan to use to communicate information. The best presentation materials will communicate your ideas clearly, effectively, and efficiently. They should also respect the time of your leadership team members and any other presenters you will have to work with. This means sticking to one presenter at a time, breaking up long presentations into short segments, and presenting information in a way that creates shared understanding.
Establish a Shared Vision
The second step in presenting information to your company leadership is to establish a shared vision. This should be a vision that your leadership team members already has or that you can help them develop. This vision will help to guide the discussion. It will be the foundation for the discussion. This shared vision can be as simple as a goal that your leadership team members might have for the company, or it can be a larger vision that combines the goals of the company’s executive team members.
Demonstrate Value for the Company’s Next Steps
The third step in presenting information to your company leadership is to demonstrate value for the company’s next steps. This is the section of your presentation where you connect your ideas back to your leadership team’s shared vision. Connecting your ideas back to your leadership team’s vision helps to communicate that the ideas you are discussing are part of a larger picture. In this section of your presentation, you should show how your ideas connect with your leadership team members’ shared vision. This will help to communicate that your ideas are the right ideas at the right time.
Create a Simple Template for Future Use
The fourth step in presenting information to your company leadership is to create a simple template for future use. While it’s best to present information to your leadership team members one at a time, sometimes it makes sense to present information to multiple team members together. If this is the case, you can use your presentations as a template for future presentations. This means using the same outline and visuals you used for your previous presentations. A template for future use will help you to keep your information consistent. It will also help you to avoid making huge jumps in your presentations based on the knowledge you have at the time.
Bottom line
C level executives are busy people. They have many responsibilities and goals that have their full attention. They also have their egos and are often sensitive to criticism or perceived slights. So when you present information to them, you’ll need to do it in a way that respects their time and helps your leadership team members see the value in your ideas. These four steps will help you do this.