Presenting to Senior Leadership

Quick Guide That Will Prepare You For Your Next Presentation

The Golden Rule of presenting: Preparation > Practice

• Communication is company-specific: Every company has different communication styles and patterns. Your associates who are talented presenters may not be able to articulate what they do to succeed, but if you study them while they are presenting, you will definitely find consistent patterns. So be sure to study their approach!
• Start with the conclusion: Especially in written communication, most people skim until they get bored and then stop reading. Accommodate this reality by starting with what’s important, instead of building toward it gradually. No need for the suspense!
• Frame why the topic matters: Likely, you will be presenting on an area that you’re intimately familiar with, and it is obvious to you why the work matters. But this will be less obvious to your audience who might not think about this topic as often as you do. So start by explaining why your work matters to the company.
• The Narrative: A large aspect of framing the topic is providing a narrative of where things are, how you got here, and where you are going now. This should be a sentence or two that look something like,

“Last year, we had trouble…