You’ve practiced your presentation and know it backwards and forwards. You know the data and spellchecked your PowerPoint slides three times. You’ve even prepared answers to likely questions and curveballs. But how well do you know what executives are looking and listening for? What is it about certain presentations that make them stand out above all others?
Executives and directors at the top are the ones making the big decisions and are regularly on the receiving end of proposals and presentations. So, Security Management reached out to long-term security executives, looking for insight into what they see and hear from presenters—both their direct reports and other business leaders seeking support from the C-suite.
Be Prepared
“Know your audience and how they prefer to receive information. I am a storyteller, and that is my natural go-to when doing board presentations or executive briefs. However, not all members of boards or executive teams respond to that type of approach—understanding that up front is important,” says Anders Noyes, CPP, director of global security operations for the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and member of the ASIS International CSO Center. “…Be prepared to pivot from one style to another if the current approach seems to be falling flat.”
This means that executive skills like emotional intelligence are incredibly valuable in these scenarios.
Understanding who you’re presenting to and what their goals or motivations are within the organization can help you be at the ready with the right information. Alvar Orellana McBride, CPP, CEO and executive director for Griffin Risk, recalls that soon after he joined the C-suite, he gave what he believed was an outstanding presentation, where he thought the goal was to share why a project was “amazing” for the company. “And they said, ‘Yeah, but what is the risk? How much money do we need to put on the table? What is the ROI for this project?’ And it was kind of like, ‘Damn it, I don’t have this on the presentation,’” he says.
This means that even though you might only be presenting on one specific aspect, you need to know the scope and purpose for the overall meeting and understand how your message fits into the organization’s larger view.
Noyes recommends that, when possible, you should take the time before your meeting to review previous presentations made to your audience and learn which were successful or not. You could also talk to other presenters and ask for feedback on how their own presentations resonated or what they wish they had done differently.
Common Pitfalls
As the saying goes, sometimes less is more. Those at the top—even those within your own department—don’t have the time to listen to the detailed minutiae about your department’s performance or navigate within the weeds of every security solution initiated during the last quarter. What they do need is your distillation and analysis of the situation.
“In my experience, the CSOs want a presentation to be brief, be specific, present solutions, and the presenter to be prepared,” Noyes says. “Some C-people will poke at the assumptions and the solutions, so have the details firmly in mind, but don’t dive into the weeds unless led there by the C-person.”
Be sure you know what your data means, such as how the project impacts the larger organization and aligns with larger objectives, Orellana McBride says. That understanding “is 50 to 60 percent of the work done. Because that requires the manager to really understand the business or what we are looking to achieve,” he adds. “If I don’t see that aligned on the presentation, that is making a very uncomfortable scenario because the meeting is not going to end well.”
Have the details firmly in mind, but don’t dive into the weeds unless led there by the C-person.
Storytelling Versus Metrics
Some people are natural storytellers. Others have a head for numbers. But in a presentation, especially one where you’re looking to sway the minds of members of an executive board, both the story and the data matter.
“It is important to have someone that is good at telling us why the topic that is presented is important, but it needs to have the right balance in terms of presenting the numbers,” Orellana McBride says. “Money talks and the right KPIs tell you if the project or the program is running according to what is expected.”
It’s a tightrope walk between offering your audience engagement and key performance indicators (KPIs) without overburdening them with too-detailed imagery and unnecessary statistics.
“What I personally don’t want to hear is a lot of history, unless critical for context,” Noyes adds. Instead, he wants presentations focused on growth, efficiency, problem identification and resolution, or a combination of the above. When stories are used to highlight elements, the stories need to be supported by relevant metrics, he adds.
How to Improve
Orellana McBride frequently sees presenters over-rely on PowerPoint slides.
“PowerPoint is just a backup tool that helps you to focus on what are the key points that you want to deliver,” he says. Too often, he sits through presentations where the slides have too much data and too many words, with the presenter ultimately just reading from the slides and appearing unprepared.
“Do your homework and come back. You are wasting everybody’s time if you don’t have the clear picture in your head and are unable to deliver it,” he adds.
Practicing can help with this. Noyes recommends reaching out to colleagues and rehearsing your presentation with them in a safe space. Along with asking for feedback, “tune into emotional intelligence cues from the audience and adjust. Be nimble, be flexible, get your message across,” Noyes says.
Sara Mosqueda is an associate editor for Security Management. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at [email protected].