Tips for Delivering Effective Presentations to Executives

Speaking in front of any group of people can be stressful, especially if you don’t do it on a regular basis. Presenting to executives can add an additional layer of stress. Whether you’re delivering great news about earnings or trying to justify your budget for next year, presenting to executives is more stressful and offers more opportunity for error.To help you understand the special requirements of presenting to executives, I’ve assembled a collection of articles and blog posts with valuable information and advice.

• The 9 Biggest Mistakes When Presenting to Executives. Let’s Grow Leaders: “Undermining Your Credibility. The execs will only buy your message if they believe you know what you’re doing. It’s vital to show up confident and strong. One of the smartest women I know stayed up late every night the week before her presentation doing deep research and getting the presentation just right. No one in the room knew a tenth as much as she did on the subject. But when one exec made a snarky remark, she lost it and burst into tears–tragic credibility buster. Exhaustion and too much caffeine prevented her from responding calmly and redirecting the conversation.”

• 5 Things Professional Keynote Speakers Do Differently From Amateurs. Forbes: “I don’t overload an audience with information. This is harder to pull off than you might think, because all of us know a lot more about our topic of choice than we can jam into a presentation. But jamming a lot of information into a presentation isn’t helpful to your audience’s retention of the material. It’s better to make fewer points, and make each of them in as memorable a way as possible.”

• 7 Steps To Becoming An Excellent Presenter. Business Insider: “You know all those Q&A sessions you have been a part of — well set one up for yourself. Ask yourself the toughest and meanest questions you can think of. Don't go soft. Don't let yourself off easy. Be brutal. Be merciless. Grade yourself. Be your own adversary. Shut the door to your office, where no one can hear you and give yourself a drilling on the subject you will present. Then if you do not know the answers to these questions find them!”

• Boost Your Presentation Skills with These PowerPoint Shortcuts. The Business Journals: “There are times when presenting that you want to draw the audience's attention to you and away from your slides. The best way to accomplish this is to blacken the screen. If you are presenting without a presentation remote, you can simply hit your keyboard's B key, which will blacken the screen. Hitting the B key again will bring your presentation back.”

• Presentation Preparation: 5 Tips on What to Wear. SlideGenius: “Another way to figure out an appropriate attire is by thinking of what the audience might wear. If there’s one rule to keep in mind about what to wear for presentations, it’s that you should always dress slightly better than the people you’re addressing. Who are you expecting in your audience? If you’re delivering an executive presentation, come to the venue in your best suit. For less formal crowds, your safest bet is to dress in business casual.”

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