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do you get nervous when you're trying to
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communicate with Executives or senior
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leaders in your organization do you feel
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totally unsure about how to make a great
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first impression what's the most
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effective way to communicate with them I
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am a communications consultant I have
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worked with CEOs Executives and Senior
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leaders for years and in this video I'm
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going to share my four top tips for
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communicating effectively with
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Executives these are all tried and
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tested tips that I have honed and
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practiced over the years so let's Jump
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Right In to tip number one tip number
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one when you are community ating with
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Executives be concise all of the CEOs
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and leaders I have worked with over the
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years their schedules are totally
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totally nuts they have very limited time
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to spare so bear this in mind when you
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are communicating with them they will
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appreciate brevity and they will
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appreciate efficiency in the
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communication so what does this mean
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this means don't add in loads of waffle
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please get straight to the point and if
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there's something you need them to do or
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take action on make sure you're very
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clear about that this is particularly
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true in organizations where people bill
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by the hour so it might be the case that
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literally every minute counts for your
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senior leaders because every minute is
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costing them money so how do you
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actually do this in practice a really
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good tip is to think about what do they
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need to know rather than what do you
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want to tell them cuz they might be
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totally different things so you want to
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provide essential Communication in a
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concise way you want to have key points
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that you need to deliver and you want to
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avoid giving any unnecessary details or
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loads of background or unnecessary
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context that is just just diluting your
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message so think about what they need to
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know give them that information be
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specific and be precise when you can if
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you need to give dates or timelines at
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those in think about the types of
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questions they might ask you and build
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them into your communication for that
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essential relevant information that they
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need to know so when in not child this
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piece of advice is don't waste their
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time they will really appreciate being
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concise and being brief in your
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communication and part of this is if you
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are going into a presentation the room
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full of Executives you should be fully
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briefed and prepared ahead of time you
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should not have to ask them to explain
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any parts of the project or to give you
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background or context you should already
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know that in advance and also please you
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need to make sure that you are
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practicing your presentation before you
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get into that room do it at home stand
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up and walk around as if you're really
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doing it do your presentation out loud
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it's also going to help you communicate
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more efficiently with this group if you
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think ahead of time what kind of
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questions they might ask you or what
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kind of objections they might have for
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the topic you are presenting on and if
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you're really not sure what kind of
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things they might ask you go into a tool
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like Chachi PT give them a little bit of
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context about your audience about your
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group of Executives and about your topic
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and ask Chachi PT what kind of questions
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are they likely to ask me so this can be
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really helpful when you are preparing on
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your own and you just need an outside
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perspective AI can help you with that
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okay so that's tip number one to be
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really really concise to be well
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prepared and to give give them the
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information that they need to know
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rather than all the information you
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might want to tell them tip number two
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for communicating effectively with
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Executives is to think big picture so if
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you think about the way that you might
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communicate with your team members or
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with your direct boss you probably go
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into a lot of detail right you're going
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to talk about all the projects you're
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working on all the dates all the
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deliverables all the activities all of
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the tasks so you're going to talk about
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loads of operational information lots of
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stuff that you're doing and all of the
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time when you're going to do that in and
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you've probably been trained over the
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years that this is how we communicate
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and work we tell everybody everything
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all the time because it makes us look
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very impressive and very busy but here's
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the thing that is not the way to
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communicate with Executives they do not
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want to know all the details about your
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job or your work or your tasks or your
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projects they want to think big picture
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they want to focus on results rather
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than on tasks or projects so for this
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audience when you are communicating with
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Executives they' really care how busy
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you've been they don't really care how
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much stuff you're doing they want to
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know well what does this mean for the
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company what difference is this making
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to the business so this is a very
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different way of communicating if you
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work in a Communications role for
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example maybe you're very keen to tell
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them about how many newsletter articles
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you wrote this month or how many blog
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posts you wrote or how many people
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attended a workshop that you ran but
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that's really not relevant to this
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audience so what they care about is well
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what is the result of all this activ ity
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yes you were really busy but what's the
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impact on that what difference did it
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make so this is what I mean when I think
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big picture you need to get out of the
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weeds and all the details and bring it
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up to link it to the priorities and the
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strategy of the business so say one of
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the priorities of the business is to
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reduce staff turnover so what you want
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to think about is all of this activity
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that I've done how is that having an
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impact on staff turnover is there any
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link I can draw there because that's
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what you want to communicate let's think
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through an example say you work in a
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company where one of the biggest
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priorities of the year is to save money
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and you have been working on a piece of
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work that has reduced the time that
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people have to spend in meetings by 2
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hours a week and then you can calculate
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how much time you've saved the business
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and put a dollar figure on that so you
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might be able to communicate to
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Executives well it's not that I've done
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x y and Zed to reduce the time spent in
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meetings but actually the impact of me
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doing that has saved the business 3/4 of
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a million dollars this year in Lost
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productivity so that's the angle you
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want to go out when you are
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communicating with senior leaders if you
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can communicate in this way with your
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Executives you will get yourself a
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really good reputation for delivering
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results for focusing on things that
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matter and it'll position you well for a
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promotion in the future so that's tip
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number two to think big picture now
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before I jump into tip number three if
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you are enjoying this content I invite
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you to subscribe to my channel so tip
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number three for communicating with the
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executives is to understand their
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priorities so in tip number two we
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talked about think big picture so you
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can't communicate effectively about that
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big picture if you don't know what that
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is so you absolutely have to understand
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the priorities of your Executives in
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order to communicate with them
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effectively because what you're trying
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to do is you're trying to align your
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message to their interests so you have
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to know what their main concerns are and
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what they're focused on so you want to
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frame your Communication in a way that
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shows what you're working on aligns well
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with their priorities and the things
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that they want to achieve and this is
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the essence of good communication isn't
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it know your audience you must
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understand what did they care about
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sometimes you'll hear people say the
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question of like what keeps your CEO up
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at night this is the way of saying like
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what do they really care about how can I
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communicate about my work in a way that
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aligns with what they really care about
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because if you get a good handle on this
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then you can always tailor your message
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to that so when you're communicating
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with Executives make sure that you are
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playing to their selfish desires talk
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about how the work that you're doing is
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helping to solve their problems they
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will love you for this so make it about
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them it's about them and not about you
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so if you don't know the priorities of
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your senior Executives it's really
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important that you take the time to find
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that out most businesses will have a
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business strategy maybe it's a three or
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fiveyear plan you need to go and find
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this and read this what I really want to
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get familiar with is the vision of the
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organization the mission of the
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organization and its key priorities so
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these key priorities they might be
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called different things they might be
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called strategic objectives they might
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be called strategic priorities they
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might be called strategic pillars there
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probably going to be three four five of
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these at quite a high level and this is
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what your Executives care about so these
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might be big picture things like we want
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the company to make more money we want
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to have more market share we want to
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have higher rates of Customer Loyalty
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these are those big picture things that
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everyone in the company is driving
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towards something else you should also
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find out is the time frame of your
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organization strategy so that you could
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talk about this when you are
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communicating with your Executives in
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some companies there might just be a
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one-year plan in other ones there might
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be a three or 5year plan it's really
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useful to know this so that you can
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align your own strategy and your own
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work to these time frames that will
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position you as a strategic thinker and
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someone that is really aligned with the
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overall business strategy and you will
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be seen as someone that gets it and that
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has commercial and real deep value to
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the organization now before I jump into
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the very last tip I would love to hear
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from you any of these tips resonating
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with you do you recognize the value of
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any of these which of them is the most
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useful for you please leave me a comment
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I would love to hear it and don't forget
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subscribe to my channel so I can keep
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giving you free communications advice
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okay tip four for communicating
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effectively with Executives is to
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provide Solutions and not problems so
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maybe you're coming in to do a
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presentation to a group of Executives
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and you have spotted a glaring problem
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in the business maybe there's a risk or
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something that's not working properly
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you don't want to come into that
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presentation and just present the
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problem and make it their problem you
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want to come into that presentation and
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communicate that you understand the
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problem that you've done your research
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and that you have a potential solution
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because senior leaders will really
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appreciate people that can not only spot
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the problems in the business but that
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can propose actionable solutions to
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solve those problems so be prepared to
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discuss the problem present Your
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solution take all their questions and
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discuss it in depth this is a really
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great approach to think about when
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you're communicating with Executives it
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positions you as a problem solver with
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as somebody that has lots of initiative
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and someone that is really genuinely
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valuable to invest their time in and to
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spend time with and this kind of
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approach can actually increase your
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value to the organization over time it
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will position you very well for any
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promotions that are coming up and it
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gives you more credibility it positions
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you as somebody that can be relied upon
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to tackle all these challenges
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effectively now why this is really
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crucial for communicating with senior
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leaders is because essenti you're taking
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on the problem yourself rather than
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making it their problem so you're kind
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of taking work off their desk they will
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really really appreciate this because
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remember they're super super busy so if
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you can come into that group and
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communicate solutions that are well
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thought out that are based on data and
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research and you've kind of weighed up
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the pros and cons you will just blow
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them away and they will be really
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delighted because essentially you're
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reducing their workload of you are
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solving the problem it means that they
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don't have to so when you are
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communicating something like this make
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sure that you come are armed with a
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really good rationale make sure you have
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lots of data and evidence for why you've
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picked this solution rather than another
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one there might be an appendix you can
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email out them afterwards if they want
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to get into the nitty-gritty you can
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provide it to them as a read so there
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you have it they are my four top pieces
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of advice for communicating effectively
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with the executives or the senior
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leaders in your organization these tips
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have served me really well over the
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years they still do and I hope that
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they're useful to you too now something
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I didn't talk about in this video is all
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the information that I wish I had known
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before I started working in the
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communications industry before I ever
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got my first Communications job if you
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want to know all the things I wish I'd
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known at the start of my career then you
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can watch this video next
