How to Impress in High-Stakes Presentations

7 steps to bring out the X-factor in your next executive presentation

👋 Hi, this is Akash with this week’s newsletter. I write about leadership and growth in software engineering. This week, we have crossed 2,500 subscribers! Thank you for your readership ❤️.

Presenting ideas/results to executives is a great way to build visibility. This week, I’m sharing seven key insights I learned from 100+ executive presentations. Hope you enjoy this edition!

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What do you think when your manager says: “Bob, do you want to present our work to John (Director) next week?” 

As a mid-level software engineer at Google, it was nerve-wracking for me. As I grew in my role, I found myself in these situations more often.

Presenting to executives is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate impact and establish visibility. But, the downsides of a bad presentation are grave.

Imagine you’re going up for a promotion in the next cycle. If you fail to impress, this person has the authority to deny your promotion.

I used to suck at presentations. I’d come up with walls of text in the slides and read through them. Today, we will explore the secret formula to capture an executive’s attention. These tips will help you nail your next big presentation.

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⭐ Main Takeaways

• Things executives care about in a presentation

• How to improve your slides with 7 practical steps

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Why did an executive agree to listen to me? What is their role in this presentation?

You might find yourself presenting to higher-ups for one of three reasons:

• Sell an idea

  • “We should do X because …”

• Share the results

  • “In the past quarter, we achieved Y despite challenges because …”

• Responding to a crisis

  • “The root cause of O was identified to be …”

An executive is an organization's decision-maker. The quicker you can help them make that decision, the better the presentation.

Let’s explore the top seven things to improve your high-stakes presentations.

Before the presentation

1) Learn what they care about

Earlier in my career, I made the mistake of sharing too much. It took me a while to accept that higher-ups don’t care about the details.

❌ “We are using a smaller instruction-tuned model with the llama dataset to reduce the latency.”

✅ “Our new model cuts latency by 50% while maintaining the accuracy.”

Another common mistake was showcasing the wrong things. I’d say,

❌ “We should invest in securing our CI/CD because it can cost us millions of dollars in potential fines.”

✅ “Our user safety relies on securing all aspects of our software. Recent attacks demonstrated how critical CI/CD is to overall security. This aligns well with our company's overall direction, too.”

How you present your proposal determines its success. After making countless mistakes, my learnings are:

• Start with understanding the leader’s priorities

• Find ways your project helps them achieve those goals

• Prepare bold claims about the cost of not doing what you’re suggesting

2) Tell a story, not data

The most common mistake I make today is obsessing over data. We hear, “Data is binary. It proves things objectively.” But we forget that a lack of context makes data useless.

How many times have you scrambled to collect metrics for a presentation? I have.

The problem is that we build a story around data when we should add relevant data around a story.

After you understand the audience, I’d recommend focusing on a story. Your story must have:

• What problem you’re solving

• Why it’s important to solve the problem

• What will the future look like with this problem solved

The order here is not important. I have found that starting with a future state helps engage an executive’s interest. 

“If we have autonomous agents monitoring our production pipeline reliably, our developers can be 5x productive (<insert data>). But, today's models lack proper access control (<insert data>) to deploy them efficiently.”

To learn more about the effective usage of data to influence, read this excellent post from Jordan.

3) Practice with your team/lead

It’s okay to be nervous. Even after reporting to executives, I get anxious all the time.

The fact that this person decides career progression gives them a sense of authority over us.

Do you feel more confident presenting on a familiar topic than an unknown one?

Confidence builds up as you prepare. I’ve noticed a significant difference in my messaging when I practice more.

Practice at least two times before a big presentation:

• Once only with your manager

• Once with the team or senior folks in your team

Set the expectations for these trial runs,

• Ask them to be critical

• Get feedback on the core message

• Brainstorm potential questions and responses

During the presentation

4) Start by grabbing attention

Executives are busy people. They are sitting in meetings all day.

At first, my presentations sounded like,

“Hi, my name is Akash. I work with X on the Y team. Today, I’m going to talk about…”

It’s a straightforward introduction, but something about this wasn’t right.

As I gained more experience, I understood how important keeping an audience's attention is.

I realized this: “Words, when said and articulated in the right way, can change someone’s mind.”

For that, I need the decision-makers to pay attention.

I’ve found success in spicing up the beginning. Some tactics include:

• Start with the ask

  • “Hi, my name is Akash. I’m going to convince you why we should invest in securing the build pipeline.”

• Present the pending decision

  • “Hi, my name is Akash. Today, I’m hoping to reach an agreement on our strategy for down-trending user engagement.”

• Tell a story they could relate to

  • “Hi, my name is Akash. Today, I will walk you through a proposal to reduce infra failure, which has been the biggest complaint from our partner organizations.”

You can get their attention if they think your proposal aligns with the overall direction. It solves a problem they are hearing about.

My recommendation would be to come up with your set of opening lines. You can use these examples as a template.

5) Don’t hold back your opinions

Do you get afraid of sharing your opinion when someone higher up disagrees?

Even the slightest push made me awkward.

Questions that would immediately pop into my head:

• “Do they not like the idea? Is it flawed?”

• “What if I push back and I come across as cocky?”

• “Am I going to offend them if I oppose them on this forum?”

It took me countless encounters to understand executives value expert opinions.

You’re presenting to higher-ups because your opinion matters. These presentations are the best place to increase your sphere of influence and credibility.

After the presentation

6) Don’t bullshit

One unique thing about executive presentations is there are a lot of questions. And they can come in at any time.

Sometimes, it’s hard to prepare for them. There will be questions that will catch you off-guard.

It’s common when you’re unsure how to answer a question. The mantra is to “never bullshit”. In case you’re not sure how to respond,

• Understand the question to gather information.

  • “You’re concerned about downstream impact because X, did I understand it correctly?”

• Communicate what you think, and you’ll get back to them.

  • “We haven’t yet collaborated with team T. Let me get back to you on that.”

• Take help from other people in the room (my manager has been a savior multiple times).

  • “I know John was having conversations around this. John, do you have anything to add?”

It’s okay to say you don’t know. In fact, there wasn’t a single high-stakes presentation where I had all the answers.

7) Make it easy to decide

More often than not, you’ll be presenting to an executive to get some decision.

All the most liked ones have one thing in common: they make it easy for the leaders to decide.

A few strategies that I’ve found helpful are as follows,

• Present alternatives

  • “We have considered trying x, y, and z. They don’t work because…”

• Include individual deep dives (handouts)

  • “You can refer to the sheet in front of you for in-depth explanations.”

• Send a summary after the meeting with the decision bit

  • “We talked about funding project X because …”

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🌟 🔍 Parting Thoughts

Presenting to executives can be scary. Leaders have a significant say in your career trajectory. But, if used to your advantage, you expand your influence and build credibility. It’s important to treat this as an opportunity. Always be selling! Today, we talked about 7 steps to nail your next big presentation!

• Learn what they care about

  • Understand the leader’s priorities

  • How your project helps them

  • Explain the cost of not doing it

• Tell a story, not data

  • Don’t build a story around data

  • Add relevant data around your story

• Practice with your team/lead

  • Ask them to be critical

  • Get feedback on the core message

  • Brainstorm potential questions and responses

• Start by grabbing attention

  • Start with the ask

  • Present the pending decision

  • Tell a story they could relate to

• Don’t hold back your opinion

  • Your opinion matters

• Don’t bullshit

  • Understand the question

  • Communicate your thinking

  • Take help from other people

• Make it easy to decide

  • Present alternatives

  • Include individual deep dives (handouts)

  • Send a summary after the meeting with the decision bit

What has been your top learning from a recent high-stakes presentation?

Share them in the comments!

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👋 💬 Get In Touch

Want to chat? Find me on LinkedIn.

If you want me to cover a particular area of leadership, you can reach out directly to akash@chromium.org. 

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