aQuity

Mistake #1

Seeking to impress instead of seeking to make an impact. When your attitude and approach imparts that you are attempting to make an impression, the Baloney Detectors of those present go on the alert. Your words, demeanour and facial expression imparts your intent, when striving to impress. It is subliminal, but becomes very obvious and is often deemed as arrogance. It speaks to embellishment and lack of authenticity. Typically an approach of seeking to impress leads to unsubstantiated claims, dives into detail and doesn’t actually serve to impress. Impact is an entirely different animal. It makes people sit up and want to know more. It establishes credibility. Impact can only occur when you are addressing a pressing issue and/or are defining a realistic solution. It is not about you or your organisation. It is about how you can shake their very foundations, provide the ‘Eureka’ moment or remove an obstacle. 

Impact presupposes research, an understanding of the issues, an understanding of the person or people that you are addressing. If you are confident regarding your subject matter and the solution you should exude humble confidence, not arrogance. Confidence is a key factor in creating Peace of Mind in Executive Communication.

Mistake #2

Not postulating a solution, but rather personal opinions and data. Your typical senior executive is not interested in exploring all the advantages of your offering in order to determine the benefits. It is your task to connect the dots. 

Your audience has a myriad of agendas and many value sets. Even if you are culturally aligned with them, avoiding the kernel concerns is just viewed as boring conversation. Busy executives don’t listen to irrelevant conversations. It is not that they are unfriendly or ogres to be feared. They have attained their positions because they strive to complete their agendas and seldom have the patience to absorb conversations that don’t seem to support their goals. Many senior level people are highly disciplined in compartmentalising their lives. They allocate and coordinate their time accordingly. Such a mindset would resent irrelevant intrusion into their time. Executive communication is purposeful.

Reversing roles

Yet, they are keen to engage with people who can address their issues which they don’t have the time or acumen to resolve such themselves. They sometimes test you by asking: “So, given our situation, what are your thoughts?” This could be a trick question. Do you have a comprehensive understanding of their situation? A myriad of responses are feasible, but when not yet au fait with the finer details, a response that won’t shut you out is: “My current evaluation is based on meeting with X, Y and Z; and I have appointments to further clarify matters with A, B and C; who else do you suggest that I consult with? Also, you seem to have a good grasp of the situation, may I schedule an appointment?”. The response will be revealing and may reveal the Champion.

Sharing data and information – should only be used as a support for your position, not the main topic, nor appearing to be the subject of your diatribe. In the overly simplified categorisation of personality types of Drivers, Analytics, Expressive’s and Amiable’s, very few Analytics ever end up in the C-level. These tend, with exceptions, to be Drivers, Alphas or Sigmas with varying elements of the other characteristics. So, you want to share detailed data with a Driver personality who is primarily interested in results  and long term sustainable growth? No chance! Their eyes glaze over and wonder when you will express something meaningful that they can relate and latch onto.

Mistake #3

Relates to your communication skills. Your ability to reveal your leadership skill by explaining a highly technical solution at a level that they can relate to and comprehend. Executive communication is not about the technical details. By elevating your context above the technicalities, you are identifying with them and creating a unity of purpose.

A guide towards a successful reception of your premise is to focus on the benefits and how these can be achieved. Executives are well versed in operational execution. They are executioners, not implementers, which is how their position is justified. That’s is why they are called executives. That was one of their entry tickets towards advancement. Your vision for the implementation of a common goal, excluding the detail, will achieve much credibility.

Executive drive

Many executives are rainmakers and will listen to rainmaking conversations. This could be the unique benefits of your solution in their environment or successes that other Clients may have achieved and the consequent opportunities that were created. Executives leave problem solving solutions for middle management to deal with. That is why they employ them.

Apply your business acumen, based on your experience and skill set, to add value to your audience and achieve their business goals. These goals tend to be a combination of increasing the revenue line and improving profitability. They look for opportunities to diversify, ideas to grow organically, who to partner with and acquisition opportunities. Whenever you are able, get an insight into their strategy – it speaks volumes and often provides the key of how you can relate your solution and relate to your audience of one or many.

Mistake #4

Attempting to mine for opportunities at the senior level. Your agendas are not aligned. You both want entirely different things. However, once you have added value, you will be noteworthy in the organisation’s view and discoverable by those that matter. It doesn’t happen overnight, but then nothing else does either. Having achieved success with an executive level person could buy you an introduction elsewhere, but don’t bank on it. When a senior Client member has accomplished a notable item on his agenda, it is often rewarded with a tick in the completed column – end of story. Arranging (short) follow up progress reviews is an acceptable way to continue the exchange and the relationship.

Mistake #6

Speaks to the mistake of sharing data and information, but revolves around you. The vexation is about your intent to prove your personal worth. You could be a walking encyclopaedia, but it would make zero impression on those that matter during an engagement. It is not what you know that matters, they have Google and ChatGPT for that. It is about who you are, how you relate to the issue at hand and what authentic value you are perceived to represent.

Have you through your actions, demeanour, approach and interactions consistently demonstrated your principles? Never articulate what your principles are. This would never be regarded as authentic, especially because you expressed them. People sub-consciously judge the value of others through interactions and their attitude. Your resolve to genuinely address your Prospect’s issues, their possible outcome and respect for the challenges that they face counts more in their esteem than trivia. Trivia in executive communication equates to detail, product features, marketing hype and promises.  It is about how you are perceived to relate to their quandaries that may get their attention. It directly relates to Dimension 3.4 of the 4 x4 Matrix – Who will we Buy from? Refer to Mistake #1 and #2, again.

A poignant and quick reference to the above advice and your preparation is the 6 Rules for Communicating With Executives.