As you climb the career ladder, you need to start learning about handling executive communications competently. Patty Azzarello of the Azzarello Group has written a wonderful post, 8 ways to test if your executive communications are executive enough, that offers helpful ideas about how to do a better job of communicating up. A recurrent theme in my posts is that many of the sales and business management techniques I write about apply to “real” life and that we should give them a shot in our dealings with husbands, kids, friends, annoying neighbors, and the like.
Of the eight ideas Ms. Azzarello presents, I’m going to write about three. Not because the others are less heavy-weight, but because they are my favorites and because I like to write short posts. (In fact, it was hard to narrow down my choices because her ideas were so good.)
- Short vs. Long – As my former sales manager, Bruce Cartier, used to say, “Susan, would you just boil the fat out of it?” A colleague simply rolls her eyes when I go on and on. The point is: Be brief. Ms. Azzarello says, “If you are talking or presenting to an executive, make sure you can make your point in 1 page and/or 3 minutes.” Think about how you might ask a teenager to clean up her room and actually have that happen.
- Meaning vs. Detail – Ms. Azzarello thinks you should have an opinion about what you’re presenting. “Don’t make your executive audience do the work to process the detail to get the meaning.” Say you want to adopt a dog from the Humane Society. Rather than getting lost in a host of detail about how many deserving animals are put down every month, how many deserving homeless animals there are across the globe, etc., make your point quickly about much your household needs a warm and furry friend.
- Outcome vs. Activity – Boy, is it easy to talk about all the neat stuff you’re doing. So easy, in fact, that you end up talking about plans and meetings and other things that fill up your day. Ms. Azzarello is a believer in talking about how quality improved, how your pipeline has grown, how time to close got shorter. Back to the pet example: I’d mention how good everyone will feel when you bring Bosco or Miss Kit-Kat home with you.
Time is short. High-level execs may get paid a lot more than you do, but they still have the same number of hours in a day that you do. Why not make a good impression by sharpening up your communications skills and treating managing up as the art it is.
Leave a Comment