7 Ways to Communicate with Executives to Enhance Your Message

Spend enough time advancing in your career, and it’s bound to happen. The spotlight suddenly shifts your way, and it’s time to communicate with executives about a plan or idea. This could be the moment you’ve spent your whole professional life striving toward. However, it can also inspire fear, panic, or a desire to sink beneath the floor. A stress response and the urge to seize the day are both completely valid. But neither changes the reality you face. 

It’s hard to communicate with executives.  

Thankfully, this is a skill you can learn, like anything else. Since our founding, Duarte has helped leaders just like you handle executive conversations with confidence and aplomb.

To help you navigate the road ahead and make a good impression, we compiled 7 ways to communicate with executives that account for their in-demand schedules. Let’s jump in. 

Know your audience 

Before you communicate with executives, it helps to do a little research to understand more about them. While they cultivate a certain level of mystique in the workplace, executives are people at the end of the day with hopes, fears, quirks, and preferences. So, before you take the stage or step in front of the podium, gather as much information as you can about your executive. This will help you craft the perfect presentation that will resonate with their unique personality. Creating an Audience Needs Map™ using this free tool is a great springboard to speed up this process. 

If your leader is a visual learner, prioritize graphs and images over text to illustrate key points. If they’re a sports fan, love classical literature, or proudly claim a favorite animal, incorporate those aspects into your talk to hook and sustain their attention. At the very least, these details will help show you’ve taken the initiative to personalize the interaction for maximum effect. And when time is limited, these details can help your presentation stick in their brain a little better than raw facts or figures. However, such careful planning can quickly go by the wayside if your talk isn’t airtight. 

Keep it Brief 

Leaders run on tight schedules. With assistants often managing their personal and professional calendars, chances are every day is parceled down to the minute. And due to endless demands in public and private spheres, their attention (and patience) is equally limited. Which makes sense. The colossal pressure today’s leaders face as brand symbols, global ambassadors, and lightning rods for public opinion leaves little time to spare for meandering communications. That’s why when it’s your turn to communicate with executives, it pays to keep it brief. 

If you think you’ll have 30 minutes with your executive, practice what you’d prioritize with only had five. Summarizing your talk up front can help executives feel like they grasp the main gist of your presentation from the onset. That way, if you’re pressed for time or derailed by a peppering of questions, executives will have heard your key takeaways. While there’s no guarantee this will prevent interruptions (more on this below), it will place your supporting evidence toward the back of your slide deck for easy reference. 

Provide evidence 

Graphs. Figures. Charts. Our world runs on data. And leaders accustomed to processing and acting on information quickly often want hard numbers to guide their decision-making. But despite its ubiquity, not knowing how to present data creates plenty of room for error. From crowding slides to rattling off data points without the proper context, it can be easy for execs to suffer information overload. When you’ve been striving to communicate with executives to share your Big Idea, it’s essential to keep your evidence engaging. 

To avoid giving a nap-inducing talk, it helps to view data as fodder for a compelling story. Duarte’s in-demand data storytelling course teaches how to structure and craft actionable arguments with data using established narrative principles. With DataStory™, participants learn how to avoid data dumping and curate their talks to inspire audiences to act. By packaging your evidence as an appendix behind a brief, well-researched presentation, you’ll be prepared to respond with factual support at a moment’s notice. But it helps to prepare to be thrown off balance. 

Prepare for Interruptions 

Whether you’re practicing your talk in the mirror or enlisting pets and loved ones to fill in for your executive, get in the habit of changing gears quickly to account for unexpected questions. No matter how carefully you craft your slides or organize the information, you can’t predict how it will be received, or what key takeaways will immediately spark a response. Leaders are notorious for asking immediate follow-ups, so preparing for interruptions can help ensure you don’t lose your footing in the moment. 

If you’re practicing with an audience at home, have someone lob questions mid-sentence to help mimic actual interruptions. If you live alone or with pets, set an alarm on your phone to go off at brief intervals or practice shifting gears whenever your cat or dog loses interest. Unless you’re plying them with regular treats, you could be facing a tougher crowd than when it comes time to communicate with executives! While it might be gauche to bring food to your talk, leaders are always hungry for more time. Plan to treat theirs with the utmost care. 

Save time for questions  

No amount of foresight will be able to predict every vector of your leader’s thinking. To try to cover all your bases, it’s helpful to save time for questions whenever you communicate with executives. Given the urgency most leaders feel because of their in-demand status, you’ll likely be interrupted anyway. But budgeting time for a Q&A ensures key takeaways aren’t overshadowed by a sudden change in structure. 

However, opening your ideas up to scrutiny can be stressful, and without proper planning, even disastrous. After securing executive facetime, the last thing you want is to be blindsided by a question you haven’t considered. Therefore, once your talk is fully baked, play devil’s advocate with your presentation to find any weak points.

These might include: 

• Does the story or argument flow logically?  

• Does your talk have legible evidence and data? 

• Does your talk offer a clear actionable takeaway for your leader? 

Rather than answer these questions for the first time live, anticipate points of inquiry and plan for rebuttal. Easier said than done right? But such preparation, when coupled with the exhaustive research of your executive, will pay dividends when it’s showtime. With the right considerations, a firm understanding of the material, and a thorough appendix of evidence, you’ll be as primed as possible for the unexpected. 

Make them the hero 

Every presentation is an opportunity to tell a story. At Duarte, we’re strong believers in Joseph Campbell’s concept of the Hero’s Journey and strive to reproduce that energy on stage. This is especially true with high-stakes audiences, such as your boss or executive leadership team, whose decision-making you’re hoping to influence. By centering their hopes, fears, and aspirations you’ll make them the hero, and have a better chance of setting up lasting connections and ensuring they feel moved by what you have to say. 

In practice, this means showing how your Big Idea cna apply to and improve their daily life. Nancy Duarte’s concept of the Sparkline uncovered how great speeches often toggle between the world as it is and the world as it could be if the audience only put the speaker’s plan into action. Employed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Steve Jobs, this rhetorical device places the audience at the heart of the action. Despite having limited time to communicate with executives, committing to this approach early can help get their wheels turning in your favor. 

Practice Practice Practice 

Imagine a new pair of shoes. Would you pack them for a trip without first breaking them in? Probably not, and a high-stakes talk is no different. The last thing you want when it’s time to communicate with executives is to walk away with a blister, emotional or otherwise. After researching your executive and carefully structuring your talk, making sure it’s road ready is a crucial last step. That’s why it’s essential to set aside as much time for preparation as possible beforehand to practice, practice, practice. 

We all know the saying that practice makes perfect. However, chances are your talk isn’t a lifelong goal like playing the violin or becoming fluent in a second language. You may not have time to get it exactly right before the big day. After all, executive schedules are constantly in flux, and sudden availability could catch you by surprise. Rather than fixating on perfection, focus on getting familiar with the material so it rolls off the tongue with confidence. That way when it’s time to communicate with executives, you’ll be ready to move nimbly and pivot if unexpectedly derailed. 

More Ways to Communicate with Executives 

Now that you’re feeling empowered to share all the hard work you or your team has been undertaking, what’s next? Like exercise, communication skills require regular attention to keep their edge. When speaking, listening, and presenting can make or break your professional success, why let them gather dust? We provide a suite of training opportunities geared towards keeping sales teams, L&D, HR, marketing, and communication efforts razor sharp.  

To learn more about Duarte, book a call with a training concierge today to talk through our menu of available offerings. Why start from scratch every time you communicate with executives? Upskill you and your team to stay ready and always meet the moment.