Communicate Effectively With Executives: 6 Smart Tips!

Communicating with executives is very different to communicating with your co-workers. They think on a deeper level. Their conversations are a lot more focused. They are a lot more direct. Their reactions are very direct. There's basically no time to waste when you are communicating with executives. You need to get straight to the point. As such, you need to be prepared as much as possible for these types of conversations, which, by the way, can happen many times throughout your work day. You might need to communicate with an executive for a job interview, for a presentation, at a networking event, or basically a social interaction. And let's not forget meetings. How many times do you need to communicate with executives efficiently, effectively during meetings? So in this video, I'm going to share with you six smart tips to help you communicate effectively with executives. If you like the sound of what you're going to learn, hit the like button, subscribe to my channel for more content like this, and let's get straight into it. Number one, augment your focus. You as a professional are focused on the day-to-day requirements of your job. You're focused on what concerns you, your tasks, your responsibilities, and the goals that you have, or even the goals of your team. This is basically where your focus is. This is your focal point before you reach a leadership position. So when communicating with your co-workers from this focal point, it works because they also have the same focal point as you. But when you communicate with executives, this is where the difference becomes more evident because your focal points are different. Your focal point as an employee in a team is on your responsibilities or even the team's goals. But the focal point for executives is very, very different. Executives have a much broader focus. Their focal point is much, much broader than yours. Their focus is on the impact that decisions could have on a department or on the entire organization. They are concerned with connecting all of the dots from the bottom of the organization right through to the top. So as you can see, they have a much broader worldview and focal point than what you do as an employee in a team. And when you communicate with executives, you need to understand their focal point. You need to understand what interests them, what concerns them, what are they worried about. And as such, whenever you communicate, you need to understand how what you say fits into their worldview. How does it fit into the broader picture of things? How does it fit into what they are concerned about? So instead of telling them about each milestone that you accomplish as you are working on a particular project, try to think more broadly. Try to think about how those milestones can impact the entire department or the entire organization. Basically, what you're doing here is you are augmenting your focus so you can communicate better with executives. Number two, get to the point. Executives are busy. They don't have time to listen to you ramble on or to talk about things that don't interest them or don't concern them. They want to know all the important information and relevant details as quickly as possible. Because of that, when you communicate, you don't need to include every little bit of information. You don't need to include all the background data that you would probably normally communicate to your co-workers because it is of interest to them. What you need to do when you communicate with executives is summarize the key points, the main key points from what you are talking about. So you can get to the point as soon as possible. This, of course, means that you need to prepare adequately before a communication opportunity with an executive. Think about what information is important to that executive. Write down three to five key points you think they will want to know about and practice communicating each of those points in one minute or less. Use a timer for this activity. This structure, over time, it will force you to become a lot clearer with your thoughts. It will force you to get to the point as quick as possible, and it will help you to communicate a lot more effectively with executives. Number three, answer questions adequately. You need to anticipate questions that executives can ask you so you can prepare adequately and well for your answers. This will help you to answer those questions really well because whenever you communicate with an executive, they will ask you follow-up questions. This is a common occurrence, and it is really just so they can get the clear understanding that they need to make their own decisions. They might want specific information from you that you haven't shared, right? So they are doing this in order to improve their understanding about the situation you are talking about. If you are unprepared for questions that executives could ask you, you might fumble your way through some kind of answer. But if it doesn't answer the actual question they asked you, they're going to lose trust in you. It's going to damage your professional reputation as well and not make you look good in the eyes of that executive. So I encourage you whenever you have a communication opportunity with an executive, try to anticipate the questions they could ask you and prepare potential responses for those questions. This will absolutely make you look a lot more prepared and help you feel a lot more confident in that interaction as well. And in preparing good responses to the questions executives might ask you, you need to know any data, any facts, any numbers inside and out. Executives commonly rely on high level data like this. They know the numbers, they know the impact it has on a department or on an organization. So if you are including or talking about these numbers in your answers, you need to fully understand them as well. They will expect that you do because they may ask you about those numbers, about that data in your presentation. So I encourage you to spend time really understanding what the numbers, what the data, what the facts and figures are that you are talking about in your presentation because they will ask you follow-up questions. Remember I said before executives love follow-up questions, they absolutely do. Be prepared that they will ask you about those numbers and facts etc in your presentation. You can also practice with a co-worker out loud, have them ask you potential questions so you are more prepared for what the executive could ask you. But if you are put on the spot, if you are asked a question about the data or the facts you're talking about but you don't have an answer, tell the executive and let them know you will find out and get back to them. So far, which tip have you found the most insightful or helpful? Which one will you apply first in your communication with executives? Let me know in the comments below. The next tip I have with you is to speak with conviction. So what does this mean? Well, when you speak with conviction, it means you truly believe what you say. You own what you say and you stand by it. This is really important for executives to see because the last thing they want is to send you out into the world to meet an important client and have you unravel under pressure and have you communicate to that client that you really don't believe in the product you're trying to sell them. Executives need to know that if they back you for an idea, presentation, or a decision, they can trust that you will stick to it and you will follow through. In order to give them this level of confidence, you need to communicate with conviction. Everything you say, even everything you do, needs to be said and done with a lot of conviction. You need to trust yourself. You really need to believe in what you're saying. Number six, ask good questions. You also need to show interest in the topic at hand and a very effective way of doing this is by asking good questions, asking relevant questions, and intelligent questions. Asking good questions is a surefire way to get that executive to know who you are and to be really impressed with your high level of curiosity, which in many organizations today is a highly valued soft skill. When you are in a meeting with an executive, don't be afraid to ask them questions about the topics they discussed during that meeting. As they're going through their talking points in the meeting, try to scribble down one to two really good questions that you can ask them about the content they are telling you about. And then at the end of the meeting, when it's Q&A time or discussion time, be sure to ask them those questions. This is also a really good strategy that you can use for business conferences or networking events or presentations that you go to when there is a keynote speaker and you want to shine or get that keynote speaker to know who you are. So asking good questions will definitely get you noticed and help you to stand out. But exactly how do you do that? How do you ask good questions? Well, in this video here, I go through some strategies to help you ask good questions or better questions in the workplace, and that will definitely work with executives. Thank you so much for watching this video. If you did get some value from it, then please hit the like button below and subscribe to my channel as well for more content like this every week. Thank you so much for watching and I will see you in the next video.