Managers: Presenting To Senior Leadership
There is no level of seniority where the nerves go away. You decide if that's comforting or not.
I remember being shocked to the point of laughing (oops, sorry) when my manager confessed to me that he was nervous to present to a VP. It was mind boggling to me. He had been at the company for more than 15 years at the time. There were few people who had as much experience at Google as he did. It’s true that this particular VP was one of them, but still!
I met a principal engineer who was still afraid to present to certain leaders, too. He said it was his least favorite part of the job.
Then I met a VP who was terrified of presenting to an SVP. Ok, cool, so this is a phenomena that doesn’t go away, huh?
We know it’s important, we know it’s useful, and we’re all convinced that when our own leaders ask us to present, it’s actually just a trap. Maybe we’re worried about wasting the time of the people they respect, or we’re worried about overlooking a super obvious piece of information and looking dumb. Maybe we know folks might be displeased about our decisions. Maybe we’re really unclear on what we’re supposed to be getting out of the opportunity.
So far in all cases, I’ve had a full spectrum of outcomes and none have killed me. They all made me a better presenter though.
Failed And Lived To Tell The Tale
At one point, the team I was managing was planning to try something a bit radical. I was presenting the plan and the reasoning to my director and all of the other managers that reported to him when he interrupted me.
“Steph, you’re selling past the close.”
Damn it. Not what I was going for.
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