SW&A Blog

Somebody needs to tell the senior executive who spoke at your fill in the blank (employee meeting, sales conference, industry tradeshow) that he fill in another blank (is not engaging, moves around too much, is monotone, stiff or talks too fast).  If the executive will be speaking at future events where you are responsible, the person who needs to give him or her feedback is you!

Feedback is hard to give to any employee much less a senior executive who is significantly higher up on the proverbial corporate ladder.  So, how do you do it?

The short answer is to share the wealth.  Instead of trying to figure out how to give feedback to just one executive, give feedback to all executives as part of the event wrap-up process.  A conversation that might be awkward with one person can become an accepted learning tool when prescribed for a group.

Giving feedback on personal style can range from raising awareness of speaking habits to helping an executive change those habits.  And while it is easy to spot mistakes, it is not easy to help someone break a bad habit.  A good rule of thumb is not to take apart something that you don’t know how to put back together.  If you have any concerns about how to effectively give feedback on personal style, it is best to bring in an experienced coaching team such as SW&A.  An outside perspective can be the objective voice of the audience and eliminate the need for a potentially awkward conversation between you and the senior executive.

From our experience, incorporating the following three elements into the feedback is what makes it successful:  videotaping the presentations, a personal style assessment and coaching notes for the future.  Videotaping allows the speaker to have a visual of the event.  The style assessment reveals the impressions that the speaker had on the audience.  The coaching notes provide strategies and tactics that can be practiced and incorporated into future speaking events.       

We’ve done group speaking assessments for senior executives at companies large and small.  Once the process begins, most executives are interested in getting feedback.  The employee who hires us is always appreciative.  If you think about it, it is a win-win for both parties:  senior executives who are effective speakers and company events that engage, inform, and inspire. 

We are only a phone call away…and we’ll help you tell the senior exec in your life! 
 

Leading Executive Conversations is one of our new Open Enrollment workshops for 2012.  Previously, we offered this as a custom workshop, but now the Open Enrollment format gives individuals the opportunity to experience the workshop and managers a chance to evaluate it.

We’re kicking off the year Mardi Gras style with a trip to New Orleans to teach a workshop on Leading Executive Conversations for a large sales training conference.  It’s a hot topic as sales reps and account executives desire to take their conversations to a higher level in client organizations.   But leading an executive conversation isn’t just for sales.  Anyone making a presentation or giving an update about a topic needs a strategy to connect with executives who have little time and short attention spans. 

Not all C-level executives are created the same.  They have different perspectives.  From CEO to COO and CMO to CFO, their perspectives will influence the content of the conversation. 

CEOs:  Externally focused, Interest in Industry, Knowledge Focus, Interest in Impact
COOs:  Revenue / Costs, Internal Impact, Implementation
CMOs:  Customer Engagement, Leads/Cross-Selling, Trends/Innovative Ideas
CFOs:  Budget Focus, Measurements, Analysis

To frame up your conversation, you must understand the perspective.    

But, will perspective alone cause a C-level executive to be actively engaged in a conversation?  From workshop participants and client conversations, our experience tells us you need more.  You’ve got to have a great message.  Getting a message succinct enough to have it resonate with the C-Level executive is critical!

A much-uttered phrase in our office is, “You’ve got to sweat the message.”  Creating a sense of urgency or timeliness with your message sets up the conversation to present a solution or an opportunity to the executive and ultimately takes the conversation to a discussion about strategy which is exactly where a C-level executive wants to be!

Working on your messaging in 2012?  Want to take your client conversations to a higher level?  We’re here to help!  Beignets and Café au Laits not required…
 

There is no doubt that the use of the body creates a significant impression. In fact, it’s 55% of our total first impression of a person. But posture is more than how you stand and how you look. It’s an awareness of how you use your body, and ultimately using it in a settled and open way that conveys a sense of confidence and credibility. People who define presence as “you can just tell when someone enters a room,” or “they really own the room,” or “they seem comfortable in their own skin,” are all responding to the physical nature of presence.

The most important step of coaching is awareness. What I really want to know at the start of an engagement is not only what an executive or manager has been told (i.e. the feedback and evaluation tools) but more importantly, what he or she has heard. There is usually a significant difference in the two.