Harry was gritting his teeth. The SVP of Sales was (yet again) derailing Harry’s presentation to the Execs on the Senior Leadership Team, smoothly undermining Harry’s credibility.
Even worse … the execs were listening to the Sales guy.
How does Harry gain control?
Harry, the new VP Technology, prides himself on being logical. Logic is a system of thinking that enables you to reach conclusions and then take action.
Logic runs on assumptions and data.
Harry’s mistake was thinking there was only ONE system of logic: his.
To Harry, things were either logical, or they weren’t. Simple.
Harry’s assumption was that everyone runs on the system of logic that’s so obvious to him. And he was frustrated when they didn’t.
Harry’s second assumption was that others (legitimately) require robust quantity of data in order to buy into his conclusions. It was offensive to him to hear a conclusion without having ALL the data first.
So Harry had NO CLUE why senior execs multitasked while he presented every bit of his (to him vital) data.
Harry ESPECIALLY didn’t understand why the panel of Execs perked up and paid attention when the Sales SVP simply said, “I think this is a good idea. Customers will like it and it will increase revenue.”
Only after hearing the Sales SVP chime in did the Senior Leadership Team look at Harry in unison and say, “Good idea, Harry. Go ahead.”
Harry should have been happy they supported his recommendation, but he was miffed that they had to hear it from the Sales SVP. He was especially fuming because the Sales SVP didn’t present ANY data to support his statement.
Here’s what Harry’s was missing: Executive Logic™.
The logic Execs use to make decisions was foreign to him. I’ll give you one component of it.
One of the assumptions executives operate with is this: They hired you to worry about the details.
Yes, Execs ABSOLUTELY want hard data. But Harry was confusing hard data with details. Big mistake.
They TRUST you with all the details. And they don’t want to hear the them all.
If they want to hear the details, they’ll ask you questions about them. But it’s a SAFER assumption to assume that the less detail, the better.
Here is a law of Executive Logic: The further down the organization you go, the more concerned about details you should be.
The higher you go, what Executives are increasingly interested in is your EVALUATION of the data.
The details aren’t valuable. Your evaluation of the data and the details is.
That, very simply, is WHY they listened to the Sales SVP. They easily got the main point of Harry’s hard data. The Sales SVP saved them from all of Harry’s details. He evaluated Harry’s data for them and offered an easy to understand conclusion: Customers will like it. It will increase revenue.
The trust Execs had placed in Harry to evaluate the data and manage the details, very simply, was not part of Harry’s logic. Trust was not logical in Harry’s universe.
He couldn’t fathom how the Execs could give him so much trust without seeing all the data themselves. As a matter of fact, it was illogical.
Harry also had a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that the Execs were not the least bit interested in the details. How could that be? Personally he found the details fascinating, so this was doubly hard for Harry to grasp.
So much for Harry’s logic.
Harry got that his logic was PERFECT … at his level and below. But NOT when he needs to communicate UP. I taught him how to think like an Executive. He caught on quickly.
Harry’s presentations to the Senior Leadership Team became tight, brief, concise.
He said much in few words. Although he was ready with details if they asked, Harry presented only critical hard data. His conclusions were precise. His recommendations were easy to understand. It was enough.
Even the Sales SVP was nodding in support.
For the first time they said that Harry was, “Clear” and, ”Compelling”.
Harry was blown away. He made a brilliant observation:
“I use my logic to get to the table. I use Executive Logic to win the poker game.”
Wishing you a winning hand for your next presentation!
Be the cause!
Ingrid