Speak The Language of The C-Suite: Command the Boardroom

If you struggle to connect with sea level executives, it's because you're bringing in the wrong unit of value. Connecting and communicating with sea-suite executives is not just about soft skills. It is about information economics. Because the executive's attention is one of the more expensive resources inside the company, so your job is to maximize the ROI of that attention. Most people communicate inductively. They stack on the detailed evidence like bricks until they reach a conclusion. But executives, they more often think deductively. In other words, they want the conclusion first, and then they want the most strategic logic behind that validation. To make that shift, I'm going to be sharing with you my chief framework so that you can stop sounding like an employee and start sounding like a very strategic advisor. Let's go. You're listening to Career Revisionist. The podcast where ambitious professionals pursue mastery, breakthrough in visible ceilings, and accelerate into leadership. And now to guide you on the journey. Dr. Grace Lee, neuroscientist, executive mentor, and your trusted voice and career leadership. So the chief framework is CHIF, and each principle will start with the letters of that word. Starting with a letter C. And C is contextualized to the capital. Most experts default to talking about their expertise, and they like to share all the details. The biggest mistake that you can make when speaking with sea level executives is assuming that they want to know all the details. From my experience, coaching, experts, and leaders, that often comes from a place of insecurity where leaders often feel like they want to show how much they know. And they assume that the C-suite executives will be satisfied once they can see how much they know. But the truth is, they do not. They don't want to hear all the details. They want to know that you know the details, and they want to know that you've handled the details, but they don't want you to share all the details. And that's maximizing the ROI of their attention. You see, sea suite executives, they speak in one language, the language of capital. If you cannot bridge the gap between your activity and their PNL, which is profit and loss, then it doesn't matter what you say, it's not going to be very relevant. So in order to do that, it requires that you're able to do three things. Number one, that you're able to know their industry. Understand it deeply. So in other words, understand the industry's standards, the best practices, the trends, the movements of the industry, really be able to have that language. The second thing is to understand the business that you're in. So this is really important that when you're in front of a C-suite executive, that you're not asking discovery type questions that you should have been able to know already. So this is really understanding the business deeply. And the third one to really have here is to know exactly how you fit in precisely with the business, how the economics work and precisely where you fit in. So once you have these three things, then what that's going to allow you to do is contextualize your requests or your recommendations or your solutions contextualize that to their capital. Because let's face it, by the time you're in front of a C-suite, a panel of C-suite or one-to-one with a C-suite, you have an agenda too. Maybe you want to get buy-in for an idea and maybe you want to be heard for your assessment of a situation. And any conversation like that is worthy if you need their attention, if you need their approval, if you need their signature, you know, literally and figuratively. So if you are able to connect these three things, then you are able to effectively capitalize to contextualize to the capital. So the next letter in the chief framework is H, and H stands for a headline the conclusion. In journalism, this is called the inverted pyramid, where you put the most critical facts in the headline, not at the end of the article or the middle of the article. So parallel to this in business is called bottom line up front, which means that picture it. Let's say you're in front of C-suite executives and you're the one speaking. They're expecting it and all eyes are on you. They're thinking in their mind, what do you want from me? So give it to them. Don't make them wait. Inverted pyramid, bottom line up front, they need to know the frame. So given the context and one breath, not one long drawn out breath, but one average reasonable size breath. And what that means is you're giving them just the right amount of information. Think minimum effective dose. The minimum amount of information they would require to be able to put the conversation you're having with them in the right category. So in other words, what is this? Why does it matter? What are the stakes? What is the what is the expected outcome? And bonus points, if you're somebody who has that fluency in executive level thinking, where you know what the categories are, I don't have time to get into the categories in this video, but that would be a bonus point for you if you understand that. And then you give them the minimum effective dose and then you stop talking. When you cannot compress context or your content, you're signaling to see sweet executives that you really do not fully understand the situation clearly. Think about it. Doesn't it take more effort to say or write something shorter than it is to make it really long and drawn out? Right? It takes more effort to shorten it. And think about those moments where you were successfully able to shorten something. Notice it has very little to do with how well you understand your expertise or your content. Haven't you ever had a situation where you're you're an expert in this field and you've written this long piece about your knowledge, your expertise, something you know clearly about. And then someone asks you to shorten it into one sentence and one sentence and it's hard. It has nothing to do with your expertise. This is your expertise, but it's hard to condense to compress into one sentence. Why? It's because you don't understand the situation clearly. It's not about how clearly you know what you know. It's how clearly you understand the nuances of the situation at hand. Right? So this is really important at the seasweet level. Compression equals competence. Your competence is not just your competence in your field of study or your field of work, but your competence to be in that business context. So once you compress the context and the content, now it's time to give your map. The next letter in my chief framework is i and i is insight over information. Let me paint the picture for you. There is a hierarchy of value. This is unwritten, it's un-stated and nobody teaches this, but this is what I teach all of my leaders inside my mentorship. And it goes like this. Starting from the lowest hierarchy, the lowest level of value you have the details. And then second to lowest level of value, you have details and then the second to lowest is information. And then from information, you have expertise. From expertise, you have insight and then the highest level of value in the hierarchy is wisdom. Notice that insight is the second to highest value. Wisdom is the highest value. So now let me go in to each of these elements and exactly what they are. Starting with the data. Data are the raw materials. It's like the fine print. But here's the thing about data. Accuracy and integrity are extremely important for data. Because if you do not have accuracy and integrity in the data, then the wisdom is just the hallucination. And it really is in a linear order. Data eventually through the hierarchy of value leads to wisdom. So you can see that if it's not accurate, right from the get go, and there's no integrity behind it, then whatever you present as expertise in wisdom is just your hallucination, your assumptions and your biases. And that's exactly why C-suite executives want to know that you understand the data and they want to know that you've navigated and you've handled the data, but they don't know the data. And so if you're standing in front of a C-suite executive and your message is mostly or entirely data, then you're just you are seen as the recorder, the one who's recorded the data. And you have to check in with yourself is that the level of value you want to have in front of a C-suite executive as the one who records? Or is there a higher level of influence that you want? Right, so that's data. From data, which is the lowest of the hierarchy of value for C-suite executives, then you go to information. Information is the second to lowest value for C-suite. Now what is information? Information is when you group the data together into some readable format. Think about the 30 page report or the slide deck. All right, a lot of the people that I work with, they're so concerned about what goes on that slide deck and they spend an absorbent amount of time and effort and energy tweaking that slide deck, that's at the information level. Now if you are focused, if your message is focused entirely or mostly on information or if that's where your most of your effort goes into the information and the packaging of it, then now you are the reporter. And once again, it's checking in with yourself if that's the level of influence you desire in your company and with your senior leaders or is there a higher level of influence that you desire to have? But that's it. Information is a, you're the one reporting on the information. Now information is really good for monitoring, but it's not as useful for leadership. So you go from data information, the next one is expertise. So what's expertise? Expertise is the specialized lens. For example, expertise in finance or engineering or quality assurance. It's a specialized lens. You as the expert, when you have expertise, naturally and by default, normally, you filter your perspectives through the lens of your expertise. You can think of it like, well, if I'm an engineer and I go and find the problems, I notice problems within the company, the way that I would solve those problems is filtered through the lens of my expertise with engineering. So here's the thing with engineering. Oh, sorry, here's the thing with expertise. Expertise is very important when it comes to providing operational safety for the company or standards, operational standards, or even operational sustainability, keeping the business running. It's really great for that. But it rarely provides the breakthroughs that are needed for higher levels, strategic direction or visionary direction. So that's why when you are sitting in front of a C-suite executives and if your message is mostly about your expertise, then you are seen as the specialist. Now the specialist confers a little bit more influence than a reporter or a recorder, but once again, there's a cap on expertise because it rarely provides the breakthroughs needed at those senior levels of directional, visionary direction or high levels, strategic direction. So if that's where you want to be, then don't stop at specialist. And then we go to insight. Insight is your edge, it's the edge. And that's where you go beyond your expertise and you discover the hidden truths. Insight is the first point of your hierarchy in this hierarchy of values where now you can become sought after and consulted for your unique approach or your unique perspectives or your unique frameworks or your unique way of doing things. Just sure unique this. Now if you want to know, well, what does that like? What does that mean? What you're experiencing at first hand. You are listening to me speaking on YouTube. Maybe you are watching me in another platform. What am I doing? I'm sharing my insights. That's the only thing I share across all of my platforms. YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok. It could be my blog on my website. All of the platforms out there, I share my insight and you're tuning in from all around the world. In fact, comment below. I'd love to hear where you are tuning in from. So if you share your insights, it allows you to be sought after and you get to decide how far do you want your influence to reach? Do you want it to reach in the entire enterprise? Or do you want it to reach internationally, internationally, globally? You can decide how you want it to reach. Now if your message, you're standing in front of the C-suite executives and your message is insights and you're sharing your insights, you become one of their peers. That's the first moment that you can become one of their peers and you are a sought after consultant. So if your message in front of the C-suite executive focuses on insights, then your role is the strategist. It's not just any strategy because you might be thinking, well, I'm already working on strategy, my project strategy and my team and I'm already working on strategy. I'm not talking about any strategy. I'm referring to the senior strategy, the high level strategy to the highest level that involves a whole enterprise that involves the greatest risk and the trade-offs that you can imagine that has the greatest reach on impact. When we get the strategy, it has the greatest implications as well on outcomes. The biggest payoffs as well could be on this strategy. That's what I'm referring to when I talk about the strategist. So this has a very far-reaching impact, not just on your professional growth, but on the outcomes you can provide for the teams and the company that you serve. And then we move to the highest level of value, which is wisdom. And since it is the highest of value, that's why wisdom is the pinnacle. So what is wisdom? Wisdom is the effect of discernment of your insights. Because although at the level of insight, you're already being sought after for your uniqueness. At the level of wisdom, you start to understand that not all your insights are true. There is another source of truth. You might realize that your insights need updating. You might realize that you need discernment here where you did not have discernment before. So wisdom is a higher level of insight for that reason. Now when you develop wisdom, you must develop it from insights. In other words, you cannot develop wisdom if you do not have insight. And when you have wisdom, you truly embody thought leadership. You embody thought leadership. And you also embody premium value consultancy. What is premium value consultancy? It means you can get paid a premium for your wisdom. Now, if you are signing in front of senior executives, for sea level executives, and your message has wisdom in it, and it has that level of senior thought leadership. Then the role you are playing is the authority. And the greater the wisdom you develop, the greater your authority that you demonstrate. Now aside from data and information, most people default to leading with questions. They like to ask clarifying questions or discovery type questions. But with sea level executives is the exact opposite. They want to know that you can deliver value to them. So don't lead with questions or data information, instead lead with insights and wisdom. Because that's the only way that they can know that you can deliver value to them and not have them educate you on their business. And that's how you can really demonstrate that you are prepared to have that level of a conversation and that you can carry the weight of what that context entails. If you've been receiving that feedback that your presentations have too much detail, or maybe they're asking you to be more assertive or get to the point or things like that, then let that be assigned as a truth, a signal that it's time to develop your thought leadership. And to develop your insights and your wisdom. Now that's a great goal to have, because then you can really, and genuinely craft the interaction that you want to have with senior leaders on your team. And you can make the most out of your contributions and really scale your influence. And if that's a goal for you, you've got to realize that the individuals who can really show you how to develop insights and wisdom are only the individuals who know how to do it for themselves. And even those who have that thought leadership, just because someone can do it, doesn't mean they know how to teach it. So if you're looking for that type of mentorship and you genuinely desire to develop that skill and that vernacular and become the person who can embrace and step into that role of thought leadership, then I invite you to work with me. In my signature mentorship master accelerator, I teach leaders and experts how to develop those insights, how to develop that wisdom and how to articulate that wisdom in a way that not just see sweet leaders can understand, but that puts you on the stage as a salt after premium consultant. And if that goal is valuable to you and important to you, then click the link below this video and speak with one of my trusted career advisors. It's a simple conversation where they really get to know, "Well, where do you see yourself?" "Where would you like to take this?" And then we talk about how I work with you, what the mentorship looks like, and then when you come in, my team and I, my coaching team and I will help you with that journey. I have training every single month and there's support every single week to help you to achieve that end. So click the link below and I look forward to working with you on the inside. The next letter in my chief framework is "E" and "E" is "Expose the Trade Offs". Executives live inside of trade-offs because that's the job. And most professionals, when they're in front of C-suite executives, they present information as though the right answer was hidden in the details. And that doesn't work because executives, they already know the constraints, sometimes even before you do, and they don't know if you know the constraints, because what your real message is, his hidden inside all the details, that they don't have the bandwidth to sift through, they want to know the trade-offs. So what do I mean by trade-offs? Think about it this way. A win or a game in one quadrant of the business will necessarily produce some sort of a cost or risk in another. The best way to understand trade-offs is if you picture right in front of you a number of golf balls, or you can do ping pong balls, that are floating in midair and their random order, randomly floating in midair in front of you. And there's maybe 20 of them. But each of these golf balls is connected by a string to each other. Now if you go and you interact with this matrix of golf balls and you touch one and you pull on one, you're going to see that multiple other golf balls are going to move, they're going to tweak as well. And that is the best picture of trade-offs. Any game in an area produces a loss, a cost, or some risk in another. And the question you're going to ask yourself is how well do you understand trade-offs in this specific business you're working in and how effectively can you navigate those and how clearly and with integrity can you articulate those in front of the sea suite? In natural systems everything moves towards disorder. It's entropy. Right? So then there's this, there's a common and a popular advice in leadership circles where they tell you to go for the quick wins. The problem with that if you understand entropy is that in a business, quick wins is nothing but a high interest loan taken out of the future of the company. Because if you are going for those quick wins, then in the moment that you are going for it, what you're not navigating effectively is the trade-offs and executives understand this. So what can you learn from it? If you're standing in front of a sea suite executives and you are presenting your idea or your solution and you are forecasting the gains of your idea, implementing your idea and that's what you're presenting, then any forecast that focuses focuses on the gains is intellectually dishonest. Why? Because of the law of conservation of effort. There are trade-offs and executives know this, that gain in one area, they know that if your idea is gonna give them a gain in one area, they're gonna be paying for it somewhere else. Now you might be thinking to yourself, yeah, I already know. I already understand, I get it. I know trade-offs exist. But hey, here's the thing. It's one thing to know that trade-offs exist, but it's a completely different thing to be able to calculate and quantify those trade-offs across the entire complex organization without systemic collapse. And it's also another thing to be able to do that for the specific type of business that you are working in and understand the intricacies of that. So one of the biggest mistakes we can make as aspiring leaders or leaders who are looking to ascend and connect with C-suite executives, one of the biggest mistakes we can make is adopting a mentality of, I already know this. There's a difference between knowing about it and to be able to develop wisdom around it. Two different things. So be careful about what mindset you have. Everyone knows how to provide the raw materials. If you've gone through any college degree, if you even have a couple of months of work experience, you already know how to provide the raw materials. And most professionals, that's what they do. They provide the raw materials. And then they leave the high stakes synthesis to their senior executives. And so this is important when you have expertise and your beyond data information and you have expertise, well, still, how can you synthesize your expertise into insight and wisdom? And most people leave that level of synthesis to their C-suite executives. So if you are thinking to yourself and you're convicted and you're committed to your career goals, your professional goals, that you want to stop being reporter and you want to become a strategic partner, then you need a repeatable system for this. Now, I've given you the steps. There's two options you have now. You can figure it out yourself, synthesize what I have shared with you and synthesize other content that I have put out there as well and figure it out yourself. Or you can work with me and my team and take advantage of our repeatable process. And so that it's going to save you time and you can get there a lot faster without trial and error. If you choose the second option, then think is for you right below this video. And the last letter of my chief framework is F, which stands for Future Cast the Horizon. When it comes to connecting and really communicating with C-suite executives, it would be wise to master temporal and spatial expansion. You see, most professionals and most managers and leaders, they operate in the now. They're focused on this quarter or next quarter, the local team. They are obsessed with that microscope. The problem's right now. Executives on the other hand, they hold the telescope. They're looking at five to 10 year horizons. Some of them even look generations out into the future. And they are spatially looking at the broader marketing. In physics, the faster you move, the more time dilates. The parallel and business is that the higher you go, the higher you climb, the further you must see. So when you walk into the boardroom with C-level executives and you share with them the microscope problems, the minutia, you are literally speaking a different language. And what you're effectively doing is you are forcing them to climb down from their watchtower, climb down, and then look at this tiny problem, this tiny context in this tiny perspective. And then they are trying to synthesize it and translate it into their bigger picture world. And then after that, they can go back up to their watchtower. And that is a tremendous amount of energy and a tremendous amount of attention. And that's why a lot of ideas get tabled. And that's why if that's happened to you, this is a time to think about it and reflect on it, it could be the reason why you feel undervalued in rooms like that in front of C-suite executives. Not by their intention to undervalue you, but by the disconnect in terms of how you're presenting and the way you're showing up and the signals that you're giving off through your nervous system and your perspectives. When you communicate with them, it's wise to be able to bridge that gap because in front of them in that meeting, if only you talk about today's problems or the only thing you talk about are next month's problems, then you come across as a tactical operator. To really connect with them, it's really crucial to be able to future cast. And if you want to be a strategic partner to the C-suite, it starts with your thought process and then next it goes to your communication process. But through your thoughts and your communication, we wise to be able to demonstrate that you are capable of temporal scaling and spatial expansion, and you do that by truly understanding inter-conducted this. They go out the golf ball analogy, really understanding that level of interconnectedness. And unfortunately, most professionals treat visionary thinking like a personality test, meaning that you gotta be born with it. And this couldn't be further from the truth. And that belief is what keeps a lot of professional stock in tactical operations. The belief that I wasn't born with it, so then therefore I could never be a visionary thinker. But the fact is, future casting, visionary thinking, is a learnable and trainable skill. It's a discipline that can be learned. The most important thing to bridge the gap between tactical operations and strategic visionary thinking is to be able to build the system where you can see clearly an expensive time and space for horizons, and that is learnable. The gap between a tactical operator and a strategic architect is simply the framework in which you filter reality. And you don't just get vision, you build the system that produces it. And once you can see that horizon clearly, you stop being a passenger in your organization's future and you start becoming appear among those who are charting the course. (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]