Seriously, what are you trying to say?
And more importantly, why do I care?
I coach on this topic a lot, but I’m always amazed at how few people get this right. We seem so hard wired to give a lot of information about what we know or what we think.
Here is a clue — if I’m a senior executive, I don’t really care what you know or what you think. I care about what it means to me and what I should think.
So, when you are communicating to someone above you in the management chain, you need to write it from their point of view — not yours.
The higher up the management food chain, the more important it is to get this right.
[Briefly] Answer these questions:
- What they need to know
- Why they need to care
- What you want them to do
If you are not giving this information at the top of your email or presentation, you are wasting their time.
Please do not be known as someone who wastes senior leaders’ time — that’s not a great personal brand.
Meg Bear 