Speaking Up: Surviving Executive Presentations

Frederick Gilbert

May 2013 · Berrett-Koehler Publishers

About this eBook

If you are in middle management, to get anything done you must present your ideas to decision makers, and those presentations can be brutal. The stakes are high—one presentation can make or break a career—but the rules are utterly unclear. Tactics and techniques that work well with peers, subordinates, and immediate supervisors can actually work against you when presenting up the chain. Speaking Up is an indispensable resource for anyone who needs to know how to present to those at the highest levels. Psychologist and coach Frederick Gilbert offers revelatory insights into the minds of the men and women at the top—information that is crucial to understanding what they’re looking for from presenters. Based on ten years of research and hundreds of interviews, Speaking Up features extensive comments from executives explaining exactly what they want and don’t want in a presentation. This Enhanced Edition has 48 minutes of video footage excerpted from the Speaking Up Virtual Workshop, an elite online training course that typically costs $395. The videos in this book show real-life CEOs (not actors) heckling or otherwise impeding hapless presenters. The simulated experience of presenting to the C-Suite and encountering common problems is invaluable. It will help any presenter who needs to know what to expect—and how to prepare—for their next C-level presentation. "There are two times when you are alone in this life: one is when you die, and the other is when you present to senior management."—Rick Wallace, CEO, KLA-Tencor " You can cut years off your leadership learning curve by applying these skills."--from the foreword by Scott McNealy, Founder band former CEO of Sun Microsystems and Chairman of Wayin

About the author

Frederick “Rick” Gilbert is founder and chairman of PowerSpeaking, Inc. He has personally coached more than 200 senior-level leaders. Before opening his firm, he held management positions with Hewlett-Packard and Amdahl Corporation in Silicon Valley.