How to Speak Like a CEO

Effective communication is paramount for leadership success, as highlighted by a survey of 100 Top Executives in Canada. This tipsheet presents ten essential strategies to improve communication with key stakeholders, emphasizing understanding the audience, crafting clear messages, and creating emotional connections for impactful delivery.

Premise: All leaders must communicate effectively to deliver results.

Here are ten key strategies to enhance your ability to communicate effectively to your key stakeholders:

1. Understand your audience.
2. Start with the ideal outcomes.
3. Identify your one-sentence point of view.
4. Structure your presentation.
   • Strong opening
   • State point of view
   • Share your roadmap
   • Identify “Key Points” that support your “Point of View. (use stories, statistics, examples, and case studies to support each “key point”)
   • Review your content
   • Take questions
   • Strong Close that is linked to the opening
5. Create an emotional connection. Emotions make people act. Logic makes people think.
   • Eye contact
   • High You/I ratio (focus your language on what’s in it for you)
   • Tell relevant stories (not jokes)
6. Pause to let the audience ponder.
7. Eliminate filler words through self-awareness.
8. Use punch-words.
9. Always have a strong opening and closing that are tied together.
10. Focus on the audience NOT the technology to create an emotional connection.

Book reference: Speak Like a CEO: Secrets for Commanding Attention and Getting Results by Suzanne Bates. Please click here to learn more.