In front of people more senior

Short time, visible stakes, and somebody with more authority than you deciding what to think. Most of what you know is not what they asked for.

The parts of it

Where the room turns

This is not one skill. It is several wearing one name, and a break in any one of them can sink the room. The short check below finds which dimensions fail you here, and points you at the exact work.

The short window

Given four minutes and needing six.

Being questioned

A hard question from somebody who can act on the answer.

Disagreeing upward

Pushing back on somebody who outranks you.

Asking for something

Budget, headcount, a decision, a chance.

Where it breaks

In front of people more senior turns mostly on Presence.

These are not equal here, and knowing which part this room punishes is most of knowing what to work on. Read it as what the named moments below weigh, added up, rather than as an opinion.

Intent 28% What you want the moment to do.
Message 27% What you say, and what you leave out.
Delivery 7% How the words leave you.
Presence 37% What you say before you speak.
Connection 2% Whether it reaches the person in front of you.

The moments

The named ways it goes wrong here

6 of them, each filed under the exact thing a treatment aims at. If one of these is yours, you have the name of the problem, which is most of what a Discovery Call is for.

IntentCompeting intents

Noticing when you carry two aims at once, to inform and to impress, to apologise and to defend, and choosing one to lead.

Not pushing back on somebody who outranks you

I do not push back even when I am sure they are wrong

MessageClarity

Simple, unambiguous wording. No jargon fog.

Hedging until you have said nothing

I hedge so I cannot be caught out, and end up saying nothing

MessageConciseness

Saying it in the fewest necessary words.

Answering three times longer than they asked

They ask one question and my answer comes out three times too long

MessageAudience tailoring

Explaining the same thing differently to a chief executive and to a beginner. Executing the audience read.

Giving the detail when they wanted the decision

I give them the detail when they wanted the decision

PresenceConfidence and authority

Owning your right to speak and to take up space.

Sounding smaller the more senior the room

I sound smaller the more senior the room
Waiting to be invited, and missing it

I wait to be invited to speak and the moment goes

The check

Find where this room fails you

A short check, specific to in front of people more senior. It asks where the trouble sits and returns the dimensions that fail you here, with the exact pages and drills that are their cure. A few minutes, and the account is asked for only at the end, so the result attaches to you.

Not sure this is the room that undoes you? The Assessment looks across all of them.

Take the Assessment