Being close to Silicon Valley, we have had many senior executives send engineers and other technical leaders from various disciplines, including finance, to us for coaching on their presentations to leadership. Their biggest complaint is also their top goal for the people they send. They phrase it like this: There’s too many details in their presentations.
What they mean is, too many unnecessary details. It drives executives crazy. And engineers are at a loss as to what to leave out.
There is a big disconnect between “engineering logic” and “executive logic”. I’ll explain what that is.
Engineers have been rigorously trained in engineering discipline. They have to be. The products of their work have to stand up to the harsh realities of the physical universe. The technologies they develop have to work every time and for everyone. They can’t work some of the time for some people.
The engineering motto is PROVE IT. They live in a world of endless “Prove this and prove that”. The essence of engineering is convincing and proving it to the skeptical engineers in their audiences who have been trained to look for any possible way it could fail. And so engineers, without even realizing it, structure their presentations with the purpose to prove it to their audience. This means they then have to include a lot of details that lead up to a logical conclusion that proves it.
This is “engineering logic.” And it makes total sense. Especially when engineers are presenting to other engineers.
Executives, even executives with engineering backgrounds, don’t live in that world.
“Executive logic” is very different. It goes like this: something either has value on its face, or it doesn’t. In other words, it’s immediately compelling or it isn’t. They go by instant impressions. They need enough plausible high-level metrics to warrant going forward, but they do not need tons of detail. And they especially do not need to be taken through the entire train of logic that led to the conclusion.
Executives need a handful of facts that can stand alone and be compelling. A handful of facts that can be presented concisely.
Does the first fact grab them? Does the second fact grab them? Does the third fact grab them? What’s the conclusion? Do these facts support the conclusion? That takes less than two minutes to present. That’s what executives are looking for. Then they can guide you to the details they’re interested in, but let them guide you to them.
They are interested in the big picture, the impact on the business and the metrics they as executives are measured by, not the ones that engineering is measured by, which are totally different metrics. Learn what those are.
Engineers are trying to prove it to them and show them how they got there, and they’re not interested. What’s it going to do for the business? I don’t care how you got there.
During a coaching session an engineer was taking me through a highly tedious presentation he was planning to present to leadership so that I could help him refine it. As I listened, I knew executives would never suffer through it. When he was finished, I asked him, “What’s the impact on the business if they do this?” He was surprised by the question, thought for a moment and then said, “Oh, probably increased annual revenue by $500 million.” He had never mentioned that in his presentation. I said, “You need to start your presentation with that.” He looked at me like I was insane. You would never start like that with engineers. You would never open your presentation with an unproven premise. They would look at you with disgust. Plus, they had not yet generated the $500 million, so why would he mention it until he had laid out all the facts?
From an executive point of view, when an executive hears that it could potentially generate $500 million, it gets them interested in it.
Engineers often don’t factor in human nature. That’s outside the realm of their engineering education.
Executives deal with people. They live and die by human nature.
A senior director who came to me for coaching told me that he was very irritated because when he presented to the CEO and the executive leadership team, the CEO did not look interested and was unconvinced until the senior vice president of sales leaned over and said to him, “Customers will really like it.” At which point the CEO immediately said, “Oh then we should do it!” The senior director was very frustrated and asked me, “Why is he always listening to the sales VP? Sales doesn’t know anything!”! I told him, “He knows the one thing the CEO really cares about: customers. He’s looking at it through the customer’s eyes.” The highly technical senior director would never have considered that. He looked at me with big eyes and said “Oh!” But his life changed at that moment and so did his presentations. He managed to muscle out the VP of sales when it came to his own presentations and he became an opinion leader to the CEO in his own right.
Engineering logic is essential. If we didn’t have it, we wouldn’t have the technology we do have. And whatever we did have, wouldn’t work. They create the technology we all rely on today, and they make sure it works, not just for some people but for all of us.
The derivation of the word engineer is genius and also genus, meaning source. They are the source and the geniuses behind the technology we all love and enjoy. We owe a big debt of gratitude to them.
Which is why I love helping them
Engineering presentations are important, and engineers especially need to learn how to create a compelling and impactful instant impression. They get a “deer in the headlights” look when told to do that and that’s where training and coaching come in. They have no idea where to begin. They’re so used to starting at the beginning and drawing a highly detailed train of logic. They create presentations that slowly and inexorably lead up to a conclusion that would convince other engineers, but that drives executives out of their minds. They have no idea how to make this switch.
Luckily, engineers are brilliant! And they learn quickly once they’re shown. We love working with them.
We don’t replace or eliminate engineering logic, we couple it with executive logic. When you combine engineering logic with executive logic and real communication skills, you end up with a genius who can powerfully communicate at the highest levels of the organization.
If you want engineers who can “wow” leadership, this is the way.
Be the cause!