What you have to keep in mind when you communicate with Executive and Senior Management is that they usually don't have a lot of time. What I mean by Executive and Senior Management is a manager that manages more than 100+ people. If you are not at the peer level with them you will have to schedule a meeting ahead of time with their Admin. When you schedule this meeting treat their Admin like you would treat the Executive or Senior Manager themselves! Explain clearly what the purpose of the meeting is. Why do you need to meet with them? What do you expect to get out of the meeting? How can the Executive or Senior Manager help? Don't ask for more time than you really need. These people are busy and if you ask for too much you might not get anything at all. So keep the meeting request to the minimum amount of time because in that case you might get a chance to present your case.
Expect that even the Admin might not be very patient and friendly. There are many people who would like to spend some time with these Managers so they might not always be as patient as you would like.
Once the meeting comes it can happen that the meeting is shorter than you expected. So if you have scheduled 30 minutes for your discussion, plan to finish it in 15min or less. Note that I mentioned discussion and not a PowerPoint slide presentation! If you have to have a Slide Deck than just use it to guide the conversation. Keep the slides to a minimum --> don't use any font size smaller than 14 (the bigger the better). Don't add more than 3 bullets on a slide etc. Test the communication (if possible) with someone before you have the real discussion! This will help you to improve your communication and to have a higher chance to get what you are looking for.
Make also sure that you don't present details! These people are used to work on a higher level and will not appreciate if you bring up topics that they don't understand. Their job is to connect the dots and to lead the organization in the right direction, not to understand each and every single dot in detail! This obviously means they can't afford to get lost in details. So don't go there! If they ask for it (and you should plan ahead of time for these potential questions) give them just as much information as they need but don't give in to the temptation to show off your Subject Matter Expert knowledge. Short, clear, precise and goal focused communication is the key to any success on that level.
Last but not least keep in mind who you are talking to and prepare accordingly. If it is a Finance person then they will most likely look for numbers to verify the information you're presenting.
Even though this list sounds probably somewhat long and frighting it is well worth the investment. If you get on the same page with an Executive or Senior Manager that can have career changing implications! So yes, it's tough but well worth the effort if you do it right. Put some effort in it and prepare these communciations well and they will pay off!.
Good luck with your Executive and Senior Management conversations.
