If You Bore the CEO, You’ve Already Lost
If you can’t grab an executive’s attention in the first 10 seconds, you’ve already lost the room and possibly the opportunity you were chasing. It doesn’t matter how good your idea is, how robust your data is or how passionately you feel about your point. If you meander, hedge or bury the punchline in a sea of waffle, the only thing your CEO will be thinking about is how to end the meeting early.
The reality is that most senior executives, especially CEOs and board members, have the attention span of a caffeinated goldfish when it comes to operational updates. Not because they’re incapable of focus, but because their brains are constantly cycling through a thousand competing priorities, decisions, risks and opportunities. If you don’t make it easy for them, you won’t get through to them.
Let me repeat that, because it’s a point that I must have said thousands of times, but people rarely do it – make it so bloody easy for them…almost like you would with a child!
So, if you want to manage up, you need to master the art of getting to the point fast, telling a story that matters and never, ever surprising your board unless you want to make enemies for life. No board member ever likes surprises – ever! So, unless you want your P45 early, don’t surprise them – take them on a journey, no matter how bad the message might be.
1. Lead with the punchline
Think of a conversation with your exec like a news article. In journalism, the first sentence is called the lede — the single most important point that tells the reader why they should care. You don’t start a front-page story with the weather unless the weather is the story.
When you manage up, your lede is the conclusion, the decision required or the key risk/opportunity. That’s the headline, or rather, your headline.
Example:
Bad: “So, over the last six weeks we’ve been looking into our supply chain to see if there are any efficiencies we could make, and we’ve spoken to several suppliers who have shared their challenges, and…”…blah blah blah bollocks and more blah (you get the picture…I’m already bored out of my arse just writing it, let alone hearing it!)
Better: “We can save £2 million a year by consolidating two suppliers into one. Here’s the plan.”
Once you’ve delivered the punchline, then you give the supporting evidence, context and analysis. And you close by bringing it back to the punchline. That way, if you lose them halfway through because they get a Teams message from the Chair, they still walk away with the core message in their head.
2. Respect the reality of executive bandwidth
Execs are busy and no, not “full inbox busy” — they are constantly firefighting, decision-making and context-switching between usually multi-million-pound decisions. Your five-minute slot in the meeting isn’t a chance to showcase your entire process. It’s your moment to cut through the noise and help them make a decision without having to mentally wade through treacle.
That means:
No “quick updates” that turn into 15 minutes of irrelevant detail. Don’t be surprised if they cut you off or cut you dead if you do this, by the way.
No going off on tangents.
No taking them on a scenic route to the point because you “want them to have all the context.”
If they want more context, they’ll ask. Your job is to make their decision easier, not harder.
3. Tell a story — but make it a good one
This is where nuance comes in. While you need to be direct, you also need to take them somewhere. Humans remember stories, not boring as spreadsheets (for the CFO’s in the room…I love a spreadsheet…but much less than I like a good journey)
That means structuring your update like this:
Set the stage: the problem, opportunity, or risk (but keep it brief).
Build the tension: what’s at stake if we do nothing or if we act.
Deliver the resolution: your recommended action, supported by data.
Good storytelling also means clarity of characters:
Who’s the hero (often the business, the customer or the shareholder)?
Who or what’s the villain (the problem, the competitor, the inefficiency)?
What’s the transformation?
And for the love of all things holy, keep surprises for birthdays, not boardrooms. Boards and execs hate being blindsided. If something is about to blow up, they should know before it hits the agenda, not in the meeting itself.
4. Don’t tell them everything
The fastest way to lose credibility with senior leadership is to confuse reporting up with managing up.
Managing up is strategic. It’s about filtering information so they see only what’s truly relevant to the decisions they need to make. If you take every operational hiccup to the board, you train them to believe you can’t handle your remit. Worse, you waste their time.
A good rule of thumb:
If it’s within your remit, fix it.
If it’s outside your remit but affects a critical priority, escalate it.
If it’s going to blow up in a way that will land on their desk, flag it early.
Seek forgiveness, not permission. This isn’t about being reckless, it’s about being empowered to do the job they hired you to do.
5. Think like they do
Critical thinking isn’t optional here — it’s the entire ballgame. You need to pre-empt the questions, objections and challenges before they ask them.
Ask yourself:
What’s the so what? — Why does this matter right now?
What’s the ROI? — Is it worth the time, money or focus?
What’s the risk? — What’s the worst that could happen and how do we mitigate it?
If you can’t answer these, your story falls apart the moment they start probing. And they will probe and you will feel bloody uncomfortable.
6. Other best-practice tips for managing up
Beyond the core points, here’s what separates the good from the great when it comes to managing up:
Always bring options, not just problems. No exec wants to hear “we have a problem” without “here are three ways we could fix it.”
Match your style to theirs. If your CEO is data-driven, lead with the numbers. If they’re people-focused, lead with the human impact. Know your audience, in other words
Time-box yourself. If you have five minutes on the agenda, practice delivering your point in two. That gives space for discussion without you being cut off mid-sentence.
Know when to shut up. The more senior you are, the more damage you can do by over-talking. Make the point. Let it land.
Three things you can do this week to manage up better
Lead with your punchline. Next time you’re about to give an update, start with the key point first, then work backwards.
Ask “so what?” to yourself before they do. Stress-test your point against likely exec questions.
Filter your updates. If they don’t need to know, keep it off the agenda and get on with it.
If you want to sharpen your influence with senior leadership, I coach high-performing leaders on how to communicate with clarity, impact and confidence — especially in boardrooms and exec teams where every second counts. Send me a message if you want to start levelling up your managing up game.
Your turn:
When you’re managing up, what’s the hardest part — getting to the point, telling the right story or knowing what not to say?
