You've spent three days on the deck. There's a slide for the team overview, a slide for the background, a slide for every question you think the VP might ask, and an appendix for the ones you didn't think of.
You walk them through all of it. People nod. Someone says "great work." A week later, nothing has moved.
That's overperforming. It's one of the most common presence leaks I see in capable women, and it usually comes from a good place.
Why we overtalk
When you get time with senior leaders, you want to be ready. You want to show you've thought of everything. So you try to guess every question they'll ask and answer it before they can ask it.
Preparing is smart. The trouble starts when you present all of it. The room gets buried. Executives walk out feeling talked at, and they couldn't tell you what the problem was, where the risk is, or what you need from them.
They were polite. They were also lost.
What presence sounds like
Presence comes down to two things: how you communicate, and whether you commit.
Communicating with presence means your point is simple enough to say in a few sentences. Most high-stakes updates boil down to the same shape:
- Here's where we are.
- Here's where we need to be.
- Here's the risk in between.
- Here's what we'll do about it, and who owns it.
That's it. If every update you give a senior leader fits that shape, people leave knowing exactly what you need.
Committing means you stand behind the call. You say what you're going to do instead of laying out options and waiting for someone else to choose.
Lead with why they should care
Executives aren't on the ground. They don't see what you see every day. That's exactly why they need you, and it's why the first thing out of your mouth should be the pain, the risk, or the value.
If you open with the team overview, the history, or how the process works, you've lost them before you reach the point. All they hear is tasks, with no idea why they're hearing them.
Start with what's at stake. The details can follow if someone asks.
Leave room for their questions
This part feels backward to careful people: you'll get better conversations when you say less.
Give the leader the essentials, then stop and ask, "What questions do you have?" Now they can go straight to the thing they actually care about, which is rarely the thing you guessed. Keep your backup data close in case they ask.
I call it staying in the pocket. Overperforming is dancing around the room like a jester. People smile and nod, and they walk away thinking "that was interesting." Staying in the pocket is saying the essential thing clearly and letting the leader lean in.
A test you can run this week
Take the next update you owe a senior leader, whether it's a deck, an email, or talking points for a meeting. Before you add anything else, write it in four lines: where we are, where we need to be, the risk in between, and what you'll do about it.
If your current version doesn't open with those four lines, move them to the top. Put everything else in the appendix.
The leaders you're trying to reach need the right thing from you, fast. Give them that, then give them room.
If you want to see where your presence is leaking, the POWER Clarity Snapshot takes a few minutes at clarity.erikachestnut.com.