The Rooms · 01 of 12
The Board Presentation
A room where people who don't know you decide whether you're credible, and they decide it in about eleven minutes.
What they’re reading
Whether you already look like you operate at that level, or whether you're asking permission to. Whether you're nervous. Whether you know your own material well enough to be interrupted. Whether you'll take a hard question without getting defensive.
What to wear
The most conservative thing you own. A suit if anyone in that room will wear one, and probably even if they won't. Navy or charcoal. White or pale blue shirt. Dark leather shoes, actually polished. A tie if the chair wears one.
Nothing new. Not the shirt, not the shoes, not the jacket. A room like this is not where you find out something pulls at the shoulder.
What to bring
Printed copies, one more than the headcount. A pen that didn't come from a hotel. Your laptop charged, and the deck backed up somewhere that isn't your laptop. Your own water, so you're not looking around for it at minute four.
When to arrive
Twenty minutes early to the building. Seven minutes early to the room. Enough to test the display and stand where you'll stand. Not so early that you're sitting alone while they file in and look at you.
The first sixty seconds
Stand up. Say your name and your function even if you're sure they know it. Then frame the time and the structure.
I'm Michael. I run operations. I've got eleven minutes and three things.
Then start.
Do not thank them for their time. Do not apologize for the length. Do not say you'll try to be quick. Every one of those is a small request for permission, and this is not a room where you ask for it.
How to act
Listen for
the question behind the question. When somebody asks how you got to a number, they're almost never asking about the arithmetic. They're asking whether you'll defend it or fold. Listen for who the room defers to, because it is frequently not the person at the head of the table. And watch for the moment somebody stops taking notes. That's where you lost them, and you can still go back for it.
When you speak
you have the floor until you don't. The second you're interrupted, stop. Let them finish the whole question even when you knew the answer four words in. Answer it, then say “does that get at it,” and go on. Never talk over a board member, not even to complete your own sentence.
How you speak
slower than feels right and shorter than feels right. Land the answer in two sentences and stop. If they want more, they'll ask, and the ask is a good sign, not a bad one. Never end on “does that make sense,” which puts the burden on them and sounds like doubt. “Happy to go deeper on any of it” does the same job and costs you nothing.
Your body
feet planted, weight even, hands out of pockets. When you're not the one presenting, sit back rather than leaning in and hovering. Take a note when somebody else is talking. It costs nothing and it reads as respect.
The thing you can't fake
not knowing. When you don't know, say you don't know, say when you'll have it, and write it down in front of them. That single move buys more credibility than whatever answer you would have improvised.
The mistake
Standing behind the laptop. It's a shield and it reads like one. Come out from behind the table, or at minimum stand beside it. The men who get remembered in that room are the ones who weren't hiding behind furniture.
The guide
All twelve rooms,
with the drawings.
Fifty-eight pages. Free, and there is no email field.