Board presentations: a leadership moment; Board meetings have few rivals as optimal settings for an executive to project authority, credibility, and character. In presenting to the board, make sure you are sized up as a leader.

• Author: Martel, Myles
• Position: COMMUNICATIONS

A FEW MONTHS AGO, a new client, a senior executive of a Fortune 100 firm, showed me the first presentation he had recently made to his board of directors. Although he struck me as bright, articulate, and well-educated, his presentation was a verbatim manuscript. Why, I asked, did he not take a more extemporaneous approach, using an outline instead? He responded that the firm's chairman and CEO insisted on the manuscript, regarding it as a way to keep each executive "on message"--the message the chairman had approved.

This anecdote prompts two broad questions:

1. How does increased director accountability influence the way boards should regard presentations and Q & A?

2. Should increased accountability influence how executives prepare for presentations and field questions?

   This article will address these questions as it focuses on major factors related to making and listening to a board presentation.

   The presentation as metaphor for leadership

   The substance and style of a board presentation have always been important bases for sizing up the presenter as leader. Substance provides a board member with a basis for assessing such factors as the presenter's focus, grasp of the business, strategic thinking, principles, and priorities. The presenter's style or delivery traits provide verbal and non-verbal cues that translate into a wide range of board inferences regarding leadership--e.g., confidence, strength, candor, composure, mental agility, and openness.

   Style becomes even more relevant under two conditions:

   -- when board members question the executive to discern a trait, e.g., to test his mettle;

   -- when the content is more challenging to understand.

   This latter condition often results in a natural and usually subconscious tendency for listeners to tune in to style more than substance. In fact, it helps explain why politicians often emphasize image over substance, especially during televised debates.

   Since board assessments based on substance and style are so subjective and potentially influential, board members must take care to place the presentation in proper perspective with other opportunities to gauge the executive's leadership ability and business status.

   Although a dazzling presenter is not necessarily an impressive leader and vice versa, board members should not be too forgiving of presentation weaknesses. At a minimum, the presentation should meet five standards:

1. Be clear.

2. Be well organized.

3. Reflect a well-defined point of view.

4. Contain appealing visual aids.

5. Be delivered reasonably well.

   Anything less can generate a host of negative inferences regarding the presenter, including such perceptions as the presenter's lack of discipline and lack of sufficient respect for the board. Moreover, presentation weakness can signal inadequate leadership by the chair for subjecting the board to such a presentation.

   A persuasive point of view

   Board members and executive presenters alike can benefit from abandoning the notion that a presentation should be an objective recitation of the facts. Rather, they are well-advised to adopt a healthy perspective regarding the presentation as an exercise in persuasion--as a means to advocate a point of view to influence board attitudes and behavior. A "healthy perspective" means at a minimum a...