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  If you don’t present, you save all the time and energy you otherwise would have spent. You can devote this to actually making progress on your projects and having an impact on the business. Or you can just leave work early and spend time with your family.

  Another reason to avoid a presentation is to enhance your reputation. A weak business update can damage your personal brand; it may make people think you don’t have a good grasp of the business. People are rarely enchanted by an irrelevant presentation; delivering one doesn’t make you look good.

  There is a very real chance that an interesting but not essential presentation will go poorly. Your audience is busy. If you ask them to sit through a lot of information that isn’t directly relevant to them, they will probably be impatient. They may be grumpy. They might interrupt with difficult questions or just tune out and check emails. All of this makes it difficult for you to deliver a good presentation. It is hard to capture energy and positive spirits when your audience isn’t engaged.

  By presenting only when you need to, you make your presentations more important. This in turn makes you look better; whenever people see you presenting, you are covering notable material, and your audience is engaged and interested.

  In short, if you can avoid a presentation, do it.

  When to Present

  There are times when you need to do a presentation and times when you don’t. Understanding the difference is critical. You want to present with vigor and energy when it is necessary, and avoiding unnecessary presentations is one way to make sure you do that.

  Here are several occasions that often call for a presentation.

  YOU NEED PEOPLE TO MAKE A DECISION

  It can be difficult to get people to agree to a recommendation. You send an email to the key people and get no reply. You send a follow-up email and still—silence. Eventually someone replies to the entire group, requesting a few small changes. Someone else bounces back with a question, which you answer. Based on the input, you update the document and send it around again. Someone else then asks for a few changes to this new version, while someone else replies to the original email and asks the same question that someone else asked earlier. You prepare another update, which leads to more requests for changes. The situation can go on and on. The reality is that many people don’t like to make decisions. Thinking about a topic is fine. Deciding? Not so much. Deciding takes work and energy. There is commitment and risk involved. It is easier to just delay.

  You can certainly see this when it comes to vacations. Many people enjoy thinking about a vacation. You might ponder the various options. You wonder, “Perhaps we should go to Spain this year. Of course, France is lovely. And I’ve always wanted to take the kids to Japan; that is truly a remarkable country. Japan is safe, too. Still, Iceland seems hot right now, what with the new nonstop flights...” Actually choosing where to go is much more difficult. If you settle on Spain, then you aren’t going to France or Japan. Who wants to turn down France and Japan? It is much easier to debate a little longer, keeping all the options in the mix.

  The same is true when it comes to strategic business decisions. Should we launch the new product this year or not? There are certainly some compelling reasons to move forward. It might be a huge success. At the same time, there is a lot of risk. It really isn’t clear what will happen. It is very easy to just push the decision off for a couple weeks.

  One of the most effective ways to force a decision is to get the key people together in a room and discuss it. You present the issue and the different points of view with a presentation, lay out the recommendation and then you say to the group, “We really need to make a decision on this today. The time is now.” The group then can review, discuss and debate. Even if you don’t finalize the decision, you can encourage people to identify the main issues. What evidence do we need to be comfortable with the decision? What do we have to study to make the final call?

  YOU NEED SUPPORT

  Getting support is critical in any organization. If you don’t have people behind you, an initiative can stumble. People might second-guess things. Resources may not appear. The program might not happen at all. More likely it might remain far down the priority list, making limited headway.

  This is certainly true when it comes to cross-functional colleagues. It is all too easy for your head of sales to cautiously endorse a particular program. This isn’t going to help; you need real support. Your finance counterpart may indicate that the proposition looks okay but then raise all sorts of challenging questions at the last minute.

  You also need support from senior management. If the vice president or CEO believes in a project, they will make it a priority. They will give it attention and—more important—money.

  If you don’t have senior management support, you have a major task ahead. Perhaps an impossible task. How do you get a major project successfully out the door without support from the top people? You don’t.

  For several reasons, a presentation can be a highly effective way to get people on board and generate enthusiasm. One reason is that a presentation gives you a chance to take people through your logic and rationale. You can clearly state, “I think this is a good move for the company, and here is why it should work.” When you are presenting, you have everyone’s focus and attention. This is a gift. You can make your case and sell the recommendation.

  Another reason is that a presentation can force public commitment. If you can get the head of sales to say, “I think this is a terrific idea,” then you have them on board. It is very difficult for them to then back away. The result is that a public commitment leads to longer-term support. The head of sales isn’t likely to come back later and point out deep concerns about the project. And if they are worried, their focus will be on finding a solution, not just identifying problems.

  When you ask for help, one of two things will occur. Both are good. One possibility is that you will get assistance; senior executives will see the issue and understand the need. They will provide extra resources that will help you address the problems. The other possibility is that you won’t get support; senior management tells you to do the best you can. This isn’t actually a terrible outcome, though. You saw the issue, asked for help, then senior management decided to not provide the assistance—in some ways, you are now off the hook.

  I saw this dynamic when I was managing the Shake ’n Bake brand, a line of chicken-seasoning products. At the time, sales were dropping at an alarming pace; it was quite clear that we were not on track to make our annual financial objectives. I put together a business update with my team, in which we analyzed the drivers of the situation and recommended a plan to address them. The plan was expensive, however. The brand needed new advertising, new packaging and a major in-store promotion effort.

  Ultimately, the division head elected to not proceed with the investment; resources were limited and there were other brands having more significant issues.

  It wasn’t the outcome I was hoping for, but I knew that my team came across as proactive, competent and energetic. If the business continued to slide, we were safe; we had developed a plan to fix things. We just were not able to implement the bulk of it due to other priorities in the division.

  YOU NEED PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND A SITUATION

  There are times when you need to tell people about the business, when you need to bring them up to speed. A presentation can be an effective way to do this, because you have the opportunity to review the information and explain it. Sending the information in an email is another option, but people often don’t read emails. Texts command more attention but are not suitable for longer updates. Memos are even more difficult; people often work remotely, so physical pieces of paper may not get to them. If you need someone to really understand a situation, a meeting can be a powerful tool.

  During my time at Kraft Foods, the firm acquired Nabisco, another large US-based food company. I was senior director of the Meat Enhancement Category at the time, a collection of busin
esses that included Kraft BBQ Sauce, Bull’s-Eye BBQ Sauce, Shake ’n Bake, Oven Fry and other brands. Nabisco owned A.1. Steak Sauce, so this brand joined my portfolio after the acquisition.

  It didn’t take long for me to realize that there was a problem. Nabisco executives had launched a line of A.1. marinades several years earlier, and the A.1. business plan assumed that these items would grow in a dramatic fashion. Unfortunately, business trends suggested that these forecasts were not likely to materialize. Instead of growing at a robust pace, the marinade line was starting to stagnate. The initial sales bump reflected store stocking and initial customer trial driven by deep promotional price cuts. Repeat purchases were not coming in as anticipated, indicating there was a problem with the core product proposition. The slowing sales created a significant gap in the budget; the business would soon be short of its profit target by millions of dollars.

  I wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to the developing crisis; I was new to the A.1. business and didn’t know all the available levers. But I knew that this was a major problem for Kraft; it isn’t possible to close a multimillion-dollar gap in the budget on mature, well-established businesses like Kraft BBQ Sauce and A.1. Steak Sauce.

  My first move was to schedule a business update with senior management. I needed the executive team leading Kraft to understand the financial risk. I would attempt to close the gap, of course, but it wasn’t clear that I could. By highlighting the problem quickly, I would avoid giving the executives a notable and most unwelcome surprise at the end of the year. Causing the company to miss its financial targets is not a good way to build your personal brand and secure your spot on the fast track.

  Sometimes informing people is a solid reason to hold a meeting. If you want to be sure that people hear your message, you need to get them in the room and sit them down. Only then can you be confident that they’ve heard your perspective and gotten your point.

  YOUR BOSS WANTS YOU TO

  If your boss says you should do a presentation, generally, you should do a presentation. In most organizations, you do what you are asked to do.

  It is fair, of course, to question the decision and ask for a delay. Is this the right time? Is the recommendation tight enough at this point? Would an additional week or two of analysis result in a much stronger update? Ultimately, however, it is your boss’s decision. If they want you to present, present.

  This is true for two reasons. First, bosses matter. If they like you and support you, good things tend to happen. You will get a good bonus and raise. You might get a promotion. You could be included in some interesting, high-level discussions. Bosses don’t want to hear why you won’t do what they have asked you to do. They want to know how fast you will do it.

  Second, your boss may understand certain organizational dynamics that you don’t. It could be that there are other projects moving forward. You aren’t aware of these, but your boss is. You might be up for a promotion and senior management wants another chance to evaluate your skills. Ultimately, you have to trust your boss to make good decisions based on an understanding of the broader organizational situation.

  When You Shouldn’t Present

  The more appealing question: When should you cancel the presentation? When can you save the time? There are a number of situations when canceling will be your best move.

  YOU CAN COMMUNICATE THE INFORMATION IN A DIFFERENT, MORE CONCISE WAY

  Informing people about routine matters is not a compelling reason to present. You can just send information in an email. Remember, people read faster than they speak. If a memo, email, text or tweet will suffice, great.

  THE RECOMMENDATION ISN’T CLEAR

  You shouldn’t present a recommendation until you are confident that you understand the situation and have a plan. The support should be logical. You should have thought through the different dynamics and considered the key questions.

  If you haven’t finished your analysis, you shouldn’t present. Moving forward will simply highlight that you aren’t prepared. You will be uncertain and nervous, and this will come across. People will ask questions, searching for the flaws in the analysis, and they will find them. It will not end well.

  Presenting without a clear recommendation can also limit your options. A senior executive may be led to a conclusion based on a partial update. They might exclaim, “Wow! Look at that. This really is a pricing issue, isn’t it? We have to realign pricing. How fast can we make the change?” You might be weeks away from finalizing your point of view, but the senior executive has already come to a conclusion. Getting someone to change their opinion is not an easy task.

  THERE ARE VERY DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW

  When you deliver a presentation, you hope that your audience will agree. Conflict is rarely the desired outcome; you don’t want hostility, challenges and disputes. Discussion is good; disagreement is not.

  If you know that your team doesn’t agree on a particular topic, you shouldn’t be presenting. You should spend the time instead working through the issues, understanding why people don’t agree and searching for some common ground.

  The Last-Minute Cancellation

  Canceling a presentation is not ideal. Canceling a meeting at the last minute is particularly problematic; the move will not enhance your reputation. It suggests you are not prepared. It will raise doubts about your recommendation, and it will definitely make you look bad. It is hard to find glory with a last-minute cancellation.

  Still, sometimes the right move, the best thing you can do, is to cancel at the last minute. There are several reasons why this might be the case.

  THE PRESENTATION ISN’T READY

  If you aren’t done with the presentation, you shouldn’t pre-sent it. Remember that there is a difference between being done and being perfect. You want your presentation to be good, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. Remember the famous line: “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.”

  It is almost impossible to make a presentation perfect. There are so many things to consider, refine and think about that trying to get the document perfect means that it will never be finished. Perfection isn’t the goal.

  At the same time, you shouldn’t move ahead with a presentation that is clearly lacking. Poor formatting, typos, mistakes, improper sequencing and other problems create the wrong impression. It can be difficult to recover from these impressions. First impressions matter! Worst case, your strong analysis and recommendation will be questioned because of the weak presentation.

  Before you get to a presentation, evaluate where you are. If it isn’t close to done, you should seriously consider delaying for a couple days.

  YOU AREN’T CONFIDENT IN THE ANALYSIS

  One of the worst feelings is realizing that your analysis doesn’t work shortly before you are supposed to present it. Perhaps you made a mistake in the regression analysis. Maybe a cell in the spreadsheet linked to a cell it wasn’t supposed to. For one reason or another, the analysis isn’t correct. There are two problems with presenting a troubled analysis. The first is that you will not be confident in the data, and that will come through in the presentation. If you know the numbers are wrong, you won’t stand up straight, look people in the eye and speak with a confident voice.

  The second problem is that your audience might uncover the error. It isn’t easy to find the flaw in an analysis from a presentation, especially if the presenter is moving right along from slide to slide. So you will probably be fine. But sometimes you won’t.

  The issue is that some people are smart and have an inherent feel for the business. In this case, a number that is a bit off might stand out. That will lead to a question. And this will lead to another question.

  Eventually, you will probably be forced to punt, stating, “Well, I will look at that part of the analysis again,” or “I would be happy to meet with you to take you through the analysis.”

  This is a painful situation. You know your credibility has been knocked down. Your audience knows this, to
o.

  If you learn that there is a mistake in your analysis, you should not present it. You should drop the page or the section if you can. Sometimes this will mean that the presentation itself won’t work. In that case, you should postpone the discussion until another day when the numbers are right.

  It is better to ask to reschedule than to damage your reputation for accuracy. Once people lose faith in your ability to do the numbers, they will question everything you do.

  YOUR AUDIENCE IS DISTRACTED BY ANOTHER CRISIS

  On September 11, 2001, I was scheduled to present an update on the Kraft BBQ Sauce business to Betsy Holden, then-CEO of Kraft Foods. It was an important meeting for me. I had been running the business for several years, but the financial results were disappointing because it was taking time for the turnaround plan to kick in. My career was at stake. If the meeting went well, I could continue to manage the business and perhaps find myself in line for a promotion. If it went poorly, I would be asked to start thinking about my other interests. People were rarely fired at Kraft; managers just encouraged people to think about alternatives and the best path. A severance plan provided a bit more encouragement.

  I was ready for the presentation. I had spent several weeks developing the deck. I worked on the flow and developed headlines that told a story. Each page had the right amount of information—not too much and not too little. My team had worked hard checking each data point and financial figure. We were ready to roll.