How to Get Your Boss's Boss to Understand

Communication posture is the visible expression of your internal attitude. Long before a single word is spoken, your attitude determines your communication posture. Your communication posture shapes how senior management receives, interprets, and acts on your information. It reflects the intentional communication approach you have chosen to strengthen your influence up the line. Attitude Shapes How You Show Up Attitude is the internal stance you bring into the room. It refl

Nothing shows respect for your audience more than sharing the report and PowerPoint deck ahead of time. For visually impaired participants, early access provides the extra time needed to digest information and use assistive devices without pressure.

Removing the entertainment techniques does not mean stripping out engagement. Engagement is essential. It means stripping out the parts of public speaking that are designed to entertain rather than inform.

Your story begins with how you interpret the data through your training and experience. It includes clarifying what you mean by key terms such as reliability, risk, and resiliency. It continues with what the data shows when you graph it and what it does not show. It ends with what you conclude based on your understanding of the patterns, gaps, and limitations.

The burden of clearly communicating technical information is on you, not the receiver of the message.

Tone still matters, but it cannot compensate for weak content. Decision makers expect facts, logic, and repeatable reasoning. They expect information that stands up to scrutiny over time.

Simple explanations help people connect with the message. They reduce mental demand. They build trust. And they make it far more likely that your audience will remember what you said and take action.

If you want to move up, you must move beyond the keyboard. Pick up the phone. Walk down the hall. Join the meeting with your camera on.

Remember, if a simple model provides the insights needed for the decision, there is nothing wrong with calling it “good enough.”

Ultimately, the question is how you will be remembered. Was your presentation clear, concise, and impactful? Or was it overwhelming and forgettable? The choice is yours.

In the Communicating with FINESSE® framework, effective communication is for the receiver (the decision maker), not the message sender (you).

Start with your next slide deck. Spend extra time focusing on symbols and shapes instead of colors.

Before entering the room, take a moment to reset. Acknowledge your own feelings, then set them aside. As the conversation unfolds, resist the temptation to plan your response while others are speaking.

Certain patterns emerged that reflect the FINESSE Fishbone Diagram®: Frame, Illustrate, Noise Reduction, Empathy, Structure, Synergy, and Ethics.

Effective communication is about listening to the decision makers’ needs and meeting them in a way they understand.

The best communicators aren’t defined by how much they say, but by how well they listen.

Your goal isn’t to simplify the data—it’s to simplify the path to understanding.

So how do you do that? Start with empathy. Understand your audience’s concerns, hopes, and values.

I promised myself I would never step into a meeting again without being able to explain who I was and what I wanted in three sentences or less.

Sending your visuals early gives senior leadership more time to understand the material.