Speaking Up: Surviving Executive Presentations

"There are two times when you're alone in life: one is when you die, and the other is when you present to senior management."-Rick Wallace, CEO, KLA-Tencor

Unless you're lucky enough to be the CEO, you'll need to present your ideas to people up the chain to get anything done-and those presentations can sometimes be brutal. Careers and projects can come unwound in a matter of minutes if the presenter doesn't know the rules at the top level. Tactics and techniques that work wonderfully with peers, subordinates, and immediate supervisors suddenly crumble in the tense meeting room with the "bigwigs."

A psychologist by training, Gilbert offers revelatory insights into the minds of the men and women who make it to the top-critical information if you're going to understand what they're looking for from you. He keeps it simple by focusing on three key imperatives for "speaking up:" 1. know the people, 2. get to the point, and 3. improvise. Gilbert's research suggests that 67% of middle managers break one or more of these rules.

Based on ten years of research and hundreds of interviews, Gilbert's book is unique in featuring extensive comments from C-level leaders explaining exactly what they want and don't want in a presentation, as well as mid-level managers' stories of triumphs and tragedies and what they learned as a result. This is a must have book for surviving the high-stakes meeting.