Match your CEO’s pace—and they will think you’re the best hire

Meetings with CEOs can go in any direction.

Like doctors with bad handwriting, CEOs and founders are notorious for going off on tangents or unexpectedly changing the topic.

This is rightfully stressful for their teams. Especially if you went in with one idea, and within five minutes, they’re asking you about something else.

In the past decade, both in-house and now as a consultant, I’ve been in my fair share of meetings with CEOs. And I’ve been caught off guard enough times to develop a process for how to prepare.

Here are ways to prepare the next time you find yourself presenting to your CEO.

Be prepared to move fast

Obviously there are many different kinds of CEOs. But most CEOs move faster than average. Some will interrupt you mid-sentence because they already understand the idea you thought you needed more time to explain.

If you’ve worked with this type of CEO before, you know exactly the kind of person I’m talking about. If you haven’t had a meeting with them in a while, you’re shocked at how much faster you have to think to keep up.

It takes a bit of an adjustment period to recalibrate to their speed. Being mentally prepared to move fast is half the battle.

Get right to the meat

Getting to the point doesn’t mean talking fast with a sense of panic.

It means doing preparation. By the time you walk into the meeting, you know exactly what you need for each item. This allows you to move quickly from one topic to the next.

Let’s say you prepared a 15-slide Keynote deck.

By slide three, they say, “Agreed. What do you need from me to move forward?”

Don’t insist on going through the rest of the deck. (Yes, even if the graph on slide 13 is a kicker and you loved the illustrations on the last slide.)

You achieved your purpose: you got their buy-in. Take the win and move on.

Bring a meeting agenda and your own internal agenda notes

Go in with your ducks in a row. If possible, share your agenda with them in advance. They will appreciate your directness and preparation. And it will help you get what you need.

Besides an agenda for them, you want to bring your own internal notes on how to run the meeting. The benefit is you’ll be able to INSTANTLY SWITCH from topic to topic.

In your notes, give yourself enough context so you know what you want to say and what you want the CEO to do.

Confusing: “Budget meeting”

With a note like this, you’ll need to context switch and think about what you need. This slows you down.

Better: “Budget meeting - Get approval for doubling FB spend from $1k/day to $2k/day because X reason.”

With a note like this, it’s detailed enough so you know exactly what you need. Give yourself enough context, so you can easily context switch.

Take full advantage while you have their attention

You might have access to your CEO once a week or once a month.

Have the immediate next step ready. Better yet—have the next FEW steps ready to get their approval while you have their attention.

Get items approved in a batch. You’ll be able to run for longer without your CEO becoming a bottleneck.

Show a draft or mock-up

It’s easier to give feedback with something in front of you.

Mock-ups—including drafts or rough sketches—are useful because they spark a response.

You can spend 5 minutes describing your idea. Or you can show them a draft and get feedback within 30 seconds.

Whether you get a hard “no” or an excited “yes” doesn’t matter. The goal is to give them something to push back on because it brings further clarity.

Be specific about where you’re blocked

If your CEO is on your critical path, they’ll want to get off it as soon as possible. Be specific about where you’re blocked and what you need to move forward.

You might hear them ask, “What do you need from me?” or “Are you waiting on anything from me?”

This is their attempt to make sure they aren’t on your critical path. You can proactively mention where they are a roadblock and assert what you’d do if they approve.

Good: “You’re on the critical path for X because we’re waiting for you to give feedback.”

This is decent, but it still puts the responsibility on your CEO to figure out what to do next.

Better: “You’re on the critical path for X because we’re waiting for you to give feedback. You’ve approved most of this copy before, so I recommend we move forward without your edits. I can show you once it’s live. If there’s anything you feel strongly about, we can make a quick edit.”

In the “better” option above, you’re asserting what to do. Your CEO can simply say, “Sounds good.”

Fewer status updates. More next steps.

You are rightfully proud of what you’ve been working on, so it’s natural to focus on status updates.

But status updates are backward-looking. Next steps are forward-looking.

Your CEO wants to know about what’s within your control so you can take action:

• “What’s next?”

• “What’s coming up?”

• “What do you need my input on?”

• “What are the areas of risk or opportunity? What are we doing about it?”

You have an opportunity to show that you’re focused on what’s next. Give 10% context on the past, and focus 90% on what’s ahead.

PS I’ve started making short videos on LinkedIn. In the last few weeks, I talked about getting rid of insecure vibes, turning up your enthusiasm when communicating remotely, and doing your situational best. Follow me on LinkedIn to get my videos. See you there...