How to Present to Executives When You Need a Decision
By Summer Alexander
Imagine Maya, a team lead preparing to ask senior leaders for approval to change how new employees are trained. Her team keeps answering the same questions because the current training leaves some responsibilities unclear. She has collected examples, reviewed the process, and started a presentation. By the time she reaches the slide with her recommendation, she has spent most of her preparation explaining how the problem developed.
Give the room a decision to consider
Maya knows the history because she has been dealing with it. The leaders attending her meeting may know very little about it. She needs to give them enough context to understand her request, while leaving time to discuss it.
She moves her recommendation to the opening: she wants approval to try a revised training process with the next group of new employees. She identifies the staff time it would require and when she needs a decision. Then she explains the gaps she has observed in the current process.
Before your own presentation, write the decision you need in a complete sentence. Include what you want approved, the resources involved, and the timing. Read it aloud. If you need a long explanation before anyone can understand the request, look for the detail you have left unclear.
Connect the training problem to an existing priority
Maya believes better training would help her team. To explain the request to leadership, she checks which organizational goal it supports. If leaders are already focused on helping new employees take on their responsibilities sooner, she can show how clearer training may support that goal.
She separates what she has observed from what she expects. Repeated questions are something she can document. Less time spent answering those questions is a possible benefit she would need to measure. Keeping that distinction clear gives the room a fair way to assess her proposal.
For your request, identify a priority the decision makers are already responsible for. Explain the connection using the work itself: time spent correcting errors, delays in serving customers, or another consequence you can support. Avoid promising a result you have not measured.
Prepare for the question you would rather skip
The staff time is the part Maya would prefer to hurry past. People would have to revise the training while still doing their regular jobs. She works through who would do that work, which tasks could wait, and what might happen if the trial took longer than expected.
She also considers the cost of keeping the current process. If she estimates time spent on repeated explanations, she needs to show where that estimate came from. A guess dressed up as a precise number will give the room something else to question.
The Critic, Contrarian, and Skeptic in Make the Ask offer useful ways to rehearse. A Critic may ask about responsibility and timing. A Contrarian may question whether the change is needed. A Skeptic may want to examine the evidence behind an estimate. These are preparation lenses, not labels for diagnosing your colleagues. Work through the questions that fit your situation, including what you would say if you do not yet know the answer.
Close with the request the room can act on
Maya finishes by returning to the proposed trial. She names who would own it, what she would track, and when she would bring the results back for review. Approval would allow the trial to begin; it would not establish that the revised process works.
Your closing should make the next action clear. If the room needs more information, find out what is missing, who will provide it, and when the decision can be revisited. You may leave without approval, but you should understand what needs to happen next.