How to present data-backed insights to leadership

Good data can tell a great story. It can help internal communicators identify problems, spot opportunities and shape strategies that boost their ability to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.

Presenting these insights to the leadership team in a persuasive way that leads to action, however, is another story. It’s tempting, for example, to assume more statistics make for a stronger argument. Or that the metrics that matter most to you and your team also matter to management. This isn’t always the case.

When presenting data-backed insights to company executives, it’s important to approach them as a distinct audience with their own specific set of challenges. This means adopting their language to speak to them in a way that resonates, much like how a gifted comedian or marketer wouldn’t address a group of retirees the same way they would a gymnasium packed with high schoolers.

It’s crucial to also map out how the data you’re highlighting connects to the business outcomes executives care about. Executives are big-picture thinkers — after all, they’re managing the entirety of the business — so it’s incumbent on communicators to go beyond the day-to-day and build a strategy that aligns closely with the overarching goals of the business to get executives to sit up and pay attention truly.

Consider email engagement rates, for instance. While this measure alone holds value for internal communicators, it might not mean much for a leadership team tasked with driving company growth. If you can document how robust communication across the company leads to widespread adoption of a new software tool, which then results in more productivity and sales, that should get their attention.

Likewise, if management is trying to reduce costs, connecting the dots between a transparent internal communications strategy, employee satisfaction and a boost in staff retention — which saves the organization money on hiring and training new workers — will do wonders.

Whatever metrics you plan to show leadership, make sure to explain how they impact the company’s overall health. If you don’t know what to include, continually ask yourself, “So what?” We have readership data — so what? What does readership mean to our leadership team?

With this advice in mind, remember that more isn’t necessarily more when it comes to data. Don’t feel obliged to include every finding. A slideshow packed with statistic after statistic can become tedious and confusing. Members of the leadership team will lose interest fast if they sense the presentation lacks focus.

Therefore, it’s wise to stick to the basic three-part storytelling structure of setting, conflict and resolution.

Explain the context first, making sure everyone is on the same page. Include benchmarking in your report to show where your company stands on various metrics compared to other firms in the same industry. Next, illustrate the problem. Demonstrate how the issue is harming the business. Finally, offer a solution. Provide a concrete way forward based on data analytics that goes above and beyond someone’s opinion.

Ultimately, keep your message simple, brief and decisive. Don’t make it akin to a joke without a punchline.

Similar principles apply when building an executive dashboard for leaders to monitor your progress. Not everyone needs to see everything. Be discerning about what metrics you decide to include and what you leave out. Make it concise. The goal is to leave a user feeling informed, not overwhelmed.

As for the presentation itself, don’t limit what you want to say to just empirical evidence. Break up the numbers with arresting quotes from famous authors or thought leaders in your field. Use data visualization tools like Infogram or Microsoft’s Power BI to create colorful charts. Include personal anecdotes to underscore the human side of the equation. Embed humorous social media posts to keep everyone in the room, or on the Zoom call, entertained.

The bottom line: No one will listen to what you have to say unless you can first grab their attention and maintain it.

Internal communicators who can both extract insights from raw figures and convey that wisdom to leadership in a compelling manner are bound to get ahead in a world that’s becoming increasingly reliant on hard numbers to inform decision-making. However, those who can only do the former without the latter are likely to feel frustrated with possessing knowledge that no one seems interested in knowing.