Your career: presentation advice for boardroom success.

You stand at the head of the boardroom conference table with 30 precious minutes to present your data and make your case to the CEO and senior staff. Armed with your PowerPoint slide deck (all 25 pages), you are prepared to march these executives through your copious data to a well-researched finale. As a matter of fact, your final slide outlines your conclusions and your hoped-for action from the senior staff.

What's wrong with this picture? Plenty, according to a recent survey of 17 C-level Silicon Valley executives. To win over the "big dogs" in the boardroom, finance professionals would do well to listen to what C-level executives say works:

Be prepared for a dialogue, not a monologue. Your time with these senior executives will be punctuated with questions and discussion right from the beginning. Be prepared for interactivity.

Remember: Lead with your bottom line. Don't save your conclusions and/or requests for action until the end. State it up front--then back it up with the supporting numbers. As many CEOs have reminded us, "Make your first line your bottom line."

Follow the 10/30 rule. Don't bludgeon these executives with a mind-numbing PowerPoint presentation where you don't allow for interactivity. If you have a 30-minute presentation, prepare about 10 minutes' worth of material. The rest of the time will be spent in discussion. At three minutes per slide, that's a maximum of three slides. Do have backup slides, though, if they ask for more detail.

If there's bad news, lead with it. Get the bad news out right away. As John Kispert, CFO of KLA-Tencor, says, "The last thing you want is for me to figure it out before you tell me." Explain why it happened, followed by what you are planning to do to fix it, and be prepared to offer several solutions.

Make sure the numbers add up. Harold Fethe, former EVP at Alza Pharmaceuticals, observed that senior executives "do math on the fly," so "you'd better make sure your numbers tie." The facilities manager of a large San Francisco Bay Area biotech firm, whom we'll call "Bill," recently went into a C-level meeting with his senior finance manager, who had "rounded the numbers" for convenience sake. For the CEO in that meeting, those rounded figures weren't good enough. He sent Bill and his finance manager packing and said, "Come back when these numbers tie."

Be prepared to give up the middle. The Big Dogs will take the discussion wherever they want it to go. Your job is to artfully "ride the bull," and be ready to dump most of your prepared material if necessary. Then bring it to a successful conclusion at the end.

Do your homework. Speaking to senior management is one of the most important, stressful and potentially rewarding opportunities you will ever have in business. Prepare months in advance, if possible. Learn about the politics of the group, send them material on your briefing in advance and check with other functional areas that may be affected by what you are proposing. Remember, it is more about strategy than about presentation skills.

--Contributed by Rick Gilbert, founder of PowerSpeaking Inc. (www.powerspeaking.com), a speech communications training company based in Redwood City, Calif.