» Terry – Director of IT

Terry – Director of IT

Terry is one of eight participants in the presentation skills workshop that you’ll read about in The Orderly Conversation: Business Presentations Redefined. Here’s a little bit about him, including the challenges he faces and why he’s decided to take the class. Read about the other presenters.

Terry is the new Director of IT and needs to find ways to be concise and speak to executives. His first presentation as Director missed the mark.

terryCard

Terry is in his early 40s and has a medium build and a receding hairline. He’s dressed in khakis, a button-down shirt, and a jacket. Meeting him for the first time, you wouldn’t be surprised that he works in IT. He’s serious and focused when he talks about his job, but his face lights up when he talks about his wife and newborn daughter.

Here’s what Terry had to say.

I work at BakleTech. I am the Director of IT. I was recently promoted to this position, and it has come with a lot of new responsibilities. Now, I’m primarily a manager of people. Over the past few years, I’ve moved away from actually working with technology to managing the people who do.

But that’s not my issue.

My biggest challenge is communicating up the chain to executive leadership. I feel like I don’t fit in. The VP of Sales completely freaks me out. When he’s in the room I become self-conscious, and words start flying out of my mouth but nothing comes out right. I feel like I can’t even get my subjects and verbs to agree. It’s bad.

The morning I signed up for this class was a nightmare. I was in a meeting with the senior execs. I was presenting my budget report (which was not good news), and they asked me a question that was technologically complex. I started my answer by giving some background, which I felt was necessary. Apparently I went on too long because a few minutes into it, that guy, the VP of Sales, tossed his pen and said, “We asked you what time it is, not how to build a clock. Just bottom line it.”

That was a bad day. I was humiliated. I went directly to my office and searched for a class, and this one is the first that came up. I need a way to deal with this new nervousness and to be more concise.

Oh, and I never know what to do with my hands. The last class I took, the instructor told us to hold our hands at our sides and never gesture unless it was to emphasize a point. I do it because that’s the rule, but standing like that feels awkward.