450R: The Way to Influence Executives, with Nancy Duarte
Coaching for Leaders
Dave Stachowiak
4.8 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 14 July 2025
⏱️ 40 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nancy Duarte is a communication expert who has been featured in Fortune, Time Magazine, Forbes, Fast Company, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and many others. Her firm, Duarte, Inc., is the global leader behind some of the most influential visual messages in business and culture.
Nancy has written many best-selling books, including Slide:ology, Resonate, and Illuminate. She is the author of the new book DataStory: Explain Data and Inspire Action Through Story*.
In this conversation, Nancy and I discuss the realities of executive life, how executives are measured, and why you should expect to be grilled when briefing them. With intentional preparation, you’ll be prepared to more successfully influence executives both inside the organization — and with your customers.
Key Points
“The higher their level of authority, the more structured and brief your approach should be.” -Nancy Duarte
Time is an essential asset for executives. Appreciating how much they work to maximize efficiency can help you align better with their world.
Craft a recommendation that’s brief and easily skimmable. Leave time for questions and expect to be grilled.
Executives are measured on money (revenue/profit and costs), market (market share and time to market), and exposure (retention and risk).
Know how executives plan to consume information. Tailor your message and medium to align with these preferences.
Resources Mentioned
DataStory: Explain Data and Inspire Action Through Story* by Nancy Duarte
Duarte DataStory
Interview Notes
Download my highlights from DataStory in PDF format (free membership required).
Related Episodes
Success on Presentation Day, with David Sparks (episode 159)
Ignite Change Through Storytelling, with Nancy Duarte and Patti Sanchez(episode 268)
Executive Presence with Your Elevator Speech, with Tom Henschel (episode 316)
Get Your Emails Read (Dave’s Journal)
Discover More
Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, Dave Stahoviac here. You heard last week that I'm on a brief break for new episodes until next Monday the 21st. |
| 0:07.5 | So today I'm bringing you another conversation that aired a while back that I reference all the time. |
| 0:14.1 | I get asked regularly about how to manage up and especially how to talk to executives, whether those executives are internal folks or |
| 0:23.6 | are external stakeholders, customers, or donors. Nancy Duarte knows more about this than almost |
| 0:30.9 | anybody, not only as she lived it as an executive herself, but her firm, Duarte, is at the forefront of helping top leaders |
| 0:39.1 | with persuasive communication. I'm constantly pointing our members back to this conversation, |
| 0:45.0 | and I know that you'll find it helpful as well. One other quick note, I've got a survey out this |
| 0:50.3 | week to get your input on the podcast and much more. If you didn't already get an email inviting you to complete it, I would love your input |
| 0:58.1 | too. |
| 0:58.8 | It's a quick two to three minutes will help me know how to best serve you ongoing. |
| 1:03.4 | Just go over to coaching for leaders.com slash survey to complete it. |
| 1:08.3 | And thanks in advance if you do. |
| 1:09.8 | And now, this is a rebroadcast of Coaching |
| 1:12.6 | for Leaders, Episode 450. Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential. |
| 1:25.6 | Greetings to you from Orange County, California. |
| 1:28.8 | This is Coaching for Leaders, and I'm your host, Dave Stahoviac. |
| 1:33.2 | Leaders aren't born. |
| 1:34.8 | They're made. |
| 1:35.7 | And this weekly show helps you discover leadership wisdom through insightful conversations. |
| 1:41.8 | A key skill that leaders need is to be able to influence, to be able |
| 1:46.5 | influence in so many different venues, presentations being one of them, and one of the audiences |
| 1:52.5 | that we all need to influence, well, I should say almost all of us need to be able influence |
... |
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