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You might have done an excellent analysis, but you won’t be successful unless you can convince your stakeholders of the value your recommendations. This requires you to assemble a compelling story and deliver the answer.

So let’s talk about communicating more effectively. This is a two-step process: the pre-talk preparation and the actual delivery.

“A key—perhaps the key—to leadership is the effective communication of a story.”– Howard Gardner

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Prepare your message, then deliver it

In the pre-talk preparation, you must think about the content of your message (which arguments to present, in which order, with which level of detail, etc.) and about the format (presentation vs. written paper vs. conversation vs. other), adapting it to your audience and the specific conditions of the delivery.

For the actual delivery, you must think about your message and, if it is a live presentation, your role in it.