Tips to Communicate Effectively with Your Executive Team

I think the power in growing and running really successful companies is understanding perspectives and where others are coming from. So for IT teams, take some time to understand how finance is thinking about the world and vice versa. Finance teams, take some time to understand what IT teams are going through, the language that they speak. And that's typically the part that helps grow that relationship.

- Landon Cortenbach, Chief Financial Officer at MSH (17:50)

There are lots of ways to get C level or executives’ support and sponsorship. A lot of it comes down to just being very personable as well. I found a lot of IT is just being able to build and maintain strong relationships with the people in your organization. At the end of the day, everybody wants to win.

- Mark Hansen, Solutions Engineer at Automox (48:38)

Now, execs and IT teams often want the same thing, a secure, streamlined, and highly productive operation that drives the business forward. But here's the thing, we approach problems from completely different perspectives. It's not enough to just know that your solution is right or that the project is necessary. If you want buy-in, you've got to speak their language. So think of this as translating IT into the language of strategy.

- Landon Miles, Autonomous IT Podcast Host (0:55 of Hands-On IT, E15)

When we're speaking to executives or teammates, but especially executive leaders, we have to consider that they are not in every meeting that we are in. They are not likely to be reading the same boards as often as we are engaged in the same threads that we are. When we get to speak on a certain topic, it's important that what actions we are taking or wanting to take are clear and well described.

- Jeremy Maldonado, Autonomous IT Podcast Host (3:31 of Automate IT, E13)