Storytelling with Data

When I was a Financial Performance Analyst, there was a turning point in my career. At one time, my presentations contained large decks with many facts and figures, and I read off the slides. Management or the board could not digest all of this information.

As a CFO, I learned about stories and narratives. It’s not only about the facts, figures, and graphs. It’s about the story and what the data is communicating. A board or the leadership team may not remember the exact statistics or numbers after the presentation, but they will remember the narrative. A slide deck of eight to ten slides and a message grabs people’s attention.

The best part of the job is when the story resonates with leaders and the organization changes course. In large datasets or when looking at numbers, the answer may be there; it’s just finding the solution and implementing a strategy.

In conclusion, always keep presentations short and focus more on what the data indicates rather than the numbers or jargon. When there are deficiencies, always focus on the strengths to mitigate the weaknesses and always come across as genuine and authentic when delivering financial data or findings. Executive Presence is essential, but presentation skills, delivery, running multiple analyses, and having command of the data go further.