3 metrics mistakes PR pros make in the boardroom

Senior executives are your toughest audience. Their time is limited—and so is your career if you don’t cut to the chase when presenting results.

It can be daunting. You have a lot of data to share, and this could be your only chance to sell your boss or manager on your value. Here are three mistakes to avoid the next time you’re called to the boardroom:

1. Rushing in. “Clean up data before rushing into a meeting,” says “Measure What Matters” author Katie Paine. “You could be extremely embarrassed if you have to pull your data right before the meeting and you haven’t double-checked it.”

Mistakes are more likely to happen if you automate everything, she adds. “Don’t rely on your dashboard,” Paine says. “Make sure your system hasn’t pulled any extraneous or irrelevant data.”

A social media dashboard, for example, could pull “subway” results without distinguishing between posts referencing underground railways and those referencing Subway sandwich shops.

A social media dashboard might similarly fail to distinguish between “BMS” for Bristol-Myers Squibb or “BMS” for “by myself” or “boy menstrual syndrome.”