Early in my career as a marketing and product manager working for Panasonic-one of the world’s great companies (IMHO), our division had earned the attention of one of the senior executives of this then $60 billion per year firm. I seem to recall that the attention was of the unwanted kind, likely due to a few tough quarters and less than award-winning results on our part.

As was the habit of this culture and ceremony rich Japanese industrial giant, once it was known that someone of this gentleman’s stature was coming to take a look at the division, our general manager turned an odd color and went into hype-frenetic mode commanding the production of all manner of reports, analyses and forecasts.

All productive work stopped, and no expense was spared for the creation of data to explain our failures and show our “countermeasures” moving ahead. Presentations were practiced humility was emphasized and the protocol for dealing with senior (in age and title) Japanese businessmen, down to where we sat and how we spoke in the big meeting were all reviewed.

While we took it seriously, I remember a certain sense of foreboding about the emphasis on everything but straight talk.  I wrote off my gut instinct to my obviously American tendency to get to the point in a blunt manner and move on. At the time, the American style…or lack thereof of business was not well regarded by many of our global counterparts.

The Big Day

With pomp and circumstance worthy of greeting an emperor or president, the big day and the big man arrived. As it turned out, he stood all of 5’3”, although he brought with him his best “bad results scowl,” which certainly added to our anxiety.

Our general manager launched into an opening in Japanese that I’m certain he believed would determine whether he would live or take the sword in the ultimate gesture. I’m convinced that if the “big man” gave the signal and the short sword presented, we would have borne witness to an ancient Japanese ceremony.

After about three minutes or so of our general manager rambling and sounding repentant and humble, the “big man” cut him off in mid-sentence….looked at all of us with a fresh scowl, looked at the mountain of reports stacked chest-high in front of him, balled up his fist, and shouted, “Excuses!” in perfect English just as his fist hit the stack of paper.

“Now, will someone please tell me what happened and what you are going to do about it,” he said with a slight smile in a more moderate tone.

From that point on, we talked honestly and openly, and the meeting flowed smoothly. We ended the day with his promise of additional engineering support and our commitment to improving our business and keeping him apprised of our progress. He lived up to his end of the deal and so did we.

The Bottom Line for Now

Getting called in front of the board or the senior executives of the firm can be an intimidating experience for many younger and even some experienced professionals. I’ve watched as many people have over-reacted and improperly prepared for an engagement where less is more, honesty and clarity are king and confidence but never arrogance are respected.

No amount of paper or pixels on screen will compensate or adequately explain root cause problems or satisfy someone that and your ideas to fix what’s wrong will work. The best salesmanship is to avoid attempting to cover-up blemishes and to shoot straight on issues and next steps. And when someone asks you questions about the time, tell them what time it is, do not tell them how to build the watch!

Your opportunity to work in front of senior executives is a moment-of-truth for you in your career. Seize the opportunity, prepare properly and screw up your confidence (not arrogance) and you might just find yourself spending more time at the big table in the near future.