Take A Deep Breath Before Responding To Your Boss

By Matt:

Last week I thought I would be risky and do something "innovative". Generally companies love innovation - it's one of those business-ish words that sounds really good and implies we're making more money.

I was working on a presentation to deliver to accounts and was experimenting with a way new way to present it digitally. I emailed the concept around, and well, apparently my little idea was a little too risky to be considered innovation... probably too many bureaucratic rules broken or something like that. I got an email back with several reasons why it wouldn't work and why we couldn't do it this way, and so on and so on.

Of course my initial reaction is to get defensive and fire back some snotty unfounded response, but I restrained myself for once. I took a deep breath, spent three minutes reviewing Jon's post on "Pushing Decision Making Down", and drafted an email response that I didn't even send until the next morning.

It paid off and my idea was accepted. Here's how I convinced management that I was right:

• Take A Deep Breath: Control the urge to fire back a quick response that isn't well thought out. Take a walk down the hall, go grab a Coke, play a game of Sudoku... whatever you need to do.


• Review Management's Reasoning: Management's negative response will generally include 1-3 reasons why you can't move forward with your idea or proposal. Write down those reasons - you will need to speak directly to them in your response and this list will serve as your outline.


• Back It Up: If you're going to convince management of anything it's going to be done with numbers and logic. Fill in the gaps around the outline you created and speak to the concerns by backing up your reasoning with valid statistics (money saved, dollars earned, etc.) and reasons based on productivity, efficiency, and valid comparisons to related examples.


• Write A Polite Introduction: Once you've nailed the facts, go back to the top and kick off your response with a short but polite acknowledgment of the reasonings you were given for denial. Something to the effect of, "Thanks for your note regarding my idea, and I appreciate your concerns. I've been considering your thoughts and wanted to respond to them as still I feel this can be an effective solution...."


• Proof And Send: Whenever you're having to fight for approval it's best to double-proof your words... make sure you haven't said anything antagonistic and that you've stuck to clear and concise facts. Once you're done, send away!
  

In my experience when you really back up a solid idea, and remove emotion from the equation, you can break through most resistance. It may not work every time, but that's ok... if you're not making progress after a couple attempts, it's probably not worth any more of your effort anyways. At the very least you'll be respected for your attempt and credited with thinking out of the box, and those are good qualities to have in the bank.

Pushing Decision Making Down

By Jon:

One of the recent slogans running through our management lately has been "Push Decision Making Down." This is a simple concept: stop relying on our managers and executives to approve decisions and make choices that lower level employees could make just as easily.

Sounds great, right? It's the dream -- a corporation that trusts it's mid-level and low-level employees and allows their decision making to flow with day-to-day business needs. Sounds like a fast, smart, lean business at it's finest.

Some of you may have this policy at your organization as well, and I'm honestly curious as to how well it's working. Last week, our CFO, CMO and President of Sales and Marketing decided to organize a weekly one hour meeting to approve all promotions and sales our marketing team pushes through.

That's right - every idea our marketing team has, every sale, every promotions push, everything has to have the stamp of approval of the top executives in the company. Considering this meeting is held weekly, it's already put a strain on our marketing team; instead of brainstorming with their team and working with our accounts directly, there's a week delay while we have to wait for the execs to sign off on the plan.

I could go on about this policy paradox for days; however, I'll try to channel this frustration into something positive. Instead, let's talk about ways to get a boss to say 'yes' to your ideas. Here's some tips to bring to the table in your weekly executive approval meetings:

• Plan out the problems. What could go wrong? Your supervisor's likely to poke holes in every idea, so having something to dam those up is key. Think up the most obvious things and address those in your initial pitch, so you won't have to answer unnecessary questions later.
• Start at the end. Tell your boss what action is needed first and if explanation is needed, fill them in on the details. Basically, start with a what and a when, and follow with a why and a how if need be. Often that's all that's needed to get the job done.
• What's the benefit? Plan out some simple numbers -- CFOs are generally into that sort of thing. How much exposure, how many eyeballs will see it, and how much income it will generate; stats can be key when reaching for something big.
• Get in and get out. Brevity is key. There are many circumstances where you'll have them sold on your idea, but right at the end you lay all your cards down and your hopes are dashed. Certainly explain the risks and costs, but leave it brief and as sunny as possible.
• Talk over their head. This is my personal favorite. My job is sort-of technical, and my boss is not. This leads to a lot of great opportunities to speak geek and confuse. If I can point out some options that befuddle the management, and I say them with certainty, it's likely I'll just get a yes.

Hopefully with these tips you can talk your way in and out of an executive approval meeting (if your company even has those). That, or just getting your boss to sign off on your business expenses.

For more great tips and insight on the "yes" word from the mouth of an executive, check out Michael Hyatt's great blog post on Manager Approval:

How to Get Your Boss’s Approval When You Need It

Work Better By Working Less

By Matt:

This comes from an old post, but it's a good one. If you've worked more than 12 minutes in a corporate setting, people have asked you to do things that are either not your responsibility or are beyond your capacity. And if you've worked in a corporate setting more than 13 minutes, you've tried to tackle a lot of those requests - whether to impress a boss, move up in the organization, or just out of fear to keep your job.

Penelope Trunk over at Brazen Careerist offers 7 tips to help you minimize the amount of frivolous requests and time-sucking endeavors. She rightly points out that not all tasks are equal, and to get home in time for dinner, you need to be able to determine the difference between what your boss is telling you is important and what truly is going to be a home run for your company.

7 Ways To Decrease Your Hours Without Harming Your Career