With so many competing priorities, headcount reductions, and budget cuts companies face these days, how can you ensure that your initiative makes the 'short list' and gets the go-ahead from the senior executive? Here are some methods and approaches for dealing with this challenge.
First, learn the executive's view on how the business should operate.
What are the business agenda goals and priorities? Where is the company going and what does it need to do in order to get there? How the does the business need to run? As a 'holding company' or 'unified company'? Who has ownership and accountability for the strategy/technology/processes/people decisions? Knowing the answers to questions such as these will help you to speak your executive's language, give you credibility, and further establish your relationship.
Then, understand the executive's style.
After learning the executive's views on the business, think about how to present your initiative in a manner that the executive is most receptive to. This involves knowing what messages the executive wants to hear conveyed, as well as preferences for decision-making.
What does the executive want to hear?
Gain insight into the executive's preferences for obtaining information and learning about initiatives, including:
- Macro or micro view?
- Theoretical or practical?
- Hard/quantifiable data or soft/qualifiable data?
What does the executive NOT want to hear?
No matter what the executive's particular 'style' is, you don't want to say things that will trigger thoughts such as these:
- 'This will be a long process'
- 'This is a stand-alone system'
- 'This sounds like just an administrative exercise'
- 'This is another 'flavour of the month' program' 'Not enough value-add for amount of time, resources input'
How does the executive make decisions?
Understand how your executive will come to a conclusion by knowing his/her preferences on the following:
- 'Autonomous/dictatorship' or 'consensus/team-based'?
- Centralized control or decentralized empowerment?
- Risk-aversion or risk-taking?
Put it all together and create your 'sales pitch.'
There are four main components that you should use when structuring your message. Clearly and succinctly, you should be able to state:
- Purpose, overview of initiativ
- Benefits of initiative
- Risks of not implementing initiativ
- What you need the executive to commit to doing to support the initiative
Now you're ready to present your initiative to the executive.
At this point you should weave together the goals and needs of the organization, executive, and your initiative. Some approaches for presentation and negotiation include:
- Using influence. Use of 'push' techniques (presenting a strong value proposition, business case, or burning platform) and/or 'pull' techniques (presenting questions that allow the executive to draw conclusions that your initiative is key to achieving a business goal). Both are strong methods to sway your executive's decision.
- Using feedback. Data from focus groups, one-on-one interviews, or surveys can provide you with valuable ideas, needs and responses from the workforce to 'bubble-up' to the executive.
- Using participation/collaboration. Some executives feel more comfortable with supporting an initiative if they've had a hand in the planning or design phases.
- Using your networks/teams. Working with colleagues (especially cross-functional) can add to the validity of your initiative as well as show strong organizational support for implementation.
- Using your organizational credibility/reputation. Point to other projects that you've implemented and highlight the results achieved.
With these methods in place, you're well on your way to securing a long-term relationship with the executive. You'll have the ultimate confirmation that you're on the right track when you have another initiative implemented.
