Moving Your Initiatives Forward When You Don’t Have Support From the Top

It is tough being a manager with creative ideas that you know will push the company forward just to have your ideas fall on deaf ears.

Senior leaders say that they want managers who think out of the box and do not settle for the status quo but when the rubber meets the road, it can be very difficult to get the movers and shakers of your organization to take a leap of faith and try out business objectives that aren’t the same old rehashed ideas or that may be inherently risky.

Here’s a fictitious example. Your company has a clearly defined business goal to increase market share by reaching out to an undeserved population not generally part of your company’s marketing outreach. You determine that a series of focus groups is one way to learn more about your target market.

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You have all of the data needed to develop a marketing plan that will effectively reach your audience. Excited, you present your plan to management who quickly squashes the plan because:

• It won’t work

• It is not the right time

• We need more data

Each manager is different and the following tips may not work in all cases but here are a few things to try:

• Think in advance about the advantages and disadvantages of your idea so that you can be prepared to respond to any doubts or uncertainty that managers have about your idea.

• Use what you know about your manager’s personality to present your case in a way that resonates with the manager.

• Focus on positives like cost savings, increased efficiency and avoid coming across as self-serving.

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Dianne Shaddock

President and Founder at Easy Small Business HR

Get more tips on interviewing, hiring, managing and engaging your employees. Dianne Shaddock is the President of Easy Small Business HR, Employee Hiring and Managing Tips and the author of the eGuides, "How To Supervise:  What Your Boss Never Told You Before You Took the Job", A Step-By-Step Guide For New and Seasoned Managers and "How To Find and Hire the Best Employees".

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