How to Manage: Selling Your Ideas to Leadership

Women at Work

Think back to the last time you pitched an idea to upper management on how to change the way your company does business. Perhaps you proposed an improvement to an existing process, a new technology that would help things run smoother, or a different market you all could break into. How’d that go over?

As a mid-level manager, your involvement in day-to-day operations positions you to propose change that’s innovative and achievable. Amy B and her two guests, Sue Ashford and Ellen Bailey, give suggestions for framing those ideas so that executives buy into them. They’ll talk about the research findings they keep in mind, questions they ask themselves and others when vetting something, and what they learned from the times they missed the mark.

Guest experts:

Sue Ashford is a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Ellen Bailey is the vice president of business and culture transformation at Harvard Business Publishing.

Resources:

• “Middle Managers Should Drive Your Business Transformation,” by Michael Mankins and Patrick Litre
• “Do You Understand the Problem You’re Trying to Solve?” from HBR on Leadership
• “Get the Boss to Buy In,” by Susan (Sue) Ashford and James R. Detert
• HBR Guide to Building Your Business Case, by Ray Sheen and Amy Gallo
• “How to Push for Policy Changes at Your Company,” from Women at Work
• “The Essentials: Persuading People,” from Women at Work

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