You’re fuming. Something happened at work -- unfair, wasteful, more than you can manage and you want to talk to the top guy RIGHT NOW.
Been there? Don’t go there.
I am not a role model for the strategy I am about to share; I’ve made mistakes that left me ineffective and I’ve learned from them.
The time for an audience with the boss is not when you’re mad. It’s not on your timetable, either.
The only issues that justify a “right now” meeting are true emergencies that could jeopardize the company’s licenses, image or its employees’ immediate safety. Some examples include: sexual harassment, knowledge that an employee is stealing or involved in other illegal activity or an immediate safety hazard. Those must be brought to management attention right away, and even then I recommend you include the chain of command.
Otherwise, have a strategy for using the audience with the boss effectively. Your goal is to walk out that door with what you wanted. You have to go in with well organized, with justifiable thoughts. And you have to do so when he or she has time for you.
One of my most astute colleagues ever had been an effective middle-manager for a large TV station in a major market. She handled most of the chain of command issues for her team and communicated them effectively to the top dog. Sometimes there were issues that warranted an audience with the boss -- a pitch for a promotion, a contract renewal, an idea for which the employee deserved credit -- but she worked with her team to make the right move at the right time.
“I told them they needed a strategy just for timing the meeting,” she told me.
Their boss was brilliant but mercurial. Guess what? Most executives who have achieved any level of success are that way. They have to manage up and down the chain, and that presents pressure. Even if you report directly to a CEO, those guys have bosses -- the board of directors, government agencies which regulate them, key customers. There’s always a looming deadline and major projects on their plates that are -- guess what again -- bigger to the boss than whatever you’re asking to meet about.
“People really stepped in it if they pushed their way in for a meeting on a whim,” my friend told me. She gave them good advice to schedule a meeting at a time when the boss was prepared and could clear the decks for a few minutes with them.
I could see why. I’ve been the employee that asked for something on a whim, and left empty handed. I’ve been the manager who was forced to stop what I was doing to hear out someone who was emotional and ill prepared. It felt like I was being hit over the head with a bucket of cold water and not given time to react appropriately.
What’s the worst criticism you’ve had of a bad boss besides poor people skills? Probably that he made knee-jerk decisions, right? Then give him time to think about your requests and ideas.
If you walk through the door unexpected and say, “Do you have a minute” that’s is exactly what you will get: a minute. And you’ll leave frustrated because you won’t have his full attention. The answer you insisted on getting “right now” is “no” because they don’t have time to really consider it.
Obviously you thought out your strategy for implementing a new policy or for getting yourself a promotion. The strategy you need to get face time with the boss, is just as important!
Here are some simple steps:
1. Does this really need to go to the top? Have you followed the chain of command? Most of your immediate supervisors will support you and help you strategize for your meeting if it warrants time with the top dog.
2. Schedule a time at his or her convenience and briefly state what you’d like to discuss. This can be done via email.
3. Rehearse. This is a limited opportunity for you. You need to be clear and for the most part, you need to plan on spending no more than 5 minutes in the office. If he or she wants more time, they’ll lead the discussion.
4. Be passionate but not emotional. Emotions are dismissed as whims that will pass. Passions are usually brought to the table by creative, can-do people who really believe they have something great to offer.
Finally, if you don’t have anything on your plate right now, but hope to down the road, start laying the ground work so you’re taken seriously when That Day arrives. When you see top management in meetings or in the hall, don’t look away. Always engage. “How are ya?” “That was in interesting presentation” are good quick things to say.
If new policy is laid out in a meeting, keep your face open. Even if some of what’s being pushed down is the dumbest thing you’ve heard this month, don’t show attitude. Think about it for awhile and share it with your middle managers later if you have to. If you’re tired of the stink in the bathroom, don’t send an email to the whole building. That’s where you use the anonymous box in the lunch room or put an anonymous note under the door of someone who can address it. Don’t be the office whiner.
If you are perceived to be a negative person, the boss may still grant you an audience when That Day comes, but he will go into it with the expectation that he is going to get in and out as fast as possible. If you have a Positive Image going into the meeting then you will come out of the meeting successful!
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