Managing Your Manager: Addressing Your Important Issue
By Jill Geisler, The Poynter Institute

Good ideas. Why do so many of them fail to take root in a work environment? Issues that seem so clear-cut to an employee may miss the mark with management. Sadly, the reason may be the employee's lack of skill in managing the managers.

There is an art to presenting issues to the boss. Employees who hone that skill stand a better chance of obtaining positive results. Here are some suggestions for successfully stating your case:

Know your manager's style.
Does he or she like face-to-face meetings? Memos? Support material? Are drop-in visits good, or is an appointment better? Is good-natured humor important to your manager's communication style, or is it all business?

Be sensitive to your manager's current challenges.
What's going on in the office these days? Hiring challenges? Budget squeeze? New initiatives? The more you know about your manager's current men -- the better you can determine how and when to add to the plate. You will also know if your idea could be of help in addressing your manager's current challenges.

Timing is important.
In addition to knowing your manager's hopes and headaches, have a sense of when he or she is able to give you a full hearing. Some bad times include: right after the manager returns from a staff meeting (to a desk covered with mail, phone messages and a backlog of e-mail); monthly report time (manager is frantically trying to draft a document on deadline); after another person has just been in to ask for something; and after any meeting that appeared contentious. You don't necessarily know when all these things are happening, but between your powers of observation and the office grapevine, you can get a pretty good idea.

Know your manager's values.
This is critical to connecting with your manager. If your manager has stated strong core values for your organization, make certain you know them and how your idea supports them. The more closely your idea or issue connects with those values, the greater your chance of achieving managerial buy-in. Be prepared to articulate those values in your conversation with the boss.

Carefully consider your idea or issue. Try to state it in one clear sentence. Practice stating it. No need to back into the idea. Make it clear and concise.

Frame your idea positively.
"I have an idea for broadening our coverage of race in our community"; works far better than "We need to fix our terrible shortcomings in covering race in our community." Avoid loaded words and phrases. When you say: "Everyone knows we have a problem with..." your manager may hear it as a personal accusation instead of an idea for a solution.

Be prepared to list the benefits of your idea.
Keep the list simple and practical. Connect it to the manager's challenges and values: business success, professional excellence, systems strengthening, customer service, team-building. Benefits should be specific and measurable -- not "pie in the sky."

Be prepared to acknowledge challenges to the idea.
Chances are your boss will bring these up. Don't see this as a negative. If you have thought through the challenges in advance, you will be prepared to discuss ways of addressing them. You may impress your employer with your sensitivity to these issues.

Be prepared with a "next step" idea or action.
Often your boss will suggest a "next step." Be prepared to be a part of it, (even if it seems to be something that adds time to a process you'd like to see move more rapidly.) If you sense the manager has no "next step" in mind, be prepared to suggest one. Make certain it is practical and includes the appropriate people in your organization. Many good ideas wither away when no one follows through on the step that moves an issue from idea to action.

Repeat what you heard and decided in the conversation.
It is very helpful to all parties to recap the key points of the discussion. Tell your manager what you heard him or her say. Repeat what it is you've agreed is the next step. Aim for a target date for the next step to happen. Deadlines keep the process moving.

Follow-up. A follow-up message, perhaps an e-mail can be very helpful.
It confirms your discussion and mission, and it can be an opportunity to give positive feedback to your boss. Bosses value honest, specific praise every bit as much as other employees do.

Follow through.
Nothing makes an employer more apt to give you a "green light" on an idea than your track record of responsible follow-through on previous work. Others said "Somebody oughtta"--but you said "I will" -- and you did.