It is 10am and you have already completed a solid three hours at the office. You know it will be a long day and you will likely only complete a third of all you need to do. The ping of emails has become your constant companion.
As you reflect upon the week ahead, the state of the economy, and that recent difficult conversation, a moment of fear, mixed with overwhelm washes over you. “How will I make all of this work?” You realize you are simply exhausted.
At that moment, you receive notice from HR regarding a Two-Day Development Event. In disbelief, you again begin talking to yourself – this time out loud,
“They must be kidding. Who can attend training at a time like this? They truly have no idea what I am up against. I will just have to get out of it.”
If the above scenario is the reality of so many senior leaders (and I propose that it is), how do you as a human resource professional convince the boss to actively engage in the development initiatives you believe are critical to her and your organization’s long term success? This is an important question, and one that perhaps Marshall McLuhan unknowingly answered in 1964 when he coined the phrase, “The medium is the message”.
McLuhan, in his most widely known book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, defined medium as “any extension of ourselves”, and proposed that media, not the content they carry, has the greater affect on how a message is received. Said another way, it is not the message that is heard, but rather, the characteristics of the messenger itself which most influences. As a result, we might revise McLuhan’s phrase to “The messenger is the message.”
Now, this may have been a novel idea in 1964, but it should not be novel today. Intuitively we know that people will accept advice and direction readily from those they respect as competent, knowledgeable and, believe have their very best interests at heart. With those they do not respect, very little can convince them to follow what is proposed.
In Unleashed! Expecting Greatness and Other Secrets of Coaching for Exceptional Performance, Gregg Thompson and I propose that leaders need to first become the kind of person from whom others want to receive coaching. We argue that this is a right that does not come with one’s title, but rather, is one that must be earned. Similarly, as HR professionals, you must first earn the right to advise, recommend, and most especially, mandate the development initiatives in which you want others to participate. Senior managers need to first believe that you understand the business – at least as well as they do. They need to see that you recognize the nature of their world, the demands on their time, and are anticipating the resources they need, when they need them. They must think of you as an equal business partner, one without whom, they cannot succeed. Your primary task is to earn this reputation in their eyes.
Where do you begin? You begin by identifying your current reputation. How are you viewed now throughout the organization? Do you have a seat at the right tables – are you being invited to the meetings where strategic business decisions are made? Or, do you usually just hear about these after the fact? Are you frequently solicited for your opinion by senior managers? Or, are you only called upon to fulfill administrative requests once decisions have already been made? The answers you find to such questions are critical.
Once you have a solid grasp on how you are viewed, you must then determine the gaps that exist – the ways in which you are not yet regarded as a key business partner. You will also want to identify with whom you do not yet posses the reputation necessary to obtain sufficient sponsorship for the initiatives you are leading. With this clarity, you then outline and take action on your own development plan – the one targeted at you, The Messenger.
Now, let’s consider The Message.
How are you going to sell your development initiative such that senior executives want to invest their precious time? How will you position it as so crucial to their personal and professional success that they would not entertain missing it? These are the kinds of questions you need to be continually asking yourself.
Again, you first must become clear. What exactly are you selling? What are all the many benefits the boss can expect to gain? For example, can she expect valuable face time with other key decision makers? Or, will he obtain 360 feedback that can significantly help him identify what in his leadership is working and what is not? Perhaps she will have an opportunity to share her Q1 plan and obtain input from others she respects, all before launching it? Regardless, you must communicate the benefits.
Do not be deterred by title, age, education or experience. Whether your initiative is targeted at new managers or the most senior leaders within your organization, there is not a single professional who has mastered his field. In fact, the more senior the position, the greater the challenges, and therefore, the more valuable your development opportunity can be to his success. Even the most astute managers need to continually improve their ability to communicate, lead, coach and develop others – tasks that are now made more complex by having to work with those who are increasingly geographically dispersed and culturally different than ourselves.
How do you convince the boss to engage in the development initiatives you propose? You communicate the benefits she will gain. You know the business, her challenges and position your initiative as (at least part of) the solution to those challenges. You demonstrate that what you propose is strongly rooted in your organization’s strategic vision. And above all, as McLuhan unknowingly suggested, you become so well regarded that the boss readily seeks out your direction.
Susanne Biro is the Director of Leadership Coaching at Bluepoint Leadership Development and the co-author of Unleashed! Expecting Greatness and Other Secrets of Coaching for Exceptional Performance. She can be reached at susannebiro@bluepointleadership.com.
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