Prep before you manage up
A learnable skill, not a personality trait, and it works better prepared than improvised.
Executives want solutions brought to them, not more decisions dumped in their lap. Your request is one of a hundred competing for their attention, so cut the detail that does not change the decision.
The strongest move is starting before you ask permission. Leaders who begin a project on their own, and can already show some progress by the time they bring it to the CEO, prove they can drive change instead of just proposing it.
Distill it to its essential, strategic core: seek first to understand where they already stand, then be understood.
What you get
- A prompt for what the executive already believes, and what would change their mind
- A field for what you've already started without waiting for sign-off
- A three-column pitch structure: how you're working, what you've learned, the ask
Where should we send it?
One email with the worksheet. You can unsubscribe from anything else in one click.
On its way
Check your inbox. If it has not landed in a minute or two, look in promotions or spam, and add sam@startuppatterns.com to your contacts so the rest arrive.
Adapted from the Management chapter of The Mindful Product Company by Sam McAfee.