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It is becoming more and more important for senior management to support the projects, plans and goals of a group, and it is up to the team leader or department head to gain that support.  Yet, in my work in change management over the past ten years, I have found that persuading executives to support an initiative continues to be one of the biggest areas of concern for group managers.

To try to better understand what senior management needs to support a project, I asked a number of vice presidents and executive vice presidents from both the private and public sector for their advice.I learned there are two things often ignored by team leaders in their presentations.  By focusing on them, your chances of gaining executive support will be greatly improved.

Expecting Immediate Support

According to several executives I interviewed, team leaders and function heads often mistakenly conclude that one brilliant pitch is enough to gain agreement and buy-in.In truth, even when the initial proposal seems like a great idea, the support does not come instantaneously.

One government agency executive I spoke with mentioned that it has taken three to four years to build enough support to gain an increase in congressional funding.While we hope that all business does not take as long as the government can, the purpose of his telling me that was to highlight the fact that managers and project directors must see their programs with a strategic and long-term focus.  He suggested that managers looking for support should:

1.State clearly the ways that the entire organization will benefit from your plan.

2.Work with co-workers in other departments and groups.Find ways to combine priorities and goals into single initiatives in order the strengthen the benefit to the entire organization.

3.Talk in advance of your proposal to senior management and other stakeholders in the organization.Ask for their advice as to how you can best fit your ideas into the overall goals of the company.Be willing to change your proposal based on their feedback.

4.Be patient and make your proposal for resources only after you have created a strong enough case and have received informal support from executive management for your ideas.

Failing to Be Strategic

This is a crucial point when it comes to gaining support.Executives of most organizations have developed strategic goals for achieving the organization’s vision for the future.   You are much more likely to gain support when you show how your team’s plan will help to further the strategic goals.. To achieve this, you need to be proactive in finding out what the organization wants to achieve strategically rather than waiting for someone to tell you.

What does it mean to be strategic?  In my experience, executives want their directors to:

1.Understand the company’s main goals.

2.Give constructive suggestions how their group can help the company meet those objectives.

As Scott Eblin writes in “The Next Level”, you need to spend time with your senior executives up front to ensure that you understand what success means to them.  Remember, though, that at this level, you aren’t likely to get specific goals and metrics.Your goal is to listen to discover organization-wide priorities and constraints.Be a sponge in these conversations.Take the information to your managers to talk over some more.  Then come back to your executive with specific plans about what your group or function will do and how you will do it.  Be prepared to make adjustments based on input from your executive team at this point.

Executive support for a project you feel strongly about may seem as though it is out of your reach, but if you are patient you will be able to build a case that senior management will understand.The objective is to always keep in mind the overall goals of the organization and communicate clearly how your project will help to achieve those goals.  Before you know it, your project could become a key factor in the success of the entire company!

Wendy Mack is a professional advisor, trainer, and author with a focus in leading and communicating change. Contact Wendy at, or Download her free e-book, Transforming Anxiety into Energy at www.WendyMack.com

Almost every person in charge of a team has had a similar experience.With only a few minutes to present to senior management, you must communicate a proposed project on behalf of your team.You labor until you perfect the delivery, only to see that the executives were unmoved by your proposal.Why?

In my work with change leaders over the past decade, I’ve seen some great examples of what works when it comes to gaining executive support.I have also seen the flip side with more than one flop.I decided to talk directly with several senior level leaders both in corporate and public organizations in order to discover best practices in presentations to senior management.

The executives agreed that when mid-level leaders attempt to make a case for funding or other support, they often provide far too much information.A lot of proposals they hear fail because the executives don’t have time or interest to digest every nuance of the proposed project.  Most executives don’t want or need to know each and every task your team is working on.And the executives agreed that in most cases, minor decisions can be left to the team, leaving senior management out of the day to day.

The following are three best practices for making a case to the senior leadership team.

1.         Use PowerPoint to summarize your main points.

A PowerPoint deck is a great briefing tool because it requires you to summarize your points into brief bullets.Use stories and anecdotes to bring your main points alive, but keep the information on the Power Point presentation to the key points you want senior management to take away from the presentation.The goal will be to stay on any one Power Point screen no more than three minutes during your presentation.Make sure you have the details to back up your presentation, but only as a resource if you receive specific questions about a key issue.

2.         Group your main activities, goals, or steps into “buckets” or categories.

I recently saw one team leader list every activity his team planned to work on in 2009 in his pitch to executives.While it was his hope that the details would strengthen his proposal, it resulted in irritating senior management instead.One executive even told the team leader that the committee had no interest in hearing what the team had planned for the year.The only thing important to them was the key highlights.

I find it helpful to group goals or activities into categories.For instance, you may want to state in your presentation that your teams three main areas of focus in the coming year will be cost savings, process efficiencies, and developing bench strength.The remainder of your presentation will be to provide specific examples in each of these categories as to how you intend to be successful.Using this approach will help senior management to focus on how the proposals you suggest for your team will impact the entire company, and allow them to decide if these are the areas that they want to stress in the coming year.

3.         Concisely summarize what you need from the executive team in order to move forward.

Too many presentations to executive teams are informational in tone.The team leader will update the executives on status of the project and then ask for questions.  They hope (and pray) that the executives will somehow jump to offering funding and support, which almost never happens.

Instead, conclude your pitch with a slide that summarizes specifically what you need.Maybe it is a specific amount of money earmarked in the budget, or a critical decision by senior management, or even more company resources dedicated to your project.  Yes, there is a risk that your request will be turned down, but it’s better to know that now, than to keep spinning your wheels.

In the 1990’s a team of external consultants worked with General Electric to develop a change acceleration process.  The team came up with a four-step formula for effective elevator speeches:

*    Our project or initiative is about  . . .

* It is very important to the company because . . . . .

* What this means for senior management is . . . . . . .

* Here is what we need from you. . . . .

Use this approach both in one-on-one conversations with stakeholders and in your formal pitches and presentations.As you are able to focus on these critical elements, your success in presenting your case will improve.

By keeping your pitches to senior management short and crisp you will be able to focus on strategy, not tasks.Clarity in your presentation as to what your team needs to be successful will help senior management readily understand what it is you are proposing, what you need from them to be successful, and how your initiative will have a positive impact on company operations.

Wendy Mack is a professional advisor, trainer, and author with a focus in leading and communicating change. Contact Wendy at, or Download her free e-book, Transforming Anxiety into Energy at http://www.WendyMack.com

A new MetLife Mature Market Institute study, conducted in partnership with Boston College’s Sloan Center on Aging & Work, indicates that the economic downturn has had a greater psychological effect on younger workers than it has on workers of the Baby Boomer and Traditionalist generations. The results of the study are summarized in the report, Engaging the 21st Century Multi-Generational Workforce.

The primary focus of the study was on whether generational differences matter when it comes to employee engagement. The study found this to be true. There is a distinctive difference in what impacts different employees. While the insight into engaging the different generations is reason enough to download the report, it is particularly interesting to read the findings related to how different groups of employees are weathering the economic storm. 

Employees from both Generation Y (age 26 and younger) and Generation X (age 27 to 42) reported a drop in engagement, while employees in the Baby Boomer and Traditionalist generations reported almost no change in engagement. This anomaly may be because younger employees have not been through similar tough times, while Baby Boomers and Traditionalists have. Through their past experiences, Boomers and Traditionalists have discovered that tough times will get better. Therefore, on a whole, older workers are better able to adjust. 

The study echoes a recent Business Week article about how the recession is impacting the country’s youth. The “Age of Anxiety” piece reported that the younger generation of our country are commencing their careers at a frightful time, and their initial employment choices may have financial ramifications for many years.

Both the MetLife study and the Business Week article indicate that managers need to do more to help younger workers cope with the anxiety of living and working in a recession. 

You may feel that you don’t have time to “coddle” younger workers, given all of the other demands you face. To the contrary, my experiences and those of Harvard professor Bob Sutton have shown that when workers become overwhelmed by stress, overall productivity in the work place will decline.

If you are a Baby Boomer or Traditionalist boss, find time to have conversations with your younger workers about how they are feeling and coping. Sharing personal stories from prior recessions and tips to pull through the stressful times in a positive manner will go a long way in improving younger employee’s work ethic, and ultimately the team’s results.

I recently worked with a vice president from a defense company to create a town hall meeting that allowed and encouraged her more tenured team members to connect with the newer folks. The experienced employees shared their suggestions for dealing with chaos, anxiety, and overwork. The immediate result was a palpable sense of relief in the room and a heightened level of energy across the team.

Good leaders recognize that when anxiety is running high, employee communication is not optional, it’s imperative. A little extra time and attention on youger employees just learning to cope with these troubling times will be an investment that pays off again and again.

Wendy Mack is a consultant, speaker, and author who specializes in leading and communicating change. Download her free e-book, “Transforming Anxiety into Energy”
at www.WendyMack.com. 

The topic of Project Management is very popular among professionals today, as project management skills can really help to advance your career.  Choosing the right project management course becomes the next challenge many professionals who want to build their project management skills.  This article outlines the top considerations for identifying the best project management course for you as an individual, as well as how to get the most out of it personally and for your career.

One way great way to begin to choose a project management course is to look at the problems you are facing today.  For example, perhaps you are having some special challenges dealing with stakeholders.  Maybe gathering requirements effectively is your current challenge.  Often times you can identify communications problems on your project and would like to learn more about tools and techniques for managing these problems.  Perhaps you would like to enhance your management skills.  Perhaps also, you simply would like to learn a broad project management framework or methodology and earn a project management certification to enhance your credentials.

Once you have this idea in mind, it is also helpful to consider the method of delivery that you prefer for the project management course.   The typical delivery methods include classroom training, audio training, and online project management training.  Classroom training has the advantage that you can give it your full attention as you are away from daily distractions.  There also is great value in being present with the instructor and students to discuss and absorb points on the spot as well as network.   On the other hand classroom training is expensive, might involve travel, requires trading off work time, and needs to be scheduled. 

An audio project management course can be very convenient, but lacks the visual learning aspect, so it often is a great supplement to other learning methods.  Some PDA-based audio programs are beginning to also offer the video, which is helpful, but it important to make sure that the audio delivery taken alone is effective for this medium when you cannot look.

Online project management training includes both instructor assisted training and pure online training.  With an instructor assisted online project management course, you take a live course over the internet, and the instructor is leading and facilitating the course.  In this case, you may have the ability to interact with the instructor and students during the class.  With pure online training, on the other hand, the course is self-contained and is available 24×7, and you can easily skip over topics of little interest and focus more on those of keen interest.  Often for the pure online training a mentor or online help is available for assistance.

Another decision is about the topic of the project management course.  For example, you might have a need to learn about a project management tool, so something like Microsoft Project training might be a good choice.  You might be in the information technology field, and perhaps you are transitioning from more technical functions to project management.  In yet another situation, perhaps an IT project management course would be a great choice. There are many other topics, especially in the soft skills areas like leadership, management, communication where you can select a sub-topic that will help take your current skills to the next level.

A final key is to choose and take that selected project management course right away!  Once the decision has been made, the desire is most likely at its peak, and you will get the most out of the project management course at that time.  If you wait even a few weeks, sometimes the issues you are facing may shift, and your ability to absorb like a sponge and immediately apply your new knowledge may diminish.  You want to be able to realize the benefit rapidly, and also making that knowledge your own for the long haul.

In summary, the way to get the most out of any project management course.  is to choose a topic related to something of very current interest.  Select a project management course about a topic of current interest to you, something for which you have a current burning desire or need and that you will be able to apply right away.  Pick the method of delivery of the course that best suits you, whether classroom, online, audio, self-paced, or other, and schedule yourself as soon as possible.  When the time comes, take the project management course at your own pace, but make sure you can give it full focus when you do.  Most importantly, apply what you have learned in the project management course right away!

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John Reiling, PMP, PE, MBA is an experienced Project Manager and certified Project Management Professional. John’s web site, project management  course provides online project management training for beginning managers and for PMP exam prep and PDUs. John also writes regularly in his blog, PMcrunch.com.

Business Analyst skills are important to have on the project team, and not a bad thing for a Project Manager to have! The same holds true for Business Analysts, where some Project Managment skills will serve the Business Analyst well.  In either case, the business analysis function is one that needs to be managed with care, perspective, and the wisdom of experience.

Business analysts typically play the following roles: requirements analysis, systems analysis, requirements management, or consulting.The key point is that the business analysis process does not just happen once. It is not just a matter of completing a task in the Work Breakdown Schedule! It starts at a high level near the beginning of the project, progressively elaborates, takes continuous monitoring, and is never really finished until the project itself is nearly finished.

Here are some key timeframes within the life of a project where business analysis makes an appearance:

1. Enterprise Analysis and Making a Business Case
Each project must fit into the plans of the organization as a whole. In depth familiarity with that plan, and understanding where the subject project fits into that is a key step in building the business case. The business case must align with the strategic objectives of the organization.

2. Requirements Planning
Developing requirements is a challenge in part because of the time dimension. Requirements planning describes a phased approach that forecasts and schedules how the requirements will unfold. It thus should have, as an output, a schedule for various time-based requirements gathering and documenting tasks.

3. Requirements Management
Managing requirements as they evolve is an important task. In some organizations there is a formal Configuration Management function. There also are myriads of business applications on the market that focus on Configuration Management for requirements. It is important to understand the degree of complexity, the expected level of change or evolution over the course of the project, and the risks involved related to requirements change developments.

4. Eliciting Requirements
Drawing requirements out of various stakeholders is as much an art as a science. The science part provides a framework, usually in the form of ways the structure questions, common pitfalls, and how to document. However, it is an art to develop rapport with varying stakeholders and probe deeply to uncover the core needs.

5. Requirements Analysis and Models
The documentation of requirements is important to assuring that everyone is “marching to the same tune”. Often this requires developing sophisticated architectures, drawings, mathematical models, and prototypes that consolidate requirements input and reflect back to stakeholders the proposed solution. This provides further subject matter for conversations around the continuously unfolding requirements.

6. Communicating and Implementing Requirements
With a given set of requirements, the business analysis function must assure stakeholder buy-in, but also must ensure that those who will implement the requirements are equally “plugged in”. One challenge is to ensure that the stakeholders are in clear and in agreement with what will be implemented, and the implementers are clear on what they need to do. Due to the detailed and often technical nature of the work, work packages at the implementation level are well removed from the stakeholder, so the business analyst servers to bridge that gap and “broker” that relationship.

While distinctly different in many ways, Project Management and Business Analysis functions overlap in many areas. The Business Analyst ensures that the product of the project meets the targeted business needs and is well-defined. This job is a project lifecycle function and does not end until the stakeholders verify that the product meets their requirements. The Project Manager, on the other hand, is concerned with the totality of the project, and is concerned mostly with ensuring progress against schedule, risk management and mitigation, and delivering of the product of the project within budget, on time, and to specified quality standards. Skill in both areas is very valuable, and only serves to benefit the project, program, and organization – as well as the professionals in their careers. 

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John Reiling, PMP, MBA is experienced Project Manager and analyst. John’s web site Project Management Training Online, provides numerous courses for PDUs and certification training for both Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP). John’s Project Management blog is PMcrunch.