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