Episode 13: How to Get Your Ideas Considered by Your Boss
Many employees have ideas that they want to present to their boss but don’t know how to do so in the best way. Your ideas are valuable and deserve to be considered fairly. This episode gives you 5 important steps that will help your boss consider your ideas and not brush them off.
- Do your research: This should be both internal research (trends, metrics, surveys, etc.) and external research (industry trends, competitors, etc.). Make sure that there’s a need for the idea you’re suggesting and have research to support it.
- Take initiative: You don’t have to wait for your manager or someone else to voice that there’s a need for something. If you notice a need or a problem, take initiative and determine whether your idea would be a good and effective solution for it.
- Test your ideas: Always validate your idea by testing it in the best way possible. You want to ensure the solution will indeed work before presenting it to your boss.
- Put your ideas in writing: Document why your idea should be considered, the benefits of it, the problem(s) it will solve, and a potential plan for applying/implementing it. This will help your boss take your idea more seriously because you’ve done the due diligence to research how it will help the team/organization.
- Know the best approach to present your ideas to your boss: Consider what matters most to your boss and how they receive information best. Example: If you boss prefers data, graphs, charts, analysis, etc.; make sure you present your idea in this manner. If your boss cares about productivity and (you can prove that) your idea will help boost productivity, this should be the approach that you use for your idea.
Questions about this episode? Topic suggestions for future episodes? Please send them to: culture@businessadvocatespro.com
