If you’re part of an organization and the boss doesn’t advance your ideas up the management ladder, you might be wondering how one can change that.
You can find people complaining about this everywhere in organizations, in project teams, frontline departments and every group that needs someone from upper management to approve their ideas. All in all, almost everyone has this problem.
People are frustrated when they think that they’re not listened to. This can be an issue because plenty of people think that respect is the same with listening. There is a good chance that the listening skill is good enough. The problem is usually that they don’t want to implement that idea or they don’t agree with it.
Below you can find some suggestions in case you want to get an improved response to the proposals you make.
Find out what the needs are. The proposal might be great, but the management might not be interested to improve that area of the company. Even if the problem that you solved is important, the bosses might not be aware of that, and their focus might be another one. Wondering how can you use the creative energy to solve the problems that actually interest the company leaders?
Make a business case. You probably know that if you want to get someone’s attention to your ideas, making a business case gives you a much better chance at success. It’s not always something easy to do though. For example, if your idea has a $20,000 price tag attached to it, even if the employee satisfaction is dramatically improved, you can’t be sure that they will accept it. What a manager really wants to know is how much money will the company make if they invest those $20,000. Learn to put a price on employee satisfaction and the increase in profits that it can bring. Don’t invent stuff, make sure it’s realistic.
