6 helpful tips for executive buy-in
1
Have breakfast or lunch with the CFO. Discuss your plans with your CFO and get insights on how to present to all the executives. This allows you to understand the key areas of concern your leadership team may have and be prepared to answer them – increasing your chance of success.
2
Get as many supporters as you can. Ask for sincere help and feedback from as many stakeholders as possible before talking to the executives. Use their inputs to update your presentation. And let them help you avoid any surprises and even get them to endorse you to the executive team when the time comes.
3
Give the executive team some time to review your deck. Email the presentation a few days in advance (or a week before) to give time to better understand your pitch and be prepared to ask key questions.
4
Now more than even, understand the financial benefits and cost. Start your pitch with the expected business impact of your program – include the financial benefits! Get their first concern answered at the start of your presentation.
Put emphasis on the benefits. But show the costs and your overall plan as well. They want to see that you have covered the other details of launching the program (and which stakeholders have given you their support and feedback).
5
There is more to lose now if we don’t do it. Prepare for a potential risk analysis demonstrating the effects of not launching your program for your business. And look at what problems’ other companies or competitors (those without a goal program) are facing. Have data on surveys and industry benchmarks and trends.
6
Have a plan for next steps. If leadership accepts your proposal, you want to be ready to go. If they don’t, respond graciously and go back to the drawing board.
Need help with your presentation?
See our editable power point deck to help you make your case to the executives. You can customize it and even add a video of John Doerr talking about OKRs and Google 😊.
Communicating your process
Do you want to be successful with launching your goals process? Then you know that effective communication at all levels is critical for new programs. Plan and communicate, communicate, and communicate. There is no such thing as over communication.
To help, below is a suggested schedule:
Looking good! Now we have built up our communications skills. Take a break and chill. We will see you again to talk about how to equip your managers with the right tools for your goals program.
See you soon for session 5!
Other Sessions
Session 3
Developing Your Goals Process
Create your goals setting process and initial program roadmap
Recommended Next
Session 5
Manager On-boarding and Toolkit
Equip your managers with the right tools
Session 6
Measuring and Improving for Program Success
Track results and improve with feedback.
