5 Tips to get Your Boss to Change Their Mind

To succeed in your role, at some point you’ll need your boss to do something on your behalf.  

Occasionally you’ll need to ask them to change something and your request will be an implicit (or explicit) criticism of the way they do things.  It’s awkward.

If you’re worried about how your boss could react, Julie Zhuo, author of the excellent The Making of a Manager, recently tweeted a practical five step framework for discussing that change without completely flaming your relationship with the person who has the most influence over your career.  

1. Understand what your boss cares about: Do they want to grow metric X? Get Y done?  Improve team collaboration? If you don't know, ask them ("What does success look like for you?" / "How do you hope things go?") or ask other peers ("What do you think M cares about?")

2. Open the conversation with what they care about: "I was thinking… How we might grow metric X / Get Y done / Work better together ...and I wanted to discuss some ideas with you..."

3. Share the problems / roadblocks to your boss achieving their goal: "We don't know what drives metric X, so we're trying random stuff inefficiently." / "The team on Y feel confused about the goal." / "Few people share openly because they're worried about what you think."

4. Suggest a change in your boss' behaviour that could solve the problem: "Could you create space for us to do analysis work on what drives metric X?" / "Can you clarify and create alignment around Y?" / "Could you hold your feedback to encourage more sharing?"

5. Offer to help out however you can: You don't want to dump a bunch of problems on their shoulders without playing your part: "I can draft up a proposal and share it with everyone."/ "I'll get everyone in a room." / "I'll go first in sharing my thoughts next time."

If you’re interested in learning more about managing your boss, we recommend this piece from Lara Hogan and this article.

And finally, Julie Zhou’s The Making of a Manager is one of the key resources we recommend in our Great Resources for First-Time Managers, and she’s an excellent follow on twitter.