Selling Ideas to Leadership

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This chapter offers strategies for selling ideas to leadership within an organization, emphasizing the importance of mapping out allies and understanding the organizational landscape. It discusses approaches such as mobilizing allies, preparing for pitch meetings, handling resistance, and gaining buy-in by considering different viewpoints and focusing on collective goals. Insights are shared on navigating the corporate environment, addressing resistance to change, and analyzing reasons for delays in decision-making.

Think back to the last time you pitched an idea to upper management on how to change the way your company does business. Perhaps you proposed an improvement to an existing process, a new technology that would help things run smoother, or a different market you all could break into. How’d that go over?

As a mid-level manager, your involvement in day-to-day operations positions you to propose change that’s innovative and achievable. Amy B and her two guests, Sue Ashford and Ellen Bailey, give suggestions for framing those ideas so that executives buy into them. They’ll talk about the research findings they keep in mind, questions they ask themselves and others when vetting something, and what they learned from the times they missed the mark.

Guest experts:

Sue Ashford is a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Ellen Bailey is the vice president of business and culture transformation at Harvard Business Publishing.

Resources: