579: How to Pitch Your Manager, with Tom Henschel

May 9, 2022

In this insightful discussion, Tom Henschel, an internationally recognized expert in workplace communication, shares his expertise on pitching ideas to managers. He emphasizes the importance of understanding your manager’s preferences and framing your pitch with a clear purpose. Tom introduces a three-step storytelling framework and highlights key tactics like building a strong business case and adapting communication styles for remote work. This engaging conversation reveals how to navigate the complexities of workplace dynamics effectively.

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ADVICE

Thoughtful Pitches

Be thoughtful when pitching change to your manager.
Consider their preferences and the overall business context.

INSIGHT

Altitude in Pitching

Consider the "altitude" of your pitch, zooming out to the bigger picture.
Align your pitch with your manager's perspective and their manager's priorities.

ADVICE

Ultimate Audience

Consider the ultimate audience of your pitch.
Think about who your manager reports to and what matters to them.

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Tom Henschel: The Look & Sound of Leadership

Tom Henschel of Essential Communications grooms senior leaders and executive teams. As an internationally recognized expert in the field of workplace communications and self-presentation, he has helped thousands of leaders achieve excellence through his work as an executive coach and his top-rated podcast, The Look & Sound of Leadership.

In this conversation, Tom and I explore the sometimes awkward moment of needing to get buy-in from your manager on a next step, proposal, or funding. We detail three considerations and how attention to them can help you frame this conversation better. Plus, we share tactics such as making the business case, telling a story, and past interactions — in order to help you get forward movement.

Key Points

Three lenses of consideration are helpful when considering how to pitch you manager: purpose, preference, and protocol.
When framing your purpose in making a pitch, it’s helpful to be able to change altitude. Consider “clicking out” on a map to frame the bigger picture.
To be purposeful, make sure you are making the business case for whatever you are pitching. Anger and emotion can be sentinels that you might not have moved past thinking about it personally or framed the business context fully.
Consider past interactions with your manager on how they prefer to receive information. The way you pitch them should begin with their preferences, not yours.
Get intel in advance from other stakeholders, if practical. They can help you see the variables that might be clouding your judgement if you’re too close to the situation.
Clearly frame the problem and examples of it. Consider strutting your pitch in the framework of The Want, The Obstacle, and The Resolution (see PDF below).

Resources Mentioned

Storytelling: A Three-Part Model by Tom Henschel (PDF download)

Related Episodes

How to Start Managing Up, with Tom Henschel (episode 433)
The Way to Influence Executives, with Nancy Duarte (episode 450)
The Way to Make Sense to Others, with Tom Henschel (episode 518)

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