Leadership buy-in. A vital ingredient for any HR professional to make their brilliant initiative happen with the right budget to back it. Sometimes, it feels like trying to persuade your friend to join that fitness class with you. “It’ll be worth it, I promise!”
Convincing the leadership team to approve your proposal and extend the budget you need takes a few strategic steps to make the connection between investment and pay-off.
We've helped countless HR partners convince leaders to support their approaches to manager development because we know what leadership teams are listening for.
Here’s the step-by-step guide our HR partners use to convince their leadership teams to buy in.
Want help with defining measurable outcomes and communicating the ROI of your management training initiatives? We can help!
What is a Leadership Buy-In?
Leadership buy-in refers to the support for your ideas from the executive team.
Getting early leadership support for your project can make things go more smoothly and move more quickly in the end. It also encourages other executives and managers to back it. The overall success of a project often relies on the amount of leadership buy-in it gains.
Why Is It Important to Have Leadership Buy-In?
Resource Allocation: Effective management development programs often require financial investment, time, and other resources. If leadership is not on board, securing these resources becomes difficult.
Prioritization: If leaders prioritize the development program, the organization will recognize its importance and ensure that it is seen as a priority and worth the time investment.
Cultural Impact: Leaders play a significant role in shaping organizational culture. Supporting development initiatives sends a clear message about the importance of continuous learning, development, and improvement within the organization.
Role Modeling: Leaders serve as role models in the organization. If they put their money where their mouths are and commit to training and personal development themselves, others will follow suit.
Overcoming Resistance: Change is often met with resistance. When leadership endorses a new training initiative, it provides the necessary weight and influence to overcome initial resistance or skepticism from employees.
Sustainability: For development initiatives to have a long-term impact, they need to be sustained and supported. Leadership support ensures that initiatives are not just one-off events but are part of a continuous improvement process.
How to Get Buy-In: 7 Practical Steps to Get the Nods and Budget
Step 1: Find Out What Your Leadership Team Cares About Most
What makes them tick? What are their top 5 concerns? What do they want to achieve in the next few months or years?
While each organization has unique strategic imperatives, most share the following business goals:
- Decreased employee attrition rate
- Increased overall revenue
- Increased employee productivity
- Increased customer satisfaction rate
- Improved net promoter score for leaders, managers, or employees
- Positive ROI on training programs
You can find this information by reviewing company or team OKRs, recent leadership announcements in all-hands meetings, most recent employee engagement surveys, exit interviews, NPS scores, and trends across companies in similar industries.
Step 2: Recruit Your Advocate From Within The Leadership Team
Partnering with an advocate who can champion your project within your leadership team can help you secure other supporters early on.
A good champion for L&D programs is someone respected by their peers and cares about People team initiatives and company culture.
Step 3: Ask Questions To Your Advocate
Meet with your advocate to discuss your development initiative. Try to listen at least twice as much as you talk. Use the following questions to guide your conversation:
- I know some important KPIs that the leadership team is interested in. I want to check with you and hear your thoughts. Do these sound right? What am I missing? Are any of these more important than others?
- What is the leadership team’s appetite for investing time and budget in L&D programs? Are there any competing priorities that I should be aware of?
- Who is the final decision maker? Do they own the budget as well? What do they care most about? How should I structure my proposal to align with what they care about?
- Are there any individuals on the leadership team who will be harder to convince? How should I change my approach to them?
Ready to see the tangible benefits of your leadership training programs? Schedule a call to calculate the ROI of a more engaged workforce.
Step 4: Listen to Your Audience
Depending on who your initiative is for, it’s critical to listen to what they want.
For example, you have a management training program that you want to implement. Gather a small focus group of managers (around 4 to 8) or meet them individually. During these meetings, ask them about what they care about and their learning methods.
Here’s a list of questions and discussion prompts that you can use (specific for our manager development initiative example):
- Are you clear on what is expected of you as a manager?
- Where do you feel the most confident in your abilities? How have you developed in that area over time?
- Where do you feel like you have the most room to grow?
- Do you feel that the leadership team role models strong manager attributes, themselves? Where do you need more support from them?
- How do you like to learn? What is an example of an effective development program you have participated in and what made it stand out?
- How much time a week/month would you be willing to invest in your development?
The data and insights that you collect from your target audience will help you formulate a more thoughtful and strategic approach both when achieving buy-in for your proposal and the design of your development program
Step 5: Tailor and Make Your Business Case
Make your business case based on the input from the executive advocate and your target audience. Explain how the problem and solution align with the top business goals that your leadership team is focused on.
Ask your advocate how the decision-makers like to receive proposals. Consider sending a pre-read with clear details. In your pre-read, present a few different options and outline the pros and cons of each, including your recommendation of the strongest solution and why.
Ask for questions they have about your proposal, and prepare your answers in advance.
Step 6: Present Your Proposal
When you meet with your leadership team in person, make your management training proposal and presentation slides simple and keep your narrative to the point.
Reiterate the questions you get during the pre-read (Step 6) and present your answers.
Here are some practical tips for the discussion:
- Pause and ask which section your leadership team wants to discuss in more detail.
- Ask for specific commitment: budget, timing, employee investment, and leadership involvement.
- Be open to negotiation and clearly articulate trade-offs that you anticipate.
- Ask the decision maker how and when they would like to receive updates once you have proceeded with the project.
Step 7: Update Your Advocate and Decision Makers
Once you've secured the budget for your initiative (Yay!), communicate program updates with your advocate and decision-makers on a consistent basis.
You could email out bi-weekly status updates or plan recurring meetings to update in person. If you have any questions from the leadership team as the program progresses, this is an excellent opportunity to get answers.
Treating them as thought partners strengthens your relationship and increases their personal investment in the program.
Securing Leadership Buy In
Securing leadership buy-in requires more than a great idea. It requires a strong partnership, demonstrating a clear connection between investment and pay-off, and engaging strategically with the right people.
When you have a brilliant idea that needs your leadership buy-in, remember these 7 steps:
- Find Out What Your Leadership Team Cares About Most
- Recruit Your Advocate From Within Your Leadership Team
- Ask Questions to Your Advocate
- Listen to Your Audience
- Tailor and Make Your Business Case
- Present Your Proposal
- Update Your Advocate and Decision Makers
Measure and Communicate ROI
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Schedule a call to calculate the ROI of a more engaged workforce. Gain insights into improved productivity, retention, and morale.
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