How do you advocate for senior management support of your team?

You always ask questions to yourself first that what are the company's goals and objectives? What are the biggest challenges that senior management is facing? Once you understand their priorities, you can tailor your advocacy messages accordingly. Always highlight your team's contributions. Make sure that senior management is aware of the value that your team brings to the company. This could involve sharing metrics on your team's performance, case studies of successful projects, or testimonials from customers or stakeholders. Be persistent and don't give up if you don't get the support that you need right away. Keep following up with senior management and reminding them of the value of your team.

Knowing and responding to individuals at the top is the most important lever to get buy-in. With knowledge of individual leaders’ expectations from the employees and frustrations at what is not working, you can craft a compelling pitch for your team. You can offer to take on additional responsibilities for the team and in return get buy-in for your other needs. You may term this “stretch on your deliverables to get ok for your other needs”. Ensuring the stretch meets the gaps, and also adds value to the team, is of vital importance. E.g. if a gap exists in social visibility of the company, and the team needs offloading of their transactional work (“scope creep”), then offer to take on the social work and offload the transactional work.

To advocate for senior management support, we need to emphasize our team's contributions to strategic goals, highlight achievements, and articulate how additional support can enhance overall productivity and success. Present a clear business case, showcasing the positive impact on key performance indicators. Communication is key—schedule a meeting to discuss the team's needs and align them with the organization's objectives.

I found it useful in my work with Senior Management to get to know the audience from the audience: straight from the horse's mouth. How? 1. 1:1 meetings are vital otherwise some voices (even if senior management) get lost. Like tracing a phone call in movies requires some minimum call time, make sure you get that call time. 2. People love to correct things. Present them 1:1 with what the team offers but focus on getting feedback. Let them open up. Ask questions, be curious. Probe for war stories.

I’ve seen a big piece of leadership that sometimes gets overlooked is the ability to manage up and down. Key leaders have to be able to connect with the team to motivate them to work towards the company goals. But, a leader also has to be able to advocate for the team when meeting with Senior Management by voicing concerns for possible impacts to the team and what that looks like. If this, then that…. Bridge the communication gap that seems too common sometimes.

I've found it powerful to connect team priorities directly to strategic business goals that resonate with leadership. Quantifying the business impact of investing in your team through data also reinforces the value. Presenting leaders with proposals, not just problems, shows solutions orientation too. But beyond business cases, nurturing relationships through 1:1s builds trust in your team's capabilities. Leadership support grows when they see and feel the excellence you bring.

The size of company and the process of recognition and authority is key. Small company? March in, big company, determine your risk appetite. Essentially it’s like this. Don’t let anyone else own your narrative, go for it, produce the deck, make the reasons for the visibility to get the support. Do not be afraid of bypassing a blocker. But one thing, make sure that you have a popular or validated issue that needs support. Because if it’s self proclamation, you have problems !!

All organisations have a mission and a vision which translates into management goals and further into departmental and team goals. Engaging with the top management shall not only keep you aligned to their goals but also ensure that as a leader of your team you guide the team to drive KPIs and projects which are in line with and add to the organisation’s vision and goals and eventually demonstrate the team performance to the management. Running an agenda not in synch with the organisational goals is a no go , no matter how passionate the team is about it and how well it’s executed.

In addition, pay attention to the specific pain points of individual stakeholders in senior management. Continuing from the perspective I provided on knowing your audience, do the following: Incorporate their feedback to enrich your team's offering. Basically, create a common minimum program that marries your research on multiple stakeholders with your team's offering so that you start from a position of consensus on some points. Use joint meetings to build agreements on the rest. That's where alignment with organizational goals will be very effective. No one wants to contradict established goals. And if your offerings are truly accretive for those goals, nothing like it.

You are the link between your team and upper management. You are the one that should be advocating and celebrating the successes of your team members with senior management, otherwise no one will. Make sure you are preparing your team members to replace you, and let management know that, because unless you are "replaceable", you will not be considered for promotions.

I've always been a fan of highlighting team achievements and progress to the Higher-Ups'. Very easy to point the finger when something goes wrong , but Not all Team-Leaders take the time to highlight team members' achievements especially amidst tough competition and conditions. This will be a morale boost to the team and also help them in their own career progress - Winning Together is the Best Way Forward 💯💯

While showcasing your Team’s achievements to the top management is important for advocating and garnering their support, seeking their feedback is just as essential. While a pat on the back is a morale booster for the team and fuels you to go on, constructive criticism helps you align to the management ask, identify the gaps and implement corrective actions.

Maintaining a continuous line of communication between both parties is important to avoid strategic drift and take corrective measures to achieve overall business goals

From my experience, management makes decision based on data, not on simple ideas without fundamentals. Before approaching management with a suggestion that most likely will consume resources that could be used somewhere else, make sure to be prepared with data that will demonstrate clearly the benefits of such investment.

Frequent communication lines between both parties is essential with a 2 way street ; Periodic reviews with the team to analyze progress can also highlight management inputs required to course-correct and align with stipulated business goals.

You have to be the person they want to work for, and respect or they won’t want to work for you. If they don’t trust that you have their best interest at heart, they will be a short term employee. Short term employees don’t care and just show up to collect a paycheck. There are situations when sometimes you have to say yes and just execute decisions already made. So, when the chance comes to be part of the discussion, show up for your team too, because they count on you. A leader can’t do their job, successfully, without the team doing theirs. A good team can do their job without a leader, for a while before things get off track. If you believe you’re better than the team you represent, you don’t belong in leadership.

Build relationships with senior managers and get to know them as individuals and understand their needs and concerns. This will help you to build trust and rapport, which will make it easier to advocate for your team. Be proactive and don't wait until you have a problem to ask for support. Regularly communicate with senior management about your team's needs and priorities. Be creative and there are many ways to advocate for your team. You could write a proposal, give a presentation, or simply have a conversation with a senior manager. Find the approach that will be most effective for your audience.

While you may be clear about what you need, aligned your teams goals to the organisation’s goals and objectives, demonstrated your team’s achievements and contributions you must also be ready for honest feedback. The organisation’s priorities or budget constraints for example may mean your needs are not going to be addressed and that can be a difficult pill to swallow. It’s important therefore for you to manage your expectations.

These points are well thought out and correct… but this is also under the assumption that management will listen. If the upper management is not trained or educated in leadership skills, or allows input from subordinates than efforts are fruitless. Understanding your personal value, and limitations within your position and management’s flaws will allow you personally to understand your job is a means to your lifestyle and not your life. It might sound crass but it is sometimes truth. Golden handcuffs are usually used to keep employees rather than watch them flourish.

All the above! Is like the paint by numbers, first you need to know the senior goals and what is important, then the Vision of the company aligned with your goals. understand the level of importance of your results (as a team) in main information that the senior levels review every month will open the opportunity to advocate for your team, then the follow up is basic, without it is just a comment or number in the report, you must do follow up because that means is important to you and you are open to feed back and interested. Great Leaders are advocate of their team, but don’t fight if don’t have the skills and enough information.

The first thing is that if Top Management, starting from CEO thinks of the single word 'Improve' then people at the bottom of the hierarchy need not think about getting attention of Senior Management. To improve things and process, the Senior Management would come back to their reportees for suggestions and actions. So, this practice should get reversed for the long run; and department heads should not be liable for seeking the Top Management's attention. But in reality this does not happen in most of the time. Though the department heads and Project leaders come up with brilliant ideas, plans and strategies; they are overlooked. So, if everyone in the organization looks in the simple word 'Improve', this would make a difference.

Advocating for a team requires a multifaceted approach that includes relationship building, showcasing flexibility, quantifying team value, involving team members, and proposing solutions. By adopting these strategies, team leaders can effectively advocate for their team's needs and contributions, ultimately securing the support and recognition they deserve from senior management.