Leaders are evaluated by their ability to communicate effectively. Influence is the key to leadership and leaders often need to sell their ideas to motivate others. However, it is not always an easy task to sell an idea “up”. It depends on your ability to persuade, requiring you to move people toward a position they don’t currently hold. You need to frame your idea in ways that appeal to the diverse group of leaders in a convincing way.
Here are 5 power tips to help effectively deliver your proposal “up” either to your executive team or the board.
1. Get their emotional engagement with a clear problem statement.
Before you present your proposal, think of the why behind that. The “Why” will give you the problem statement. Start your case with the Problem Statement and how it is affecting your organization. It could be an engaging patient story or some sort of shocking statistics. You need to engage them at an emotional level, to the point where they are convinced not just that the problem exists; but actually, it is now their problem.
2. Insert your idea in alignment with the organizational vision.
Once you have gotten their attention, time to swoop in your big idea. You need to have clarity on how your proposal will be serving your organization’s mission and vision by solving the said problem. This is where you talk about the value proposition and ROI. It might be getting the organization the competitive edge it needs, an affiliation, a valuable partnership, Physician retention, or simply an additional revenue stream.
3. Get to the implementation details.
Now is the time to get to the details on “How” you can make it happen. Consider these questions. What are your key resources? What activities need to happen for moving from point A to point B? How much is the investment? What other data do you have to support your proposal? Who are your key partners within and outside the organization? You do not have to have the whole rollout plan ready but enough information to assure them that you know your data to see it through.
4. Before you close, don’t forget the heart of the conversation, the people.
While it is necessary to get the data right, numbers alone are not going to be enough.
Before you close, engage at an emotional level again, on how your proposal will help the patients, the quintessential reason you all are there in the room. You could use the same patient story you have shared in your problem-statement with an imaginary and visionary successful outcome this time. You could give case studies from other organizations on how they have benefited from similar plans in place.
5. Leave room for questions.
Remember more questions you receive, the better the presentation is going. Questions simply show their engagement. Make sure you provide enough room for questions throughout the presentation and at the end.
Finally, my friends, I leave you with these two quotes. “All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.” and “There is no glory in practice but without practice, there is no glory.”