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I have a Director position at a large corporation that is growing extremely fast. I just spearheaded a huge purchase of which I am solely responsible for. This will greatly increase the scope of responsibility for my role within the company. Four years ago I was a freelancer at the same company that was creating my "department" from scratch. I've had to sort of blindly navigate the business politics side of this. Here are a few of my issues: -My role has outgrown my own "boss". Since we've grown so much I have been forced to independently handle the responsibility I've created. This has strained my relationship with the person I should technically report to. I think this might be more personal than anything else. -I have to talk to high level executives more that do not understand the technical aspects of what I do. I'd love to learn how to talk to them about how what I do impacts the things that they care about. -My interests overlap other departments' interests but I still need to be able to make my own decisions (especially with vendors). One department head has been very difficult about this and it seems like purely a personality clash. This person does NOT like to collaborate but it seems like the rest of the company is also aware of this. I'd still like to play nice and work with this person as much as possible. -I'd also like to make a play to become the VP of my department which actually isn't its own department yet but has a strong enough identity to become it's own thing (especially after the huge purchase). Not sure how to approach this without looking like I'm going over certain people's heads. TL;DR - I'm having typical growing pains on the fast track from lowly freelancer to VP. I lack a business mentor so I'm curious what book(s) I should be reading or videos I should watch to better understand how to navigate the new territory I'm in.
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Oct 5, 2015 00:59
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 11:33 |
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Buzzwords, lots of buzzwords.
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Oct 9, 2015 04:01
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Do not bore senior people with the technical details of what you do in an effort to seem competent.
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Oct 12, 2015 14:37
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Do not bore senior people with the technical details of what you do in an effort to seem competent. This. Speak only about goals, benchmarks, and KPI.
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Oct 15, 2015 22:01
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Snatch Duster posted:This. Speak only about goals, benchmarks, and KPI. Figure out what their KPIs are and tell them how what you do helps them hit their KPIs.
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Oct 15, 2015 22:43
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When all else fails, talk dollars to the execs. It's what they get. Discuss just how much your impacting the company's bottom line and how your activities benefit shareholders and their own image. Don't bog them down in details and focus on the basics and you should be fine.
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Oct 18, 2015 06:30
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Higgy posted:When all else fails, talk dollars to the execs. It's what they get. Discuss just how much your impacting the company's bottom line and how your activities benefit shareholders and their own image. Don't bog them down in details and focus on the basics and you should be fine. Expanding, if you ever find yourself directly angling for VP, discuss what percent of the company you represent since it seems like you have leverage there.
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Oct 18, 2015 08:19
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Are there any good books/blogs to read concerning these topics? Google searches bring up the usual awful self help dreck.
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Oct 18, 2015 09:41
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Just to echo what has already been said; executives are usually business/econ degree types who will glaze over as soon as you start trying to talk about what you are specifically doing. Just say 'here's my value to the company. Here's how much I bring in. Here's what we could be doing. Here is how much we are losing by not doing what I am recommending.' Just keep it very bottom line oriented. It's fair to mention that you could be expanding business (and thus making the company more money) if you had more leeway, but what you should *not* do is throw anyone under the bus and go 'this department head is keeping us down' or 'my boss and I don't mesh because of X.' quote:-I have to talk to high level executives more that do not understand the technical aspects of what I do. I'd love to learn how to talk to them about how what I do impacts the things that they care about. That's fine, just treat your technical aspects as a function. You can say what it does and what the end result is based on what input without having to explain the actual function you are calling line by line. They won't get technical stuff and they might not even care to get it. I have an interest in technical stuff but at some point when an engineer is explaining something to me I kind of handwave and go 'what is the effect on our financials?' They just want to know what relationship your work has with the money more than anything else. If you can demonstrate that your company could be making more money by implementing your suggestions, they should be amenable. This all assumes your company has competent/reasonable management. It could very well be the case that they're a bunch of morons in which case it might not be a bad idea to break off and start your own little firm. You were vague about what you do so I don't know how viable that is but if your clients/vendors like what you do and you could be doing better it's worth thinking about. I'm not quite sure how to go about suggesting your department become its own big department with you as the head without looking like you're going over anyone's head... that's something that really depends on the company. I've seen companies where employees feel free to email the CEO and I've seen companies where that's totally verboten. I would suggest getting a few of your biggest clients to mention the work you do to the upper level execs themselves - if a few clients say 'gee I really like working with this person and I wish they had more leeway without having to double check with whatever department all the time' that's probably the best scenario. Moridin920 fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Oct 19, 2015 |
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Oct 19, 2015 21:00
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Also this might seem obvious, but you shouldn't get attached to your department. View your First Team with other deparment heads and your vp, not your subordinates. The more you get entrenched into your department and its culture the more likely you will not leave it. EDIT: Read this book. It gives a good insight into relating to upper management. http://www.amazon.com/The-Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership/dp/0787960756 Snatch Duster fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Oct 22, 2015 |
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Oct 22, 2015 00:36
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 11:33 |
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Explain everything like this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=user?UPSWBCampaign
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Oct 22, 2015 14:14
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