6 Get Buy-in

If you stop doing certain things, pretty soon somebody’s going to notice! One of the most likely people to notice is your boss! This brings us to the question of buy-in.

How do you get buy-in from your boss?

I’ll give you the gist of the argument – you’ll have to find the exact words.

First, there’s probably a timing issue. Don’t do it when your boss is likely to be grumpy. The best time is probably just after you’ve delivered some project or done your boss some major good deed.

So then maybe over coffee or lunch or similar:

‘Hey boss, we all have too much to do and not enough time to do it. So here’s what I was thinking. How about you and I agree what really really matters. And for those things I guarantee that I will give them the best I can give.

And for those other things could we agree that we just let them go away?

In other words, I’m only going to spend time on the things that really matter and in that way, I can make my best possible contribution to the organisation.’

Then, making it easy for your boss to say ‘yes’, show him your list and ask him / her to give that his / her blessing.

This may or may not work, depending on how persuasive you are and what your boss is like. However, as I’ll explain next, it actually doesn’t matter. You should still do this though – out of courtesy, if nothing else.