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Here’s how to get everything you need and want
from the C-suite

I know that most of you would say that’s a nice idea, Bob but my biggest challenge is controlling my PPI items cost, finding more time to do all that is asked of me and squeezing even more out of my limited staff. So what’s this got to do with getting my job done? Well, it’s my opinion, that it has everything to do with getting your job done, more productively, effectively and easily, because with your C-suite’s respect, cooperation and commitment you can get almost anything you want or need done.

As the late, great management guru Peter Drucker told us, "The great majority of people tend to focus downward. They are occupied with efforts rather than results. They worry over what the organization and their superiors ‘owe’ them and should do for them. And they are conscious above all of the authority they ‘should have.’ As a result they render themselves ineffectual."

The operative words in this quote are "owe" and "should have" because it isn’t your C-suite’s responsibility to buy into everything you want or need. As America’s preeminent executive coach Marshall Goldsmith preaches, "In many ways, influencing up is similar to selling products or services to external customers. They don’t have to buy – you have to sell! Any good salesperson takes responsibility for achieving results. No one is impressed with salespeople who blame their customers for not buying their products." In simple terms, too often we are caught up in the blame game when we should be investing this same amount of energy into preparation, planning and practicing how to sell our ideas to our C-suite.

The No. 1 effective way I have found of influencing up is to get your C-suite involved, committed and contributing to your supply chain initiatives. Then you can sell, tutor, mentor, instruct, train, give hints and prime with facts. You can’t do these things if they aren’t in the game at all. So your first goal in influencing up is to have your C-suite members totally and thoroughly involved in every one of your supply chain initiatives.

For instance, we structure our LEAN Value Analysis Program so that it has a steering committee composed of C-suite members that guide, monitor and manage this important initiative. We also have an administrative champion (who is a member of the C-suite) on each of our client’s value teams so they become active versus passive participants in the value analysis program. This is the only way I know of to get a C-suite’s respect, cooperation and commitment with any initiative. Get them involved, and then you can sell them on doing the right things to grow your value analysis program or whatever else is on your agenda at any given time.

Another tactic that has worked well for me over the years is to give your C-suite more choices – if you want more yeses. Here’s how it works: Let’s say you want to move to a new group purchasing organization, but your management is enamored with your current GPO. Prime them with facts (savings, ROI, rebates, etc.), but then offer your C-suite three choices.

The first choice could be to move to a new GPO. The second could be to stay with your current GPO, but join a second GPO to obtain even more savings. And third, to stay with your current GPO, but join a regional alliance to generate more local savings. The probability that your C-suite would say no to all of these options is slim to none. That’s why sifting from push to pull strategy will get you more yeses and is a great way to get your way with your C-suite.

Once you get your C-suite involved and motivated you need to see your C-suite recruits in terms of their future potential, not their past performances, or you won’t move them to the next level of performance. We can’t dwell on the past. Like Dr. Phil would say, "Forget the past – it’s gone forever and let’s start working on the future."

For example, when I was a corporate materials manager for a for-profit system, I was told that I would never take over the lab buying for our for-profit system because the lab director was a friend of our chairman of the board. But I sold, coached, educated and primed with numbers every time I found a good occasion to talk to my CEO, COO, CFO or chairman about it until I finally took over this mission-critical responsibility. If I would have bought into my C-suite’s past performance, I would have never been able to make this change happen.

So if you are looking for more wins with your C-suite, sell them on your ideas, get them involved in your initiatives, give them more choices and don’t live in the past. Only live in the future if you want to effectively influence up.