Walk Into the Budget Meeting as a Business Leader
When you present manager development as part of the organization's plan, the leadership team can weigh it the way it weighs any other business investment.
When it's your turn in the budget meeting, start with where the organization is going, and then show how manager development helps it get there, this year and over the next few years. The leaders who present before you already open their plans this way. They name the goal, what it will take, what it will cost, and what they'll report back. You can present HR's plan the same way, and save the list of workshops for when someone asks.
You present right after the COO
Imagine you're the HR director at a distribution company of 900 people, and it's the annual budget meeting. The COO goes first. He walks the leadership team through the plan to open a second distribution center next spring. He covers the cost of the building, the 40 people he'll need to hire, and the six new supervisors who will run the shifts. When he finishes, the CEO nods, and the CFO asks two questions about timing.
Then it's your turn. Your first slide lists the workshops HR plans to run next year, with a cost next to each one. The CFO asks what the whole list adds up to, and the conversation stays on the price until your time is up. Nobody connects your request to the second distribution center, even though six of the people the COO just described will need to learn how to manage a team.
Notice what the COO did
The COO started with a goal the leadership team had already approved, the second distribution center, and tied every request to that goal. By the time he named the cost, the leadership team was thinking about the center, so they heard the cost as part of opening it.
Your request can work the same way, and in this case it can build on his. The six new supervisors are part of the COO's plan, and how well they manage in their first year will affect whether the new center runs on schedule.
Start with the goal the leadership team has already approved
Open with the second distribution center, and with the six supervisors who will run its shifts. Say how soon their teams need to be working at full speed, and what happens on a shift when a new supervisor and new hires are learning their jobs at the same time. Then say what you'll do to prepare those six people before the center opens, and how you'll support them in the months after.
At a nonprofit, the HR request usually reaches the board's finance committee inside the executive director's budget. The committee guards the reserves, and the executive director wants the second site to open on time. A line that reads "staff training" is easy to trim when money is tight. If you help the executive director tie that line to the program managers the second site will need in its first year, the committee sees the training as part of the expansion.
Give one number for this year, then the longer view
For this year, pick a number the leadership team already reviews. In a distribution company, that might be overtime or missed shipments on teams led by first-year supervisors at the current center. If those teams run more overtime than the rest, you have a reason to prepare the new supervisors before the second center opens, and a measure you can report on next year.
Then give the longer view, and keep it separate. Supervisors who learn to manage well can grow into managers for future sites, so you can promote from within and hire fewer senior people from outside. The CFO may weigh that longer-term point differently from the number for this year, and keeping the two apart lets her judge each one on its own.
Present it the way the COO did
Describe the goal, the plan, the cost, and the risks in plain language, the way the COO did, and say what you'll report back and when.
If your own team will run the program, say up front that it will take a year or more of their time before the results show up in the numbers. The leadership team will see that cost either way, so name it yourself. In the masterclass, we work on how to make this kind of case for your own organization. Save your seat here.
Join us on November 17 and 18
Your In-House Advantage is a free, live masterclass for internal HR, L&D, and OD leaders at organizations of 250 to 5,000 or more employees. It's two 90-minute working sessions, on Tuesday, November 17, and Wednesday, November 18, at 1:00 pm ET (10:00 am PT). In the first, we look at the patterns organizations fall into with new managers and what those patterns cost. In the second, you work on a solution for your own organization and leave with a one-page business case for your CFO.
It's live only, with no replay, and seats are limited. Nothing is sold in session one. In the last few minutes of session two, I'll explain how Symphony 100 works with organizations that want help.
Save my seat for November 17 and 18
Look at the plans other leaders are bringing to this year's budget meeting. Before your turn comes, find a goal in one of them that depends on new managers, and write your opening line about it.
Frank November is the Founder & CEO of Symphony 100 and has been an Everything DiSC® Certified Practitioner since 2014. Symphony 100 Ltd. and Symphony 100 North America LLC are each independent, authorized partners of Everything DiSC® and The Five Behaviors®, which are registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., or its affiliated companies.
