4 Steps to Align with Your Boss’ Goals and Get Your Impact Project Approved (2 of 5 in series)

You’ve been reading about climate change and global warming, and you’re excited to take action. You’ve started making changes at home, and now you’re wondering what you can do at work to help your organization go green and how you can convince your boss to let you do that, given all your responsibilities.

Implementing an impact project – whether that’s focused on going green or on a social cause– is something that can benefit your organization’s bottom line as well as the planet and the community. As a side note, be sure to check out past blog posts on related topics, such as how sustainability strengthens business operations and provides the market opportunities, to arm yourself with more info when preparing your project proposal.

While an impact project may be something you’d love to do, it likely is not within your job description, which makes it a bit trickier to justify.  The good news is – you can still figure out a way to do it if you’re committed and passionate about making it happen.

You will need to be strategic about which project you propose and how you do it, and above all, to make sure that you take care of your primary responsibilities first and foremost. In the prior blog, I addressed the first step to doing this, which is growing your reputation at work. This will set the stage for your boss to be more receptive to any project suggestions you bring to her/him.

While doing your job well and growing your reputation is the first step, there are other steps that also need to be completed in order to increase the likelihood of your project request succeeding. For example, it is important to ensure that your project proposal, when it is submitted, aligns with the organization’s long-term goals as well as your direct manager’s goals.

Here are four steps to identifying some of your direct manager (aka boss)’s priorities:  

1. Identify your organization’s goals

These can be found in the strategic plan. If you don’t have access to the strategic plan, or there isn’t one for your organization, then you can review beginning of year communications or recurring communications and see what topics are repeated throughout. This will give you a good idea of what is important to the organization. 

2. Drill down to your department or section

Some goals may specifically relate to your department – if you are in a department. For example, you may be part of the marketing team, and one of your organization's near-term goals may be to increase social media mentions and engagement. This could be an area that may directly impact your boss’ responsibilities - and, if your organization is like many smaller organizations, this will likely trickle down to you as well.

3. Ask

Depending on your position, you may be able to directly ask your boss what he/she is focusing on for the coming year to three years. If you are able to have this type of conversation, you may also want to find out what your direct manager’s career goals are, to include that as part of the equation. If a direct discussion with your boss is not an option, ask your colleagues whether they have more info on what your team's goals are.

4. Make a list

Now that you have some info, you’ll want to compile what you collected into a short list of goals that will likely be on your boss’ list to achieve in the short term. You are now equipped with a list of priorities that you will be able to use as input when formulating your project proposal.

Remember, when you create the project proposal, you’ll want to think about what’s in it for your boss and the organization, not what’s in it for you. This will significantly increase the likelihood of a receptive audience.

In the next blog, I’ll be looking at five ways to get your impact project closer to becoming reality to helping your boss solve her/his problems. Check it out now!

Be sure to download our free ’51 Ways To Make An Impact When Not In Charge’, which will help you position yourself to implement an impact project, and get started on some of these today!