Help me with this report
December 14, 2009 11:21 AM   Subscribe

Boss Left + (My Strategy Plan*Your Help) = Promotion

I need your input on a strategy plan to get a promotion.

My boss just left the company and last week I had a meeting with my director saying that I want this newly vacant position that I’m fully qualified for. My director was open to my casual suggestion and we had a brief interview consisting of what I would do, and what he would do if he were me and trying to get this promotion. The end to this conversation was for me to provide him a strategy report on what I would do in this position and that our next steps would go from there (so yeah, this could be all for nothing but I got to take advantage of this opportunity).

My top three actions were actually in line with his top three things that need to be addressed so what I’m looking for is your professional guidance on what else I need to include in this strategy report.

Anything you got – layout, content, specific questions to address, examples. What is evident is that at his level there are always questions to be asked so outside of racking my brains for the next few days to make sure all angles of what I have in my head get covered I’m looking for things I may not have considered or better ways to pull this report together.

While not divulging too much I work for a medical device manufacture on the web marketing team (which today now only consists of me so additional headcount is something that needs to be addressed).

I plan on giving him my report this Friday, to get it in his head before the holidays and vacation. Thanks in advance!
posted by doorsfan to Work & Money (7 answers total)
 
Make it concise.
posted by Jacqueline at 12:17 PM on December 14, 2009


This is pretty generic advice, but:

- Break the strategic plan down into short (weeks), mid (months), and long-term (years) goals
- Lay out a concrete action plan on how you will accomplish these goals
- Estimate delivery dates and costs if possible (labour & capital outlay)
- Prioritize goals/actions
- Describe the benefits/impact of your plan (e.g. will increase web store traffic by x%)
- Describe risks and how you would mitigate them (shows that you've actually thought about risks)
- Keep your report short (2-3 pages)
posted by VanCityChica at 12:34 PM on December 14, 2009


Be prepared to have your report handed over to the new person (not you!) hired to fill that position who is then told to implement it with your help. I'm just saying ...
posted by eleslie at 12:48 PM on December 14, 2009 [3 favorites]


Don't kitchen-sink it, as said above. Be concise. Don't try to display every bit of knowledge you have.

Focus on things that really matter and don't wander into minutiae.

Display an understanding of the organization's goals as a whole, outside of your department.

Make it easy to read (bullet points, simple language); you don't want reading it to be a burden.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 1:33 PM on December 14, 2009 [1 favorite]


Bullet points are your friend.
posted by ohyouknow at 3:24 PM on December 14, 2009


Also, it might not hurt to try to take your old boss out to coffee and pick his brain as to what he thinks needs to be prioritized as initiatives for your department, etc. Unless he left under less than positive terms, he should be happy to help.
posted by Elminster24 at 10:58 PM on December 14, 2009


Best answer: Since your top 3 goals are his 3 goals, then you need to focus more on how to reach those goals and not as much on why these goals are the top 3.

For example, if you're doing a PowerPoint presentation, it should be immediately apparent to him what your top 3 goals. This is like a checkpoint for to him to see, "okay, we are on the same page." However, do you need data / justifications on why these are the top 3 goals, just that it should be easy for him to see. If you need more info on this, let me know.

Then the rest of the presentation should be you on talking about how we do this, what you need from him (why, cost, etc), timeline, plan B, etc. You're giving him an expectation and vice versa.

One thing I find to be extremely important is to understand my piece may be a high priority to me, but to the upper management, my piece might be a low priority compare to everything else that is going on the department or company. You may not know how important your piece is to your director until the presentation itself, so make sure to be hyper aware of indications from him and adjust accordingly.

Another important thing is to remember that you are also selling yourself during this presentation. In terms of promotion, you need to show that you can think and act on a higher level, that you can leave the details behind for someone else to take of and that you can manage this from a different perspective than what you were used to. This was really hard for me to learn personally. You do want to show that your knowledgeable but for example, you do not want to go into details like, Go to Desktop, Double click on the IE, Enter URL, etc if he asks how to go to a website... unless he wants to go into such details.

Otherwise, he'll think that you'll knowledgeable but can't filter or prioritize what's important and what are "minor" details.

If you're not doing a presentation but a report for him to read, the concept is the same, although how you carry it out may change. Feel free contact me if you have questions on this!

Good luck!
posted by vocpanda at 12:33 PM on December 17, 2009


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