Planning the Resources Conversation

The resources conversation is an ongoing negotiation with your new boss for critical resources. Before you launch this conversation, you should agree with your boss on the business situation you face, goals and expectations, and mutually effective working styles. Now you must secure the resources you need to meet expectations.

The resources you need will depend on the situation and differ at different points in time.

• In a start-up situation, your most urgent needs are likely to be adequate financial resources, technical support, and people with the right expertise.

• In a turnaround situation, you need authority, backed by political support, to make the tough decisions and secure scarce financial and human resources.

• In a realignment situation, you need consistent, public backing to get the organization to confront the need for change. Ideally, your boss will stand shoulder to shoulder with you, helping to pierce through denial and complacency.

• In a sustaining -success situation, you require financial and technical resources to sustain the core business and exploit promising new opportunities. You also need periodic pushes to set stretch goals that will keep you from drifting into complacency.

The first step is to decide what resources ” tangible and intangible ”you must have to succeed. Identify the resources already available to you, such as experienced people or new products ready to be launched. Then identify the resources you will need help in obtaining. Ask yourself: What exactly do I need from my boss? The sooner you can articulate the resources you need, the sooner you can broach these requests in conversations with your boss.

It is best to put as much as possible on the table as early as possible. Try using the menu approach, by laying out the costs and benefits of different levels of resource commitment. If you want my sales to grow 7 percent next year, I need investment of $ x . If you want 10 percent growth, I will need $ y . Going back to the well too often is a sure way to lose credibility. If it takes some more time to get a handle on what resources you need to achieve specific goals, then so be it. Michael Chen negotiated for the necessary time ”a critical resource ”so he could avoid this problem.

Play or Change the Game?

You may be able to achieve your goals by playing the game according to the prevailing rules. If you can maneuver within the accepted cultural and political norms, your resource requests will be expected ”and you will find it easier to get what you need.

In other situations ”notably realignments and turnarounds ” you may need to change or even abandon established ways of doing business. Your resource requests will probably be more sweeping, and failure to secure them more damaging . You will have to negotiate harder to get what you need. These circumstances call for being clear about how the situation, expectations, and resources all have to line up to give you a reasonable shot at success. Clarify your needs in your own mind before you enter these discussions, back them up with as much hard data as you can get, and prepare to explain exactly why you see certain resources as essential. Then stick to your guns. Keep coming back. Enlist others to help make your case. Seek out allies within and outside your organization. It is better to push too hard than to slowly bleed to death.

Negotiate for Resources

As you seek commitments for resources, keep these principles of effective negotiation in mind:

• Focus on underlying interests. Probe as deeply as possible to understand the agendas of your boss and any others from whom you need to secure resources. What is in it for them?

• Look for mutually beneficial exchanges. Seek resources that both support your boss s agenda and advance your own. Look for ways to help peers advance their agendas in return for help with yours.

• Link resources to results. Highlight the performance benefits that will result if more resources are dedicated to your unit. Create a menu laying out what you can achieve (and not achieve) with current resources and what different- sized increments would allow you to do.