Build Solid Relationships With Senior Management

Ten minutes. That’s how much time you are given to leave a positive impression on your company’s C-suite executives during your quarterly board meeting. Will you make it or break it? If you’re feeling intimidated, you’re not alone. While workplaces have evolved over the years, most companies are still governed by a hierarchical structure where senior executives sit behind closed doors. This creates a feeling of intimidation and a lack of trust, not knowing how your advances will be perceived. 

But you know that building good relationships with your bosses still needs to be done despite limited facetime. Indeed, as businesses increasingly expect senior leaders to manage more far-flung teams and spend more time with distant clients, opportunities for facetime are few and far between, and yet are a priority for employees looking to strengthen relationships with senior management. 

In traditional industries like Finance where establishing good relationships with C-suite leaders is crucial to advancing one’s career, it’s an even tougher feat. Everyone’s vying for the boss’ limited attention, and it’s common to see people go the extra mile by making dinner reservations or purchasing gifts for the boss’s birthday. Sometimes, it may even be tiring for you to have to constantly put up a fake front, in the hopes that someone in senior management will take notice of you and place you on a promotion panel. 

Common Mistakes People Make

In my experience, however, the top mistake people make when trying to establish relationships with senior management is not being  genuine or trying too hard. I’ve seen many cases where the manager doesn’t put in the hours or the work, and tries to claim credit for their employees’ work by selling it off as their own during a board meeting. They might also take advantage of their boss’ leniency. 

As someone who’s in senior management myself, I trust people very easily. I give everyone a fair chance to prove themselves. But I can also tell when someone’s trying to abuse my trust just to get ahead. It then becomes very difficult to rebuild this trust and to some extent, also destroys our relationship. Always remember that authenticity is the name of the game when it comes to building relationships. 

Another way to go about navigating this is to identify which type of boss your boss is. There are generally two types of leaders. The first is those who like it when others play to their ego, and the second is those who cannot be bothered with office politics. Differentiate between the two and play your cards wisely. 

Paving the Way for Relationship Building

There are three prerequisites to cementing a good relationship and these are usually prerequisites on the senior management’s part. First and foremost, the leader needs to make the first move in terms of showing how it’s supposed to be done. For example, by opening up and by initiating conversations. The second prerequisite is a feedback culture. Your company’s senior management should be implementing this culture in the true spirit of leadership. The third thing your senior management needs to implement is an open and honest dialogue with the team without the fear of repercussions.

In terms of having an open and honest conversation, I am the kind of person who has always been outspoken in talking to the seniors directly if there are certain things that I feel strongly about. These could be with regards to a problem in the organisation, or people that I can’t get along with. 

As such, every time I enter a new organisation, I try to spend time with people, who may be five or six levels below me, on a one-to-one level. I realise that this helps me to connect with them, and to understand what difficulties they may be facing. This helps to create a culture where people feel comfortable, and where they can trust that the conversation will remain between the two of you. 

If These Building Blocks Don’t Exist...

If these prerequisites are not in place, all’s not lost. Whether you decide to initiate something to bring the relationship to the next level will depend on your personality and your level of contentment in your job. People who stay quiet and don’t reach out to the senior management to change the status quo could feel that their job is important to them and they don’t have a better opportunity elsewhere. 

Otherwise, if you decide to push for an open and honest culture in your company, look for influencers. These could be senior leaders who might be willing to listen to you and implement changes to establish a culture where employees feel comfortable approaching senior management to have a casual chat.

In most instances, you’d want to prove that you’re good in order for senior management to trust you. When an opportunity comes their way, you want your senior leaders to know they can count on you to get the job done.

For most organisations, especially smaller companies, the element of grapevine is prevalent when you first join and you may believe in some of the things you hear about a particular senior leader. You haven’t proven yourself then, so you may choose to believe in some of the rumours floating around.

It is completely normal to be afraid of approaching senior management at the beginning. But within the first six to eight months, set your mind to achieving two things. The first is to prove your worth to the organisation. Once you have proven your value, you will automatically become more confident to challenge certain norms that you may not have been comfortable with disrupting initially.

For example, back when I was working at a financial institution, I was tasked to give a presentation on a transformation plan to the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) within the first month into my job. During the meeting, the group’s CEO shot down all my ideas and bombarded me with tough questions. I felt offended because this was my area of expertise and I had ten years of experience in this aspect. I wanted to humbly voice out my objections but the Managing Director (MD)’s face told me otherwise.

After the meeting, I went to the MD and asked him why don’t we just voice out our opinions when we agreed to this transformation plan previously. He told me that some things take time and the bosses might want to see some progress before acceding to our transformation plan. I understood that. Four to five months later, we had another conversation with our bosses. As it turns out, I was able to push my suggestion through as I had sort of built an excellent track record in my work with them.

Assuming you have already proven your worth, the second thing to do is to start requesting for facetime with senior management. But this again depends on who your manager is. Is your manager the sort of person who will help you ask for facetime or are they the kind of person who will turn down your request because they feel threatened? If it’s the latter, you could consider leaving for greener pastures elsewhere.

Do Your Homework Beforehand

It’s important to do your homework before talking to somebody in senior management, be it when you are giving a presentation or when you are approaching them for a casual chat. You need to be prepared, while coming across as proactive and responsible. Your mindset is also crucial. Bear in mind that the senior leader is going to have a few more decades of experience than you, and may have critical questions or feedback about what you’ve presented. Take it as an opportunity to learn and accept their comments with grace.

The second element in presenting to senior management: preparation. Rehearse, rehearse and rehearse. Get your key talking points right and think of ways to deliver them effectively before giving your presentation. Make sure you also know who else from your team is into this conversation with you. Ask yourself who you can trust to not try to claim credit for the entire team’s work. That will enable you to be one step ahead in terms of preparation.

I Screwed Up, What Next?

Should you do something wrong, apologise and start over. The sooner you address your gaffe, the better. In the majority of instances, the senior leader whom you might have offended would likely not even think of your mistake as big of an issue as you’d perceived it to be! If you’re truly valuable to the organisation, a manager will always look past the occasional blunder and treasure your relationship.

In conclusion, don’t rush into cultivating a relationship with senior management as it may come across as not being genuine. Some things take time. When you have spent enough time in your organisation, you will start to understand who has the ear of whom. That’s the puzzle that you then need to piece together to figure out how to get your word to the right stakeholder in a strategic manner.

1 Bring Authenticity to the Table

Do not regard building relationships with senior management as a ploy. Treat them with the respect they deserve as fellow human beings and you will be treated with respect accordingly.  

2 Prove Your Worth

Once you have proven your value to your organisation, you will get noticed by senior management naturally. They will also have no qualms about trusting you to get the job done.  

3 Prepare, Prepare and Prepare

You only get that opportunity to impress your bosses once. Make sure to prepare adequately before going into that board meeting to nail your presentation to the company’s top brass.