What are the best ways to get noticed in business? Well, to provide your worth, of course, and to know your specialism. The latter often defines the former. However, just because you have good ideas and the willingness to implement them doesn’t always mean things will go your way automatically. After all, few businesses are a one-man team, and even in those cases, a person can be in two minds about their next decision.
Moreover, despite what strict hierarchies would tell you, sometimes the best talent and insight isn’t at the top of a structure. It can come from anywhere. That’s a hard topic to follow up on when you feel a bit nervous about putting yourself out there, but still believe you have a superior procedure or process to suggest. What if a higher-up is notably risk-averse, however? Does this mean you shouldn’t put those ideas forward or try to improve the system you’ve been tasked with if real improvements could be made?
Well, ultimately, the decisions may not be yours. But you can certainly make your voice heard, and no business that wants to hear it is worth your talent. Here’s how to have a higher chance of success:
Position The Problem, Provide The Solution
If you want to have your ideas land well, it’s wise to frame them around the problem first. All managers and higher-ups tend to listen closer when they understand the pain point or the inefficiency, then the solution comes across as more natural and not forced. It also saves you from sounding like you’re just pitching an idea without context looking for credit from not much substance at all.
If you carefully go through both parts, you show that you’ve thought about the bigger picture, not just your own area. That balance is where you’ll be taken more seriously and it’ll show you’re trying to make better systemic improvements, and if you succeed at it, conversations start flowing in your favor too.
Cost As Much As You Can, Or Point To Opportunities
Money always has a huge weight in business talks, both as either the blocker or the motivator. If you can outline how much something costs now versus how much better it could be done, it’ll help you motivate closer listening. It doesn’t even have to be exact down to the penny, just obviously grounded figures with a clear sense of impact.
On the other side of that, if cost isn’t the focus, then frame it as growth potential or missed opportunities. Leaders pay attention to numbers and outcomes, so leaning into either of those angles keeps your ideas more concrete and less like a vague uncosted idea..
Deliver The Technical Detail Clearly
Technical skill is of coursea gift and a curse, because the more someone knows the harder it is to simplify. You have to be patient especially for non-technical higher-ups, stripping down jargon and making the flow digestible. A lot of the time, you only need the right example to make sense to someone who doesn’t live in your domain.
For instance, explaining a tool like Scale Invariant Feature Transform and its impact on image recognition sounds difficult to parse until you show what it does and how it might better integrate in your app. If clarity is your goal and you can point to further detail, then you don’t lose them immediately.