What's the best way to convince a manager to let someone take initiative?

manpreet Best Answer 3 years ago

One of our customer service reps has been with the company for years and is starting to feel like he's outgrown his position and is looking for new challenges.

His manager is reluctant to give him days off from his current responsibilities (even just once/quarter or as a one-shot deal) because he's afraid of how it will impact his metrics and service-level agreements.

How can we make a good business case to convince his manager to let him participate in a project for which he will have to be out of office for two working days?

manpreet 3 years ago

As pointed out by Oded, you and/or the rep need to sit down and talk to the boss.

You basically have two (seemingly) conflicting interests:

• Your boss wants to make sure that the rep's current responsibilities continue to be taken care of.
• The rep wants to develop himself and find a new challenge.

The aim of the talk must be to resolve this apparent conflict. How to do this will depend on the specific situation; some ideas:

• Discuss how the rep can help ensure that his current responsibilities can be taken care even without him. Point out that even if this means more work/risk in the short term (training colleagues, automating things etc.), it avoids problems in the long run because it's risky to depend on one person exclusively.
• Explain how it will benefit the company/department if the rep picks up new qualifications (better quality work, more motivated employee, and better employee retention).

The basic idea is to take the manager's objections seriously, and find solutions for them. If you approach the talk in that spirit, you will probably find a solution.