Presenting New Ideas to Your Boss

Creating Disney Magic

If you’ve worked at a company for any length of time, you’ve probably come up with some ideas for how it could improve. It’s hard when you get excited about something and bring it to your boss, only to have them shut it down.

On this episode, we’re answering a listener question about this very subject.

This listener explained that when she gives ideas to her boss, he always shoots them down. It’s become such an issue for her that it’s affecting her growth and happiness. She wrote in to ask for better ways to present her new ideas and get her supervisor to be less fearful about trying new things.

There are many possible reasons a boss would shut down an idea. It may be that the idea just isn’t good. However, it could also be that the boss doesn’t want to put in the effort.

Start with analyzing the ideas you’re bringing. Are you presenting them in enough detail? Are you explaining the end result of the changes you’re presenting? Have you thought through what will happen if you don’t implement this idea?

It’s part of your boss’s job to sift through ideas he or she receives. If it’s not solving a problem for them, they probably won’t be apt to consider it.

At some point, though, it’ll come down to two choices for you. Wait it out until that boss leaves the company or move on yourself.

If you’re wired to do new things and think you have great ideas, it can feel like a slap in the face to have them continually shot down.

This has happened twice in my own career. I didn’t align well with my boss and I felt like they weren’t listening, so I moved on.

To hear more about this issue and learn ways I liked to be approached with new ideas in my time at Disney, tune in to the rest of the episode. If you have another question you’d like us to answer on the show, reach out at http://leecockerell.com or http://jodymaberry.com.