How to get faster approval from your manager

Managing up 101: You can’t force your manager to approve your work. But you can get better at securing their greenlight.

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Read time: 4 minutes

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“Could you review and give the greenlight on this?”

“Could you approve next week’s social media post?”

“Could I get an approval on this product flow?”

Depending on your role, you might ask your boss for approval once to several times a day.

Even directors and vice presidents need to manage up. And if you’re creating anything new, it makes sense to get buy-in each step of the way.

We can’t force our manager to approve our work, but we can embrace that it’s our responsibility to get better at securing their greenlight.

Getting the greenlight faster could save you hours per week. On the flip side, if you can’t get permission to proceed, your work might get stalled. And if your work gets stalled, you might later get blamed for delays.

When you ask your manager for approval, the top thing to do is: come prepared.

Your manager is ultimately responsible

Let’s say your manager takes “forever” to get back to you. Theoretically, if what you’re asking is simple, they should approve it quickly, right?

Not necessarily.

Your manager is ultimately responsible if anything bad happens on their team.

Let that soak in for a minute.

Your manager’s head is on the chopping block for any negative outcomes.

I didn’t fully appreciate this until I became a manager. I found myself hesitating to approve stuff that Past (Non-Manager) Wes would have expected her manager should instantly approve.

All of a sudden, I had to consider second-order effects, potential negative externalities, whether the output met the quality bar, etc. I didn’t want to say “looks good to me” if it didn’t, in fact, look good.

Ideally, the individual operator should feel accountable for their work. For what it’s worth, I only choose to work with people who feel personally responsible for their decisions. So if you are one of these people, keep that sense of care and integrity. It’s one of the most scarce things you bring to the table.

At the same time, any manager worth their salt is going to take responsibility when one of their team members messes up. A good leader is going to say,

“It’s on me. I should have caught that, or known better, or trained my team better.”

A good leader takes the heat on behalf of their team. Chances are, your manager has already (and continues to) take heat from their manager because of what you or your team has done.

Meanwhile, subconsciously, you know that once your manager approves, you’re kind of off the hook. “My boss said it was okay, so I did it.”

This is the real reason why managers and leaders can’t just quickly approve everything that comes across their desk.

Their job and their reputation is on the line in a way that yours isn’t.

Proactively share key information upfront

To empathize with your manager, think about the gravity of what it means when they give you their seal of approval.

So what can you do to make your manager’s life easier and get your work approved faster? There are things I personally do, and encourage my team to do:

Anticipate questions. If they’re likely going to ask you a question about X, you might as well ask yourself first.

Proactively share what your manager needs in order to make a good decision. Don’t force them to pull crucial information out of you! You are closest to a project, so you have context they don’t have. Decide what’s important to share, then volunteer this information proactively.

Be honest about potential risks, downsides, or sensitivities. When you proactively share what might go wrong, you show your manager that you’ve thought carefully about a project. This gives them confidence that you’re going in clear-eyed, and that you’re reducing the chances of unpleasant surprises.

Share information in a way that’s easy to digest. Do not bury the important part between paragraphs of secondary importance. This applies whether you’re speaking or writing.

Be explicit about what you need. Your manager wants to know: “How can I help you? What do you need from me?” I’ve listened to direct reports speak for 10 minutes, and at the end, still didn’t know what they wanted me to do. This is a good format to kick off the conversation so your manager knows what you need:

“I’d like to give you an update about X, and the thing I need from you is Y, ideally by Z date.”

Basically, don’t make your manager think too hard just to approve your work.

When you share an appropriate amount of context up front, they’ll be able to approve and get off your critical path. Then you can continue doing great work that makes you and your manager proud.

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