Leveraging Your Leader - The Polite Escalation

Escalating without the scariness.

Escalations can seem scary. You’re admitting to your manager you couldn’t get something done yourself and you need them to bail you out. You risk damaging relationships with colleagues or, worse yet, senior leaders who might trash you when your promotion comes up for review. Instead of escalating, you send one more email to that PM who is ghosting you. You +1 your manager expecting they’ll review the 12 previous messages in the thread, magically intuit what needs to happen, and take prompt action. They don’t.

Try to solve problems and get unblocked yourself by working directly with whoever is blocking you. Do your best, but when it’s clear you’re getting nowhere, it’s time to escalate. I applaud the drive in my PMs who choose to escalate (appropriately) because escalation is forward progress. It’s far better to escalate and risk ruffling some feathers than letting a project stall out.

Here’s how to leverage your leader effectively when it’s time to escalate:

1. Provide background. Give (only) your manager a crisp written summary of the issue that you’re blocked on and what you’ve already done to try to get unblocked. It’s fine to raise the issue verbally in a 1:1, but give them the background in writing so they can audit your actions up to that point and can ask questions when they need more detail.

2. Make your ask. Don’t make your leader figure out what needs to happen. Tell them EXACTLY what you want them to do. That takes work off their plate. if they think a different course of action is the right one, they’ll say so.

3. Tee up your ask. Write the email you want them to send, tell them who you think it should be sent to. You’ve saved them even more work! It’s easier for them to revise the email to adapt to their style or add additional detail (leveraging the background you already gave them) than to write a fresh email.

4. Be open to course correction. Sometimes your leader will point out different things YOU need to do to get unblocked, or build a stronger case for escalation. Don’t just take the feedback - act on it quickly and learn from it.

Leaders can feel exposed when asked to escalate an issue. They don’t want to get called out because the real blocking issue is on their own team. If they feel exposed, they escalate less frequently and more slowly. The steps above minimize or eliminate that exposure and lead them to act.

The Polite Escalation

My favorite escalation technique is what I call the “Polite Escalation”. It’s a gentle technique that doesn’t trigger the scariness of a real escalation but is surprisingly effective. My team and I use it when another team is slow or wavering on following through on a previous commitment - soft blockers. A polite escalation starts with the same steps above. There’s usually an existing email chain. The polite escalation is executed by the PM replying back on the thread with a message as simple as, “Jeremy, just checking back on this. Do you have an update?“ If I’m not already on the thread, my PM just CC’s me in and may tack on, “Adding Ian for vis.” That tees things up.

My reply is super polite, along the lines of, “Jeremy, thanks so much for helping us on [project name]. I’m super excited about this project and it is going to be a big win for [customer segment]. I’d love to get up to speed on the timeline for your team’s pieces and get confidence this project is on track. Thanks, in advance.”

Often, this is enough to get the other PM engaged and results in a prompt, satisfying reply. A nudge from a senior leader can magically move replying or moving forward a project up their priority list. It’s simple human nature.

If the reply is unsatisfying, it at least gets the project moving and brings to light the real blocker (e.g. “we had some attrition on the team”, “several engineers got moved to [other hi-pri project]”, “My manager doesn’t think this is the right approach”, etc.). Once we know the real blocker we can figure out the next technique to employ, which is often getting into a room.

The polite escalation doesn’t solve all problems, but it is almost always helpful and is often a productive, trust-earning stepping stone to more significant escalations. Try it out and drop a comment to let me know how it worked!

P.S. My teams are hiring for multiple PM roles across Seattle, San Francisco, New York City, and Bangalore. To learn more, make sure to subscribe and keep an eye out for a post with details on the roles and how to take action on any you’re interested in.