How to Escalate to get work done ...
... while keeping the relationships strong
Think about it: when do we escalate?
You’ve followed up multiple times with your colleague, but it feels like you are talking to a wall.
You want a partner team to take up a support request, and they aren’t able to take it up. If this is a friend, you might even implore, “Dekh lena yaar.” And, they, in all their best intentions, reassure you, “Sambhal loonga.” But then fail to deliver on that promise.
The work doesn’t happen.
So, we escalate.
It’s a way of saying, “This work isn’t happening at my level. Can you pls help unblock?” You want to get off the follow-up merry-go-around, and you ask your manager for help.
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But if its so straightforward, then why does escalation get a bad rap? Sometimes, “escalation” can feel like a bad word. As if you are tattling on your colleagues or getting them into trouble. Which means you get hesitant to escalate, even when its needed.
At other times, escalation gets a bad rap because its overused and misused. It’s overused when we default into escalation as a ‘brute force’ way of getting work done. It’s misused when we escalate without doing the due diligence on why things are blocked. It’s misused when we use escalation to push our way through, without listening to the partner teams’ genuine concerns.
‘Escalation’ is a valid (and powerful) tactic to unblock work. But it works only after you’ve done a root cause of why the work is blocked, and you are clear on the action you need your manager to take. If you use it as a shortcut to avoid these steps; it can backfire.
Escalation is a little bit like your “Cry-Wolf” card; wield it only when its actually needed, and you will build credibility for knowing how to get things done. Wield it when it’s not needed, or wield it too often and it loses its effectiveness.
So, when is it right to escalate?
Escalation is a valid tool when the reason the work isn’t happening is something your manager can handle, but not you. To understand this, lets look at your and your manager’s role in execution.
If you’re early in your career, your manager will be responsible for:
Aligning partner teams – to allocate people or resources from their team to contribute towards the priority
Get required resource allocation – to ensure the right budgets, tools access and resources required for a priority are allocated to it
Ensure the capability to execute the priority exists – either through training internal teams or by hiring external consultant
This is the manager’s part of the deal. If you figure out that execution is blocked for any of these reasons- lack of alignment with partner teams, insufficient resource allocations or capability gaps- then you’ll need to loop in your manager to get the work unblocked.
As a young professional, what’s your end of the deal?
Converting the aligned priority into an execution plan and following through on it with partner teams. Often, you’ll find that the alignment with partner teams is done at a high-level, and you need to translate that into specific actions. So its your job to ensure:
People are clear on what they need to do and by when. They need to be clear on why the deadline matters.
They need to know why they need to do this thing; how it ties into the goals and how it contributes to the priority
If there’s a dependency – I need inputs from you to do my work – then we need to identify this and plan the timings accordingly. If there’s a dependency with a third team that’s blocking the work, then its part of the job to identify that
If execution gets blocked, it’s your job to figure out why its blocked and get it resolved
If you see that execution is blocked for one of these what-and-how-we-execute reasons – you can sort it out yourself.
Here’s a quick summary table to identify when you can unblock the work yourself, and when your manager needs to be in the loop:
How do you figure out why execution is blocked?
We discussed this in the post on “How to follow-up”, about when you sense work is getting delayed, you need to switch gears to ‘root-cause'-and-unblock-mode.’ You can find clues to the root cause from the responses to your follow-ups, and by being observant to what’s going with that team generally. Lets say the partner team has a leadership visit or a launch coming up, you can expect that they’ll be prioritising that in the short term.
Also, you can just ask.
Yes. Ask the other team.
Have a frank conversation saying, “Hey, I’ve been following up for this work, but it isn’t happening. It’s needed by <xyz date> for <xyz dependency>. Where’s the gap – has your manager asked you to work on this – is it aligned in your goals? Is it low priority? Have you done this before, do you have the tools to do it?” Making your probe multiple choice cues the other team to get into details with you. So keep this as detailed or narrow as you see fit.
Approaching with curiosity and an air of trust, makes it easier for the partner team to open up about what’s actually going on.
When there’s a rapport, I even ask, “Have you got this – or will it be helpful to loop in the managers to ensure <this is prioritised for you/the alignment is in place>?” You can plan together - if there’s a need to loop in managers.
Because, now its not about escalation. Its about looping in the right people to unblock the work. If those people happen to be your managers, so be it.
Pro tip: Even if you think you can unblock the work yourself right now; keep your manager in the loop. Give them a high level view of what’s going on: “Work on ABC is blocked for XYZ reasons. To tackle this, I’m takings steps X’Y’Z’. I’ll keep you posted as things progress.” This way, if you do need to pull them in later, things wouldn’t come as a surprise to your manager.
Identify root cause, then escalate.
Repeat after me: Its not escalation, it’s bringing in the right set of folks to handle the issue. I will resist the urge to ‘Cry Wolf!’ or use ‘escalation’ as a Brute Force tool to get work done.
When escalation is done with the intent of bringing the conversation to the right level, or looping the right set of folks to unblock the work – then it actually strengthens the relationship instead of harming it. You can even plan for it together with the partner team.
Now, you tell your manager (with root cause), “Partner team was supposed to deliver <XYZ deliverable> by <XYZ milestone>. After repeated follow-ups, it’s not happened because <Capability gap/Prioritisation gap/Alignment gap>. I need your help to <Specific action for manager to take>. Here’s what you need to do this <background work ready for manager>.”
Instead of looping in your manager with a “They’re not doing the work, help!” message, try digging into why things are stuck first. As a young professional, a big part of leveling up is learning to troubleshoot execution issues on your own. Once you’ve figured out what’s blocking progress, bring your manager in with a clear picture of the problem and what help looks like. You want show, “I’m stuck but I can figure this out. I’ll loop you in where I need your help.”
Putting it into practice
Escalation Don’ts:
Don’t use it to brute-force your way with other teams
Don’t use it without root-causing why the work is blocked
Don’t use it when work could’ve happened by listening to (and talking with) the other team
Escalation Do’s:
Do ask the other team why they’re blocked on the work, and how you can help unblock
Do identify the reason work is blocked: alignment issue, prioritisation issue or capability gap
Do give your manager the root cause and enablers when you loop them in
Remember, escalation is one tool to unblock work. Wield it responsibly.
Let me know how it goes? Did escalation work for you? What challenges did you face along the way? I’d love to hear from you.