When you ask an executive for something, tell them exactly what it costs: time, budget, specialists, attention. Vague requests force them to guess. Concrete numbers let them decide.
Chapters
How to communicate with executives, tip number 8: be specific about the effort involved. If you're asking the executive to do something, if you're asking for something from them, you need to be clear about the effort that's involved. This means letting them know if it's a small thing or a big, big thing. Do you need time, money, resources, attention? If you're asking the executive to take an action, Give them an idea of the scope and the scale. Say, this is a small request. We'd like your help talking to someone about this topic. If you're asking for support with a piece of work, say, the piece of work is likely to take a number of months. We're going to need a budget for it, and we're going to need some specialist resources. Be specific about the effort involved. If you don't do this, the executive isn't going to know whether you're asking for a small thing or a really big thing. And you don't want them to guess. When talking to executives, be specific about the effort that's involved.