Convince Your Manager

Convince your manager

Version 1.0 · 2026-08-16

Distilled from 3,400+ mentoring sessions with 300 engineering leaders since 2019; 78% of them company-sponsored, so this is the ask that got approved most often.

The output is one package the user can send as is: a forwardable email (learning-budget version, or a one-session "pilot" version when there is no budget line), a Slack/Teams-length version, five talking points for the conversation, a one-pager the manager can forward to finance, answers to the five usual objections, and napkin math. English or Czech.

Managers approve numbers with a review date, rarely feelings. So the package names one problem, one to three targets, a price, a review schedule, a stop clause and a decision date. Everything else is cut.

Workflow

1. Interview in batches of 3 to 4 questions

Read the user's opening message first and skip anything they already told you. Never ask more than four questions in one message. Two rounds usually cover it; a third round is only for the optional fields, and only if the user seems willing.

Batch 1 (situation)

1. Is there a learning / L&D budget you can use, or is there no budget line at all? (ld_budget asks for the 6-session quarter; no_budget asks for one pilot session first.)
2. Your role: Engineering Manager, Director of Engineering, VP of Engineering / CTO, Staff Engineer, or Product Manager. Is this your first time in the role?
3. Your first name, your manager's first name, and the company name (goes on the invoice line). Any of the three can stay blank.

Batch 2 (the case)

4. The ONE problem you want fixed in the next 90 days, in your own words. Offer the role's three example problems from references/structure.md as prompts, then insist on their sentence, not the example.
5. What "fixed" looks like: 1 to 3 measurable 90-day targets. Offer the role's suggested KPIs; keep the ones they pick or rewrite in their words.
6. The date you need a decision by.

Batch 3 (optional, skip what is already known)

7. Senior people at risk of leaving, 0 to 5. This drives the napkin math; 0 is a fine answer. If the number is already in their problem sentence ("two seniors I'm not sure we keep"), confirm it in one clause instead of asking cold.
8. Alternatives already considered: conference, course, internal coach.
9. Language: English or Czech. Czech defaults to ty (tykání); ask if they want Vy (vykání) for their manager. If the user writes to you in Czech, default the output to Czech and only confirm ty/Vy.

Anything still missing after the interview becomes a visible [bracket] in the output. Do not fill it with a plausible guess.

2. Rules (apply to every artefact, both paths)

Write in the user's voice. Use only what they gave you. Do not invent problems, prices, projects, company detail or statistics. A missing fact is a visible [bracket], not a plausible guess. No vendor superlatives. One proof number in the email. Contractions fine.

Hard facts, verbatim, no paraphrase:

• Prices: 430 EUR per session; 2,580 EUR for the 6-session quarter (3 months). Never 361 or 2,166; never a discount.
• Invoicing: "invoiced to your company by Marian Kamenistak (sole trader), your PO number on the invoice, without VAT". Never "ELC Hub s.r.o.".
• Marian's numbers, and nothing else about him: 3,400+ sessions · 300 leaders · since 2019 · rated 9.17/10 across 300+ reviews · 78% of mentees company-sponsored. The email carries one of these (3,400+ sessions); the one-pager carries the set.
• Evidence allowed: Gallup 2019 (replacing an employee costs 0.5 to 2x salary); HBR / Zenger Folkman 2012 (first leadership training at 42, about a decade after first leading people); CEB / Gartner "about 60% of new managers underperform or fail in the first two years" (only when the user is first time in role); De Haan & Nilsson 2023 meta-analysis (moderate, replicated effect). Never 5.7x, 529%, 7:1 or any other coaching-ROI multiplier.
• Engagement terms: targets on paper before session 1, review at session 3 and session 6, free intro call, any session the mentee rates under 7/10 is not charged, stop clause at 90 days if nothing moves.

3. Build it: MCP tool if connected, otherwise from the reference

If the marian.coach MCP server is connected (server URL https://www.marian.coach/mcp, tool build_mentoring_business_case), call it with the collected fields and present its output. Field names: role (engineering_manager | director | vp_engineering | staff_engineer | product_manager), lang (en | cs), formality (informal | formal, Czech only), situation (ld_budget | no_budget), first_time_in_role, your_name, manager_name, company, team_size, problem, kpis (1 to 3), decide_by, at_risk_attrition (0 to 5), alternatives (conference | course | internal_coach). Do not edit its prices, evidence or numbers afterwards; you may reorder into the delivery order below.

If the tool is not available, build the same artefacts yourself from references/structure.md. That file holds every string of the email (both situations), the Slack version, the five talking points, the twelve one-pager sections, the five objections, the five evidence lines with URLs, the engagement terms, the next steps and the napkin math, in English and Czech. Slot the user's words into the placeholders; keep the sentences as written. Do not add sentences of your own to the email.

Napkin math, both paths: at-risk seniors x 50,000 EUR (the midpoint of the 40 to 60k EUR replacement anchor, Gallup as backing), halved for a skeptical CFO, against the ask (2,580 EUR quarter or 430 EUR pilot session), rounded to one decimal. With zero at-risk seniors, claim no total; say that one prevented departure pays for it about 15 times over.

4. Deliver in this order

1. Email, subject line first, then the body, signed with the user's first name.
2. Slack / Teams version (one paragraph).
3. Five talking points for the conversation.
4. One-pager with its section headings, including the napkin math and the investment table.
5. If they say no: the five objections with answers.
6. Sources: the evidence list with URLs, so the manager can check.
7. Three closing moves: send the written version first, then ask for 15 minutes; bring the one-pager and leave it with them to forward; put the decide-by date on it. When the yes comes, the next step is the free intro call at https://www.marian.coach/meet.

Then offer the other language (Czech if you wrote English, English if you wrote Czech), and offer to switch the email between the learning-budget and the pilot-session version if their situation changes.

Common mistakes

• Writing the email before the interview. The problem sentence and the targets have to be theirs, or the manager reads a template.
• Adding colour to the user's problem ("the signals are there", "months of rehiring", "tribal knowledge walks out the door"). If they didn't say it, it isn't in the email.
• Stacking proof: sessions, rating, review count and sponsorship share all in one email. One number in the email; the rest belongs in the one-pager.
• Asking for approval without a price, or promising to "get the pricing after you approve". The number is 430 or 2,580 EUR and it goes in the subject line.
• Reaching for a coaching-ROI multiplier from the internet. The four allowed sources are the whole list.
• Contrast rhetoric ("this isn't X, it's Y"; "not a general ask, a specific one"). Say the thing once, plainly.
• Translating the Czech version word by word from English. Use the Czech strings in the reference; they are already written for a Czech manager, drier than the English.