Program Expense Template
You can use the following template to send over to your manager for approval.
While it's true that the program may align with your personal career goals, what your manager is most interested in is how the program can impact the company's bottom line. Therefore, it's important to position the program in a way that highlights its potential benefits for your team and organization. By emphasizing how the program can help the company make or save money, you'll be more likely to gain your manager's support and approval.
This will make the program feel like a no-brainer and create a sense of urgency. Show that your team will fall behind if you don't take this program — or will get ahead if you do.
Managers are more inclined to approve purchases that they perceive as essential solutions to current problems or challenges, rather than those that are seen as mere add-ons or enhancements.
Therefore, when making a request for a purchase, it's important to position it as a "painkiller" that addresses a specific pain point or issue faced by the team or organization. By doing so, you'll increase your chances of obtaining approval from your manager.
Hey manager,
There's a program called Developer to Leader that I'd love to enroll in. It's an online program that has a course plus a community with peers who are in similar roles to me, where 100's of professionals go to level up.
Here are a few highlights about this program:
I get Direct access to Ankita Kulkarni, an expert instructor teaching the course and leading the community. She has taught more than 10,000 students on different important topics to help them level up in their careers.
The program has a lot of accountability built in with,
- 🤝 Honest Feedback from other Leaders: Bi-weekly open Office Hours session for me to ask any questions.
- 🔥 Monthly Hot Seats: They are recorded 1:1 coaching conversations right inside the community so I get to ask and learn from others plus get support from Ankita.
I anticipate being able to put my learnings directly into practice during the course. After the course, I can share the learnings with the team so our entire team levels up.
In addition to the benefits I will gain, I also believe that this program will benefit our team as a whole. After completing the program, I will be able to share my learnings and insights with the team, which will help us all level up our skills and improve our overall performance. In fact, I am convinced that by investing in my development as an engineering manager, we will be able to achieve even greater results as a team.
The program costs $price USD. If you like, you can review course details here: https://www.developertoleader.com/, including the instructor’s bio.
I would be grateful if you would consider approving my enrollment in this course. I believe that this is an investment that will pay off in the long run and help us achieve our goals more efficiently and effectively. Thank you for your time and consideration. I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this opportunity.
What do you think?
Thanks, Your Name
P.S. Other teams have sent a few people to the program together because it's an efficient way to get shared context that otherwise takes back-and-forth time to build. It might make sense for us to send a few folks to this program.