When Should I Escalate a Problem at Work?
When to escalate a problem at work depends on who can fix it and what waiting costs. Escalate when fixing it needs a decision or resource that someone with more authority controls and waiting adds cost. Handle it yourself when you can fix it or haven't yet made a specific, dated request to the person who can act.
A decision your project needs has been with another team for two weeks. You have responsibility for the project but no authority over that team. You've sent two messages and raised it in a status meeting, and now you're deciding whether to take it to your manager or keep asking that team yourself.
When Should You Escalate and When Should You Handle It Yourself?
Escalate when two things are both true. Fixing the problem needs a decision or a resource that belongs to someone with more authority than you or the person you've been asking. Waiting is also adding cost, such as a deadline you'll miss, work that will have to be redone, or money spent while the question stays open.
If you can fix the problem yourself, escalating gives someone else work you could do. If waiting isn't costing anything yet, you have time to try other ways first, such as a direct request to the person who can decide or the next meeting where the decision is on the agenda.
Before you choose, work out who holds the decision in your organization's hierarchy. Find out who approves it, who controls the budget or staff it needs, and who sets the priorities for each team involved.
These problems need someone with more authority.
A decision that nobody with the authority to make it has made.
Budget, staff or time that only a manager controls.
Conflicting priorities from two managers, where the two managers, or someone with authority over both, have to decide which comes first.
You can still fix these yourself.
A stakeholder who hasn't answered your messages yet.
A request that didn't say what you need or by when.
A task that stopped because nobody named the next step.
What Should You Try before You Escalate a Problem?
Make one specific request to the person who can act before you escalate. Allan Cohen and David Bradford built their model of how to influence people without authority on exchange and reciprocity (Cohen and Bradford, 2005, Journal of Organizational Excellence). In their model, you get what you need from someone you have no authority over by trading something they value for it. They call the things people value currencies, and they write that influence is possible when you have what others want (Cohen and Bradford, 2005, Influence without Authority).
Work out what you could offer the person who can act. It might be information they need, help with part of the work, a smaller first step, or a reason their own manager will accept.
Then check four things.
The request said what you need and the date you need it by.
It went to someone who can make the decision or give the resource.
You offered something the person values.
You told them what happens to the project if the date passes.
If any of these is missing, add it and send the request again with a new date. If that date passes without an answer, escalate.
How Do You Escalate an Issue at Work?
Jane Dutton, Susan Ashford, Regina O'Neill and Katherine Lawrence studied managers' accounts of raising issues with top management to get a change made (Dutton, Ashford, O'Neill and Lawrence, 2001, Academy of Management Journal). Several kinds of moves mattered in those accounts, including how the managers presented the issue, who else they involved, and when they raised it.
Put three things in your escalation, in this order.
What's at risk and by when. Name the outcome, the date, and the cost if the date passes.
What you need from them. Name a decision, a resource, or one conversation with a named person.
What you've already tried. List each request, who it went to, and when.
Leave out the history of the problem unless they ask for it. A long account makes them search for what you're asking them to do.
Send the escalation to the person who holds the decision. Before it goes, bring the problem to your own manager. Send it early enough that a decision still lets you meet the deadline.
How Do You Escalate without Blaming a Coworker?
To escalate without damaging the working relationship, keep the escalation about the blocked work and the decision it needs.
Leave out your view of why the other person hasn't acted. If you explain their behavior, you're asking the decision maker to judge your coworker as well as make the decision.
Before you send it, tell the coworker which decision you're raising and with whom, and show them what you'll send.
After the decision, tell them what was decided and what happens next.
How Often Should You Escalate Problems at Work?
There's no set number.
Keep a list of the problems you escalate this quarter. For each one, note whether a specific, dated request to the person who could act would have fixed it. When it would have, make that request first the next time a similar problem comes up.
If the same kind of problem keeps needing escalation, ask the person who decides it to agree on a rule for it or to hand you that decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I Need to Tell My Manager before I Escalate?
Yes. Tell your manager what you're escalating, to whom and why before it goes, so nothing about it reaches them secondhand. Send the escalation itself to the person who holds the decision. If the decision is your own manager's and they haven't made it, talk to them first and say who you plan to take it to and when.
Should an Escalation Be in Writing or in Person?
Use whichever gets you a decision sooner. A conversation lets the other person ask questions as they come up, which helps when the decision needs context. Afterward, send a short note with what was decided, who does what, and by when.
What Should I Do If I Escalate and Nothing Happens?
Check that the escalation reached the person who controls the decision and named the decision and the date. If it did, raise it once more and say what the delay has cost so far. If there's still no decision, write down the risk, what you asked for and when, and send it to your manager and the people whose work depends on the date.
What If a Teammate Keeps Missing Deadlines?
Escalate when you've talked to the teammate, agreed on a new date, and that date has passed while the delay is costing the project. When you talk to them, ask what's getting in the way. To escalate a teammate who isn't delivering, go to the person who assigns their work. Say what's at risk, what you need, and what you've already tried.
How Do I Repair a Working Relationship after Escalating?
Talk to the person directly as soon as you can. Ask what they need from you for the next step. If they object to how you raised it, agree on how each of you will bring a problem to the other first next time.
If you're moving work forward with people who don't report to you, Get the Buy-In walks you through who needs to say yes, in what order, and what each person needs to hear.
Related Blog Posts:
How to Lead without Authority at Work
How to Handle Responsibility without Authority at Work
How Do I Get Things Done in a Hierarchical Organization
How Do I Manage Up without Overstepping?
References
Cohen, A. R., & Bradford, D. L. (2005). The influence model: Using reciprocity and exchange to get what you need. Journal of Organizational Excellence, 25(1), 57-80. https://doi.org/10.1002/joe.20080
Cohen, A. R., & Bradford, D. L. (2005). Goods and services: The currencies of exchange. In Influence without authority (2nd ed., chapter 3). Wiley. https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/influence-without-authority/9780471463306/ch03.html
Dutton, J. E., Ashford, S. J., O'Neill, R. M., & Lawrence, K. A. (2001). Moves that matter: Issue selling and organizational change. Academy of Management Journal, 44(4), 716-736. https://doi.org/10.2307/3069412
