Asking a skip-level to unblock a vendor

A vendor is waiting on your company. Your direct path is stuck. A skip-level note that tells the whole saga asks for a meeting. Give them one lever, the cost of silence, and a default you will run.

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The vendor has done their part. Someone on your side has not signed, or has not opened a port, or has not returned a date. You have asked the person who owns it. They have not moved. You now need someone two levels up to pull a lever, not to hear the story.

A saga is how you get a meeting. A lever is how you get a yes.

One lever, one cost, one default

"I need you to tell legal to return the vendor redline by Thursday 16:00 UTC, or to tell me we are walking away. The vendor will release our slot on Friday 09:00 UTC. I recommend you push legal. If I have not heard by Wednesday 14:00 UTC I will tell the vendor we are walking away, in those words."

That is a decision they can make on a phone. The date is honest because it is the vendor's date, not a nervous one you invented.

Do not name eight people who disappointed you. Name the bottleneck and the person who can move it. Skip-levels cannot referee a team they do not manage from a narrative.

Keep the vendor on their own channel

They may not have an account. Write to them separately. They get email and a page. They can reply from the link. Do not put them on the skip-level note, and do not put the skip-level on the vendor note. Each reader needs a sentence they can act on, not a play they were cast in.

If the skip-level has an account, you need an accepted contact. If they do not, they get email too. You do not need a shared exec Slack.

You approve both packages. An assistant can draft. It should not send a threat you will not keep. The default in the first paragraph is a sentence you must be willing to say out loud.

What this is not

It is not a performance review of the person who is stuck. If that is the real conversation, it is a different note, to a different person, and it does not belong in a vendor unblock.

Use names the skip-level already knows. A private nickname for the vendor or for the bottleneck does not belong here.

If the week is already in a session, connect your assistant and cut it to the lever, the Friday hour, and the sentence you will send if they stay silent.

Tags work teams vendors decisions

Frequently asked questions

How do you ask someone two levels up to unblock a vendor?
Name the lever only they can pull, the dated cost of not pulling it, and the default you will run if they are silent. Do not send the saga. They can answer a lever. They cannot answer a history.
Should the vendor be on the same thread?
No. Write to the skip-level, then write to the vendor once you have a sentence you can stand behind. A three-way thread is how everyone waits for someone else to speak.
What if the vendor is not on RelayLink?
Tell them separately, as email and a page. They need nothing installed. The skip-level note is internal. Do not forward them a conversation they were not in.

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