Gbiz Email To Senior

---
name: gbiz-email-to-senior
description: Drafts an email to a senior stakeholder with a subject line that states the point, the bottom line first, the ask with a date and a tone check for someone several levels up. Use for "run gbiz-email-to-senior", "email to a director", "email to senior management", "how do I ask my boss's boss", "rewrite my email to be shorter", "email asking for a decision", "professional email to a senior manager", "chase a director politely", part of the Claude for Business Graduates Pack by Polar Bear.
---

# Email to Senior Stakeholders

## When To Use
You need something from a director and keep rewriting the first sentence. A decision, a sign-off, five minutes of their time, or a piece of bad news they should hear from you. This answers: what is the point, what exactly do you need, and how do you make it easy to say yes?

## When Not To Use
If this goes out every week, run Weekly Status Update. If the ask needs options, costs and risks before anyone can agree, run Business Case and send this email with it.

## Inputs
- What you need, from whom (by role), and by when.
- The background in your own words, and what you have already tried or done.
- Your draft, however rough, and any earlier thread, with confidential details masked within your employer's AI policy.
If you have none of this, I start from one line on what you need and by when, and mark the output as a first draft.

## Approach
Bottom line up front, from the US Army's correspondence standard (AR 25-50, para 1-38), with the GOV.UK writing guidelines for short sentences and plain words. Senior readers triage on the subject line and the first sentence, so both carry the point. The failure it prevents is the three-paragraph warm-up that ends with "let me know your thoughts", which gets read last or not at all.

## Workflow
1. Ask three questions: what exactly do you need and by when; how well does this person know you and the work; and is any of it bad news?
2. Write the subject as the point or the ask, not the topic. Example pattern: "Decision needed by [date]: [what]" rather than "[Project] update".
3. Write the first sentence as the bottom line. For bad news, put one line of context first so it does not land blunt; this is where strict bottom line up front breaks.
4. Add context in two lines at most. Anything the reader needs to dig into goes in an attachment or a link.
5. State the ask with a date and the easiest way to say yes: a choice of two, a draft to approve, or "unless I hear otherwise by [date]" where your manager agrees that is acceptable.
6. Add one line on what you have already done, so they do not reply asking for it.
7. Run the tone check: no apologising, no stack of hedges ("just", "I was wondering if maybe"), no jargon, no exclamation marks. Read it as someone with thirty seconds on a phone, then cut again.

## Output Format
```markdown
# Email to Senior Stakeholders
**To:** [role] | **Cc:** [role, only if needed]
**Subject:** [the point or the ask, with the date]
[Bottom line in one sentence.]
[Context, two lines at most.]
[The ask, with a date and the easy yes.]
[What I have already done, one line.]
[Sign-off]
## Tone check
| Check | Result |
|---|---|
| Point in subject and first sentence | [yes / fixed] |
| Ask has a date | [yes / fixed] |
| Hedges and apologies removed | [list removed] |
| Readable in thirty seconds | [yes / cut] |
## Decision
[You] decide whether to send, and send it yourself by [date]; [recipient's role] decides [the ask] by [date].
```

## Done When
- The subject line alone tells them what you need.
- The ask has a date and a way to say yes in one reply.
- The body fits a phone screen without scrolling.
- The tone check is filled in, line by line.

## Quality Bar
- One email, one ask; a second ask is a second email.
- Never criticise a named colleague; describe the issue and its effect on the work.
- Polite and direct beats deferential; "Could you confirm by [date]?" beats "Sorry to bother you".
- Claude drafts; you read it, change it and send it yourself.

## Next
Run gbiz-business-case (Business Case) when the ask needs a full recommendation.

## About the makers

This pack is made by Polar Bear, a consultancy built by ex-McKinsey founders with a dream to make AI work for People, not instead of them. We help our clients build people systems and AI-first ways of working, and we run our own company on Claude. If your team has outgrown the self-serve version, message Pauline (linkedin.com/in/paulinebertry).