Leadership Tip - Managing Your Boss

“Managing your boss isn't a matter of "apple polishing" or playing politics. It involves working together to generate the best solutions for you, your boss and your company”.
- cvtips.com/career_advice_forum/-vp9652.html#9652

Can we really manage our boss? Probably not but we can enhance our relationship with them build by effectively communicating, better understanding their preferred style, and by building a trusting relationship.

We must also align on expectations by having a clear understanding of the organization’s vision, mission, and goals, our responsibilities that support them, and holding one another accountable.

Joe Takash and Bahaudin Mujtaba, management experts, provide the following 8 tips to improve the boss relationship:

1. Learn your boss’ communication style. What level of detail do they prefer? How often do they want to meet? Identify who seems to communicate best with them and try incorporating their style with yours.

2. Be proactive.
Understand the strengths you bring to the organization and ensure your boss is aware of them. If you have ideas, share them and be prepared with a plan to start to take action.

3. Meet regularly.
Schedule (minimally) monthly meetings to discuss your progress against goals, areas of improvement, and update your development plan.

4. Ask for your boss’ opinion.
Ask for their perspective on things. State your idea and approach, and ask for their input. If you’re the boss, ask your team for their ideas and LISTEN.

5. Go to your boss with solutions. Most of us have heard “don’t come to me with problems, come to me with solutions”.
That doesn’t mean we don’t ask for help or have questions but rather that we have
thought it out, have solutions (which may have failed) but would now like or need another
opinion.

6. Develop a power that makes you attractive.Become an expert, stay apprised of changes in your industry, understand the competition, have the dream customer/business partner relationship.

7. Address problems.
If you seem at odds with your boss, talk to them. Do it when you can have one another’s full attention, remain fact based as to why you feel uncomfortable, and keep your emotions in check.

8. Play devil’s advocate.This doesn’t mean having open disagreements or making your boss look “wrong”. Instead say “Let me play devil’s advocate” so you are viewed as stating an alternate opinion which may bring additional light to the situation.

Invest the time to build a relationship with your boss, understand how they prefer to be communicated with, and model your leadership behaviors to support those preferences. You CAN make a difference!

Jan Mayer-Rodriguez
Michael W. Kublin
www.peopletekcoaching.com
Learning Leading Succeeding
888.565.9555

“That's the relationship. You're trying to live up to the boss's view of your best self.” - Dale Dauten