Managing your boss
Depending on your time in the workplace you may have already had a variety of managers. You will probably be working for 30+ years and will see a range of good and bad. During my career I have experience of 25 managers with a mix of male and female, 14 British, 5 American, 2 South African, 1 French, 1 German, 1 Dutch and 1 Brazilian.
In truth I learned something from every one of them and in many cases took the best of what I experienced and made it my own.
I recently did an exercise to rank them with scores across 11 criteria based on generally accepted leadership attributes. The aim of the exercise was to see whether my feelings compared with a more objective analysis on who were the best bosses resulted in the same outcome. The results were interesting with 2 Brits, 2 South Africans and 1 Sri-Lankan American in the top 5. At the bottom were 3 Brits, 1 French and 1 American! The results for the top three positions were very close and it turns out that my feeling on who the best manager was didn’t match the objective analysis!
Based on the experience of these 25 bosses here are some tips in no specific order about how to manage yours.
Learning what not to do is sometimes as good or even better than learning what isn’t.
Transparency is important to build trust. Aim for no surprises. If there is bad news, make sure they hear it from you before anyone else.
Go to them with an idea of a solution as well as the problem, Don’ let your relationship be associated with only problems and go to them empty handed.
Find out what they are good at and learn from them.
Once you have decided what your career plan is ask them to advise and help you.
Try to think of them as a free to access source of knowledge and resources. Then seek to tap into that as many times as you can! They will have a network of talented people that they can introduce you to.
Although a rare skill in leaders, if they can coach you, then use this to the maximum extent you can.
Don’t be defined by your boss. Decide what your personal brand and values are and then communicate them to everyone around you.
Communication is in both directions, every manager will have a different style and priorities, what works well for one might not work well for the next one. For example, one boss I had preferred small soundbites of information and would lose concentration if too much content or narrative was provided, whereas another wanted to see and understand the detail. Quickly learn what’s the best way to communicate e.g. in person, voice calls, email and/or WhatsApp.
Remember they are people too - they have good days and bad days. They came into the world in the same way you did, and their time here is a predictable as yours!
This is general advice that will help you work with any reasonably competent manager. If you are struggling with a very poor manager or there is so something seriously wrong in the relationship then you should seek help from a counsellor, mentor and/or coach.
Acknowledgements
Thank you again Mr William Brown, previously SVP GCC at Software AG and thank you to former colleague, learning experience guru, and business collaborator Shabeena Butt, founder, Playing with Boundaries, for their reviews and comments.
