The following outlines ways to manage your boss.
Some people behave as if their bosses are not very dependent on them. They fail to see how much the boss needs their help and cooperation to do his/her job effectively. These people refuse to acknowledge that the boss can be severely hurt by their actions and needs cooperation, dependability and honestly from them. A manager’s immediate boss can play a critical role in linking the manager to the rest of the organization, making sure that the manager’s priorities are consistent with organizational needs and in securing the resources the managers needs to perform well.
Yet some managers see themselves as self sufficient, not needing the critical information and resources the boss can supply. It seems that managing a situation of mutual dependence among fallible human beings requires the following:
That you have a good understanding of the other person and yourself especially regarding strengths, weaknesses, work styles and needs.
This information is used to develop and manage a healthy working relationship – one that is compatible with both people’s work styles and assets, is characterized by mutual expectations and meets the most critical needs of the person. This combination is essentially what highly effective managers are found doing.
Managing the boss requires that you gain an understanding of the boss and his/ her own context, as well as your own situation.
At a minimum you need to appreciate your boss's goals and pressures as well as his or her strengths and weaknesses. Such as what are the boss's organisational and personal goals and objectives? What are the pressures? What are your boss's long suits and blind spots? What is his preferred style of working? Does s/he like to get information through memos, formal meetings or phone calls? Does s/he thrive on conflict or try to minimise it?
Without this information, a manager is flying blind when dealing with the boss and unnecessary conflicts, misunderstandings and problems are inevitable.
The boss is only one half of the relationship. You are the other half, as well as the part you have more direct control over. Developing an effective working relationship requires that you know your own strengths, weaknesses and personal style. One cannot change the basic personality of oneself or one's boss. But one can become more aware of what it is about you that impedes or facilitates working with your boss and take actions to be more effective.
Gaining self-awareness about oneself and acting on it are difficult but not impossible, but this could be managed by reflecting on past experiences.
Although a superior subordinate relationship is one of mutual dependence, it is also one in which the subordinate is typically more dependent on the boss than the other way round.
Counter-dependence (when the subordinate acts on his or her negative feelings, in subtle or nonverbal ways, the boss sometimes does become the enemy) & over-dependence (managers who swallow their own anger and behave in a very compliant fashion when the boss makes what they know is a poor decision) lead managers to hold unrealistic views of what a boss is.
With a clear understanding of your boss and yourself, you can usually establish a way of working together that fits both of you, that is characterised by unambiguous mutual expectations.
A good working relationship with a boss accommodates differences in work style. Subordinates can adjust their styles in response to their bosses' preferred method of receiving information. Peter Drucker divides bosses into "listeners" and "readers". Some bosses like to get information in a report so that they can study it others like it better when information is presented to them so they can ask questions. So the implications are obvious (says Drucker) if your boss is a listener you brief him/ her in person then follow up with a memo. If your boss is a reader you convert important items in a memo and then discuss them.
Other adjustments can be made according to a boss's decision-making style. Some bosses prefer to be involved in decisions and problems as they arise; these are high involvement managers who like to keep their hands on the pulse of the operations. Usually their needs are best satisfied if you touch base with them on an on going basis. Other bosses prefer to delegate - they do not want to be involved. They expect you to come to them with major problems and inform them about any important changes.
Creating a compatible relationship also involves drawing on each other's strengths and making up for each other's weaknesses.
The subordinate who passively assumes that s/he knows what the boss expects is in for trouble. Some superiors spell out their expectations very explicitly but most do not. And though many organisations have systems that provide a basis for communicating expectations these systems never work perfectly. Also between these formal reviews expectations invariably change.
Ultimately the burden falls on the subordinate to find out what the boss's expectations are. They can be both broad (what problems the boss wishes to be briefed about and when) as well as very specific when a particular project should be completed and what kind of information the boss needs in the interim).
If a boss is vague and not explicit it maybe difficult to get information out of him but effective managers find ways to do that. Some managers will draft a detailed memo and follow up with a face-to-face discussion. Others will deal with an inexplicit boss by initiating an ongoing series of informal discussions about "good management" and "our objectives". Still others find useful information more 6indirectly through those who used to work for the boss and through formal planning systems in which the boss makes commitments to his or own superior. Which approach you choose would depend on your understanding of your boss's style.
Developing a workable set of mutual expectations also requires you to communicate your own expectations to the boss, find out if they are realistic and influence the boss to accept the ones that are important to you. Being able to influence the boss to value your expectations can be particularly important if the boss is an over achiever. Such a boss will often set unrealistically high standards that need to be brought into line with reality.
How much information a boss needs about what a subordinate is doing will vary significantly depending on the boss's style, the situation he or she is in and the confidence the boss has in the subordinate. But it is not uncommon for a boss to need more information than the subordinate would naturally supply. Effective managers recognise that they probably underestimate what their bosses need to know and make sure they find ways to keep them informed through processes that fit their styles.
Managing the flow of information upward is particularly difficult if the boss does not like to hear about problems. Nevertheless for the good of the organisation the boss and the subordinate, a superior needs to hear about failures as well as successes. Some subordinates deal with the good-news-only boss by finding indirect ways such as a management information system. Others see to it that potential problems are communicated immediately.
Few things are more disabling to a boss than a subordinate on whom he cannot depend, whose work he cannot trust. No one is intentionally undependable. A commitment to an optimistic delivery date may please a superior in the short term but become a source of displeasure if not honoured. It's difficult for a boss to rely on a subordinate who frequently misses deadlines.
Dishonestly is another issue. It's almost impossible for bosses to work effectively if they cannot rely on a fairly accurate reading from their subordinates. Because it undermines credibility, dishonestly is perhaps the most troubling trait a subordinate can have. Without a basic level of trust a boss feels compelled to check all of a subordinates decisions, which makes it difficult to delegate.
The boss has limited time, energy and influence. Every request a subordinate makes uses some of these resources so it's wise to draw on these resources selectively. Many managers use up their boss's time over relatively trivial issues.
No doubt some subordinates will resent that on top of all their other duties they also need to take time and energy to manage their relationships with their bosses. Such managers fail to realise the importance of this activity and how it can simplify their jobs by eliminating severe problems. Effective managers recognise that this part of their work is legitimate and know the need to establish and manage relationships with everyone on whom they can depend including their boss.
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