How to manage your boss

Who is a boss?

A boss is a person who exercises control over other employees in a workplace environment. Over time, the term has come to have negative connotations (note words like bossy and mob boss), and many people who now lead others in the workplace prefer to be called supervisors, foreman or forepersons, leads, or managers.

“The boss” may refer to the person who is the head of a company, not merely in charge of subordinate workers but in charge of all lower level manager and supervisors, sometimes called middle management.

Some people don’t mind being called bosses, when the term does not occur out of disrespect. In such cases, it can merely mean the person has authority over subordinates. Yet it is more common to see people labelled as bosses who possess and abuse authority. When a manager becomes overly bossy, he or she is a boss in the worst sense of the word.

It’s nice to imagine that the success of your career rests upon your basic competence at doing your job, but that’s only half the picture. Raises, promotions, and other perks depend directly on how well you can manage your boss. If he or she doesn’t warm up to you—or worse, doesn’t remember that you exist—you’ll never land the plum assignments you need to get ahead.  In addition to performing well, you have to make sure the boss knows about all the things you’re doing right, while also building personal rapport so that he or she will keep your best interests in mind.

Reassure your boss that you know what you’re doing

The secret fear of every boss is that employees are screwing up and either not telling anyone or (even worse) aren’t aware there’s a problem. To reassure themselves, bosses may sometimes pick an aspect of an employee’s job and begin randomly asking penetrating questions about the details. If you answer these queries with grace and aplomb, the boss assumes you’re competent. Hesitate or evade, and the boss may assume all your work is slipshod.

What your boss expects: The basics

1.Credibility. Follow through on assignments and do what you say you’re going to. If you want your boss to trust you, your word has to carry weight.



2.Professionalism. Bosses appreciate individuals who are serious about what they do and willing to take the time to achieve a deep understanding of their craft.



3.Integrity. The test of integrity is whether you’ll take a stand, even when it’s unpopular with your boss. The boss has the final decision, but it’s your job to make sure it’s the right one.



4.Caring. Bosses value relationships with direct reports who care about them. Show that you’re truly concerned about what the boss has to say by responding with solutions rather than complaints or excuses.



5.Knowledge. Bosses need people who have unique expertise. You don’t have to be a pro at everything, but you do need a specific area of knowledge that your boss values.



Bosses are forgetful – Make sure yours knows just how valuable you are

When you’re working your butt off, it’s easy to assume that your boss knows exactly what you’re doing. But even though she may have assigned your work to you, in the crush of daily pressures and changing priorities, your contribution easily gets lost in the shuffle. Worse, you could end up pursuing goals that no are longer important priorities.

Self promotion without killing yourself

If marketing yourself to your own boss feels a little slimy, think about ways you can casually talk things up without overselling — and without driving your core message into the ground. Each interaction should add new information, and when you can, fold the message into the day’s news, for example: “I just got off the phone with a candidate for the Marketing job. We’re getting resumes from some really impressive people.”

Enlist others to spread the word about your importance to the company

You may think you have a one-on-one relationship with your boss, but you’re actually part of a crowd of people — from your peers to your boss’s peers to your boss’s bosses — who influence the boss’s decision-making. Their comments and gossip will inevitably affect your boss’s opinion of you and your work, so you want to be certain that, if they’re not actively singing your praises, at least they’re reading from the same hymnal.

Understand where he came from in order to know what he expects

Now that you’ve convinced the boss that you’re competent, it’s time to make yourself invaluable. To do this, you deliver what the boss wants — even before he knows he wants it. Over time, of course, you can observe and learn, but fast-track the process by researching the boss’s career and asking questions that will help you understand his way of thinking. This activity has a side-benefit — your boss will be flattered that you’re interested.

The relationship with your boss is probably the most important relationship you have at work. Boss management can stimulate better performance; improve your working life, job satisfaction, and workload. Give your boss a hand and reap the rewards.



1. Decisions: If you do not want a ‘no’ or procrastination, give him/her a hand

Your boss has other subordinates, other decisions to make. Thus, her (for simplicity, we use ‘her’ from now on in this article) best bet, if she is pressed for a decision, will be to say no. No, it is too risky; no, we do not have enough evidence; no, it is the wrong timing; no, it is off strategy, et cetera.

• To avoid the ‘no’ that will ruin your and your team’s enthusiasm, give her a hand;
• Remind her of where you left it last time you met;
• Remind her of the objective rather than rushing to the ‘what’ and ‘how’;
• Remind her of past problems encountered because a decision was not made;
• Quickly summarise the options considered, your criteria for selecting one option -- the one you are presenting;
• Tell her what you expect from her: simply to inform, to decide jointly, to share the risk, to add one criterion, to re-examine the option;
• Focus on the points where you need her help;
• Be prepared with facts/data for potential disagreements. Help her out with graphics and visuals so that the situation is grasped faster;
• After your meeting, summarise for her the decision in writing to make sure of the understanding;
• And finally, once a decision has been made, your way, her way or no way, do not criticise it externally. You have become the best defender; the best ambassador of what was decided.

2. Manage his/her time: You may represent only 1% of her problems, don’t make it as if it is 100%

Yes, you have preoccupations, problems to solve and issues to tackle. However, while your time is entirely devoted to them, do not expect your boss’s time to be also.

• The more simple the problem or issue at hand is, the less time you should have her spend on it: prepare, summarise, and synthesise information and options. Do not confuse your more frequent problems with the most important ones.
• Book her for several meetings in advance. Nothing is more frustrating than to have to wait days, weeks or months for that extra new meeting needed in order to finalise a decision or a project.

3. An opinion: If you ask for his/her opinion, he/she will always have one

Rare are the bosses who, when asked for their advice or their decision, will use the psychological ping-pong approach of retuning the question to the person who asked.

And their opinion may not always be that of a genius or a visionary. However, once given, the opinion becomes a constraint: was it an order? So, if you don’t want your boss’s opinion to thwart your achievements, to slow the speed of decision-making, or cloud the viewpoint, then don’t ask for it. Best of all; don’t ask if you don’t need her opinion.

• Choose the right moment to avoid procrastination: not only save her time by focusing on big issues, but choose the right moment to do so. If you present an issue at the wrong moment, the chances are she will procrastinate.

nPrepare for your meeting: first because the advantage is to the one who is prepared, second because the preparation helps you reduce the time taken to come to the central issue.

• Show the forest before the trees in a discussion: if you want to avoid spending a lot of time on going back to basics before she is at full speed with you, start with the basics yourself. Remind her of the objective, where you stand today, and what you want her opinion on.

4. Information: It is not data

Turn grapes into wine: you are supposed to analyse the results of a market survey, and not be the mailman who passes the thick document full of statistics to your boss. So be selective; be visual; group the data; bring out what is essential. Data overload creates stress, which in turn can create denial, rejection, and numbness. As a manager, you are paid to collect the grapes (data), and turn them into wine, i.e. useful information.

• Don’t give him/her only the bad news: give hi/her also the good news. If you keep bringing only bad news, little by little you become the bad news yourself. Don’t minimise good news, because you want to focus on the problems. By doing that you contribute to creating a bad atmosphere.
• Make sure he/she does not get the information from others too often: sometimes by being shy about what we should give or because we think it is not relevant, we don’t feed our boss with key elements. However, other people could do it before you. And then the hassle starts. “I heard that…”, “Why didn’t you tell me that…”
• And then you need to justify yourself; you may need to modify incorrect information. The trade off is between too little information leading to starvation, frustration, and/or restlessness vs. too much information leading to overload.
• Participate in and contribute to her informal network: every manager, hopefully, does not rely solely for managing on formal information given in internal documents and reports. Some people use internal informal networks. Some others also have an informal outside network of experts, friends, business connections that help them shape their vision of the world and how to act. You have yours; your boss has too. Why not volunteer part of yours, so that you do not always have to react and be defensive about information fed by people you do not necessarily think are the best sources?

5. Problems: Don’t just come with problems, come also with solutions

Good bosses hate two kinds of behaviour. The courtesan who always comes to tell you how great you are and the pyromaniac/fireman who comes to tell you “There is a huge problem” and then says “but don’t worry, I will solve it!”

There is also a third kind, the monkey transferor. She has a problem and she puts it on your shoulders, rather than bringing a solution or at least some options.

Problems usually have several aspects. It is usually a gap between an objective and the result; there are options to close the gap; there is a choice of one option to be made; key tasks, dates, people and resources needed must be defined.

On which of those steps in problem solving do you want your boss’s input? Just be clear on what input you want rather than come with the stressful “I have a problem…” and throw the monkey.



6. Assumptions: Do not assume she knows as much as you do, but assume she can understand; so educate her

Please help, you are the expert. You spend all of your time and that of your team on the issue. You live with data, pressure points and levers; your boss does not. She does not know more than you do.

Most senior executives are even dangerous when they get involved in making micro-decisions, as their point of reference is often not the current one but rather the situation they knew when they were junior managers. If you need her perspective, it is because it is broader; she has a better sense for inter-relationships with other parts of the organisation. You have two options.

• You inundate her with technical stuff she does not understand, hoping that the amount of technical jargon will knock her down and force her to agree with you. It may work, but it may become a barrier in communication leading to lack of trust.
• You educate him by simplifying, using easy to understand language, feeding him with articles, examples, best practices, summaries that help him see a perspective. By creating understanding, you relieve tensions; create trust that can lead to better decision-making.

7. Delegation: Constantly test the waters

It is not always easy to define ex ante what is delegated to a person. Some companies prefer to use the principle of subsidiary rather than the principle of delegation: the principle of subsidiary stipulates that you can do everything except the following list, whereas in the principle of delegation you stipulate, “you cannot do anything except…”

Whichever is used, there will always be some doubt whether you have or do not have the delegation. You have two options: either you play it safe by always asking your boss’s opinion. This can lead to paralysis, bottlenecks and your own demise, as your boss will think you are unable to take responsibility.

Or you assume too much, take decisions and learn after the fact that it was not yours to decide. In between, there is the ‘test the waters’ strategy especially for things or areas, domains or steps that are unprecedented.

8. Promises: Do not promise what you cannot deliver, and avoid surprises, trust is at stake

Trust does not develop overnight and depends a lot on the predictability of the other person: what she says and does, how often she is living up to or not living up to her statements. In the same way, you will not fully trust your boss if she changes her mind too often or says things contrary to what you were told the last time.

You also want to avoid being seen as unreliable by not delivering on what you promise or surprising her with bad news without forewarning.

Do not promise dates for finishing projects you cannot handle. If you see that too much is asked of you, sit down and re-discuss priorities before proceeding, rather than becoming yourself a bottleneck. Involve your boss in the process, so it becomes a common priority.

Avoid bad surprises. If your job is to be in charge of a particular area, then it is also to be in charge of bad results and improving them.

Involve your boss in discussing and evaluating the risks, agreeing on key lead indicators that you will both share, so that neither you nor he will be surprised. For instance, whereas sales are not a good lead indicator, future orders or bookings can be. Cash in the bank is not, whereas good cash flow three months in advance is.

9. Differences: Manage differences in culture

Sometimes at IMD we use a questionnaire called the Power Map to help participants identify their own culture (i.e. values they cherish, leading to certain behaviours), to identify other executives’ profiles and discuss consequences on communication and leadership in a team.

To simplify, the four main types of profiles that our survey identified are:

• People who like to ‘control things’ and introduce processes, develop more the ‘now’;
• People who are more concerned with people, develop more the impact on people;
• People who are more concerned with getting things done, start with key actions;
• People who are more concerned with ideas, frame proposals in concepts.

Of course, in managing your boss you should know her personal inclination, as well as your personal bias. If you are process oriented, you will tend to present issues in a systematic and orderly fashion, with pros and cons, chronology of tasks, etc.

If your boss is the action type, she could be bored. So in that case an executive summary, emphasising the key actions and results would be a handy starting point.

10. Trust: Don’t be sloppy in your documentation. It undermines trust

By making the assumption that she will check what we write or say anyway, and that he/she will make changes, we sometimes tend to be sloppy in our writing. Tables are not finished, text is not re-read, places we are going to are not visited beforehand, spelling is not checked, and information is missing...

By not finalising your facts, arguments, memos, spelling, supporting documents, etc., you can be sure some things will get changed, mistakes corrected. And soon you will be asked to show more facts and figures, and you will see more changes, more amendments. Soon all the delegation you had will be gone.

Conclusion

Better work between a boss and his subordinate is not just a matter of leadership. It also has to do with boss ‘management’, which can stimulate better performance, faster decision making and accomplishment of more … by both parties.

“The essence of the relationship between the boss and the team member is built on trust: once trust disappears on either side, then the relationship is effectively over.”

Managing your boss is not as difficult as it may seem and ‘managing upwards’ has become an accepted term in today’s corporate workplace. No matter what your position in a company, you need to be able to communicate well with your superior and focus on the things that matter to him or her. This is essential to career development success, as well as ensuring that your working relationships are effective.

Whether your boss is easy or difficult to engage with, here are some tips that should help you to manage upwards:

• Understand your boss’ objectives and how they fit into the company’s overall goals. Don’t be afraid to be inquisitive and ask questions about these.
• If your boss isn’t in overall control of the company, but in turn has a superior, try to find out what this higher-up’s priorities are, so that you can understand what motivates your boss, what puts them under pressure, and what drives their objectives.
• Keep your boss informed about details of day-to-day issues. He or she may not be close to these and could rely on you for crucial information but be conscious of how much information he or she actually needs.
• Don’t ask your boss to give detailed guidance on absolutely everything. It’s a manager’s role to make decisions, but if you come up with options to choose between, it saves time and reflects well on you.
• When presenting ideas, ask yourself how these will improve the company’s bottom line and how they fit in with your manager’s objectives. If they don’t match up, then reconsider and adjust them until they’re a good fit.
• Suggest how being given various tasks may affect your overall workload, and then establish what the priorities are. Ask which projects need to be completed first and give an honest appraisal of expectations. For example: “We could definitely get this done by Friday, but that will mean that completing the other project slips to next week. Which one is most important to complete first?”
• If you bring your boss a problem, bring a set of solutions too. Avoid consulting your boss about a problem if you haven’t spent time thinking of ways to resolve it.
• Come up with solutions that you can implement yourself and ask for the authority to go ahead with one or more of them.
• Co-operate with colleagues at the same level as you, or below, to work on solutions to problems or suggest ways to achieve the company’s and your boss’ goals.
• It’s also a good idea to find out about their pet hates and what he or she considers unacceptable. Whether it’s being late, poor spelling in emails or bad language in the workplace, make an effort to avoid these. The key to upward management is that it should be based on making sensible suggestions for ways to resolve issues, and understanding when it’s important for your boss to make decisions.
  
  
  
  
  
  

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(The writer is the Managing Director & CEO, McQuire Rens & Jones (Pvt) Ltd. He has held Regional Responsibilities of two Multinational Companies of which one, Smithkline Beecham International, was a Fortune 500 company before merging to become GSK. He carries out consultancy assignments and management training in Dubai, India, Maldives, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Nalin has been consultant to assignments in the CEB, Airport & Aviation Services and setting up the PUCSL. He is a much sought-after business consultant and corporate management trainer in Sri Lanka. He has won special commendation from the UN Headquarters in New York for his record speed in re-profiling and re-structuring the UNDP. He has lead consultancy assignments for the World Bank and the ADB. Nalin is an executive coach to top teams of several multinational and blue chip companies. He is a Director on the Board of Entrust Securities Plc.)