Manage Your Boss

By Jonathan Vehar

The relationship between you and your boss is important in determining your success at work. However, having a good relationship isn't just a matter of lucking out with the right boss. It takes a focused effort by both parties to forge a strong working relationship that achieves results. Just as it's your boss's job to manage you, it's up to you to manage your boss. By taking an active role in managing your boss, you can decrease misunderstandings, improve day-to-day communication, and become even more successful in meeting the needs of your boss and your organization.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Center for Creative Leadership
• Release date: Mar 4, 2016
• ISBN: 9781604917185

Book preview

WHAT IS Managing Your Boss?

How do I do a better job of managing my boss (or other superiors)? How can I better manage the expectations of my client? How do I get my boss to communicate better? These are questions we regularly hear from the leaders and managers we encounter at CCL.

We also hear complaints from people at all levels in organizations who find themselves not meeting their bosses’ unspoken expectations, having to do unexpected work late at night, or getting lambasted for doing something they didn’t know they weren’t supposed to do or for not doing something they didn’t know they had to do.

To quote the great philosopher Charlie Brown, Arrrghh! These questions and complaints arise from frustration with the communication patterns that exist between leaders and the people who report to them.

And to quote Pogo, a character created by Walt Kelly, and another philosopher king of cartoonish origins, We have met the enemy, and he is us. By which we mean you. Yes, we just made your boss your responsibility. You’re welcome.

If you walk away with nothing else from this book, remember this: It’s up to you to intentionally manage your boss.

In other words, if you don’t know what your boss wants, it’s your fault. If you didn’t know your boss needed it yesterday, that’s on you. If you didn’t meet your boss’s unspoken expectations, that’s because you didn’t manage your boss well. Such a responsibility requires you to be purposeful in how you work with your boss, bosses, clients, or other superiors.

Now, of course, you shouldn’t have to do this. And your boss should be clear and direct and meet your needs and be wonderful and perfect. However, that’s where reality comes into the picture, and that’s why you’re reading this book. Since your boss isn’t doing enough to have a productive relationship with you, that’s where you need to step up.

When bosses and direct reports have a productive, mutually beneficial relationship that achieves strong results, it creates satisfaction for both parties. This relationship requires a sense of inclusion, knowing who is in charge, and an appropriate amount of openness, depending on individual preferences. We also know that people need a sense of accomplishment to feel good about their work and to have job satisfaction. When your relationship with your boss is lacking these features, it’s up to you to fix it.

This strong working relationship may have been good at first, but now both parties are trying hard to figure out how to make it work again. Any good relationship will have bumps in the road that require effort to smooth and then avoid in the future. But as the direct report, when it’s not happening, it’s up