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| By Jason Fitzpatrick Stop Dreaming About Killing Your Boss (or How to "Manage Up" for a Happier Workplace)
This week we're taking a peek into the book Working with You is Killing Me: Freeing Yourself from Emotional Traps at Work by Katherine Crowley and Kathi Elster. The book covers quite a range of topics, like identifying the roles your boss and coworkers are playing, freeing yourself from your role, managing up to get a handle on a bad boss, and managing down to get a better handle on your team. Today we're taking a peek into the chapter "Managing Up—Taking Control" to highlight some techniques you can use to manage your boss and move your relationship away from a contemplating-vehicular-manslaughter one to an understanding and effective one. Understanding the Origins of Bad Bosses and What it Takes to Manage Up
So where does that leave you? If you're still reading, there's a big chance that it leaves you unhappy. You're in a position where you're being managed by a boss with lackluster capabilities and, in ways big or small, it's impeding your ability to do your job and grow at your job. You're not completely powerless, though, and that's where managing up comes in. Photo by arte ram. To successfully manage up and influence your boss for the better, you need to be willing to accept that your boss has limitations on what she can do (just like you do) and that you are as much responsible for the relationship you have with your boss as she is with the relationship she has with you. Stop bemoaning how your boss can't read your mind, doesn't communicate well, appreciate you enough, give you enough personal attention, or any of the other things we fault bosses for doing poorly. If you're unhappy with your boss but you just react to your boss' management style instead of interacting with it and preemptively changing it through your own actions, you'll never be happy at work. The Five Pivotal Practices of Managing Up
Train your boss to meet with you regularly. They consider this the most critical of the five pivotal practices. One of the biggest frustrations employees express about workplace communication is that it is sporadic and ineffective. Rather than try to glean meaning from your boss' desk fly-bys or his cryptic emails, schedule time to talk with him. You don't need a lot of time, but you do need to meet with them regularly for at least 15 minutes. How can you ensure these meetings go smoothly? Use the second pivotal practice. Come to every meeting with a detailed agenda. Managing up is an active pursuit. If you're going to ask your boss for 15 minutes every Monday afternoon to touch base, you'd better make it worth her while. Make an agenda for the meeting that includes topics you want to discuss, prioritized by importance so the big topics get addressed first. Put everything on the agenda even if you don't think you'll have time—maybe you'll luck out and have time or maybe it will get rolled over to the next meeting. File your agenda notes so you can reference them in the future if need be. Keep a pulse on your boss's changing priorities. It's easy to get sucked into a selfish view of your workplace. After all, you worry the most about yourself, about your career, and what you have to get done that day. Even if your boss is a saint, she still needs to juggle way more than you do and you need to keep tabs on what the priority of the day, week, and quarter is. Check in at the beginning of the work day and midway through with questions like "What do you need today?" and "What else needs to get done?". It helps you because it allows you to ditch things from your to-do list that are no longer relevant to your boss's focus and it helps your boss because they now have a focused and attentive employee.
Anticipate problems and offer solutions. How many times have you heard a coworker say something like "Oh the copier broke? Yeah it was making a weird noise all last week." Why didn't your coworker say anything or call for a repairman? People like that aren't preemptive. You want to be preemptive. Solve problems when they are small. Suggest tangible solutions to recurring problems. Your boss can't do everything, nor is he likely even aware of everything going on in the office. Wouldn't you notice and appreciate somebody you were managing that made your life easier and improved the office workflow? Photo by arte ram. Always be prepared to give status reports on your project at anytime. Crowley and Elster have interviewed hundreds of people who have a sour outlook on reports. Many people have a hostile attitude towards status reports and other workplace reporting mechanisms because they view them as invasive. Masters of the managing up technique, however, understand that keeping your boss informed on the status of their projects means that their boss is in a better position to make decisions and better able to respond when their supervisors demand updates. The better your boss understands how far you are on large projects and delegated tasks the more competent you look and the more relaxed your boss will be. To recap: Set up regular meetings, arrive at those meetings with a detailed agenda, check in with your boss and dialogue with them about solutions for workplace problems, and keep them updated on the status of projects and tasks, and you'll be light years ahead of everyone else in your office when it comes to employee-boss relationships (and one of the few people that has a real say in how their work-life plays out). If you're interested in learning more advanced techniques for managing your boss and neutralizing hostile coworkers and managers, the rest of Working with You is Killing Me is packed with tips for dealing with everyone from credit-stealing bosses to coworkers with explosive personalities.
| December 31st, 2010 Top Stories |
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| AFTERNOON EDITION published on Friday December 31, 2010 HOT LINKS: WickedLocal.com Wicked Local Politics Traffic/ForeRiver Bridge Openings Buy Photos Forward to a Friend | ||||||||||||||
Rockland family rejoices after return of lost dog  Tim Smith of Rockland and his family feared that they would never see their beloved dog, Diamond, again and today they are rejoicing as the dog has returned home.  Read More COMMENTARY: Congress keeps ceding power to the president In the end, then, the debate over earmarks is not about improving the federal deficit, it's about power over the federal purse-strings and whether to give the president ... exclusive power to decide where money gets spent. Read More UPDATE: Whitman man killed in East Bridgewater crash A 24-year-old Whitman man was killed and three other people were hospitalized after a crash on Route 18 in East Bridgewater on Thursday night. Read More OUR OPINION: Move focuses us on what's good about teachers Too much of our education reform debate dwells on the difficulty of firing bad teachers. That's demoralizing to good teachers and not especially productive. Reforming teacher evaluation is one way to put the emphasis on improving teachers instead of just insulting them. Read More TODAY'S FORECAST: Mild start to 2011, with a few showers Open this story for a full seven-day forecast from the National Weather Service. Read More Young Kingston musician's new CD to benefit music program  Dan Felix, a junior at Silver Lake Regional High School has just released a homemade CD, a compilation of six songs that he wrote and produced, with 100 percent of the proceeds donated to the Joy of Music, an after- school program sponsored by the Kingston Recreational Department. Read More Not your average beanbag  Color, comfort and conformity succinctly describe Yogibo luxury lounge products for bedrooms, family rooms and playrooms. Read More Quincy is temporary home for rays destined for new exhibit at New England Aquarium  As they flap and glide beneath the water’s surface, they look like a cross between a skate and a shark. The New England Aquarium collected several cownose rays this summer and is holding them in Quincy until the spring, when they will be moved to Boston to become part of a new exhibit called the Shark and Ray Touch Tank. The cownoses, about 12 to 18 inches long, will join several juvenile bonnethead sharks in a shallow 25,000-gallon tank at the aquarium in April.
Read More Top Classified: 320 Concord St Rockland MA US 02370  $499,900, Single Family, 3 Beds, 2.1 Baths, Features Single Family Type: Detached Bedroom 2: First Floor Bedroom 3: First Floor Dining Room: First Floor Familly Room: Second Floor Kitchen... Read More | Special Sections
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Traditionally we think of the hierarchy in the workplace as top down, but if top down is making you tear your hair out, you may benefit from managing from the bottom up—guiding your boss from the trenches.
