Managing Upward - Working WITH Your Boss
Below is a MRR and PLR article in category Business -> subcategory Management.
Managing Upward - Collaborating Effectively with Your Boss
Summary:
Enhance your productivity by fostering a collaborative relationship with your boss.---
In challenging times, your boss might exhibit unpredictable behavior, becoming either overly controlling or neglectful. Priorities may shift daily, leaving you uncertain of expectations. This can lead to missed deadlines, unnecessary tasks, frustration, stress, and even burnout.
What can you do? Consider these approaches:
Option 1: Lead Proactively
1. Understand Your Boss:
- Goals: What are your boss's objectives? How can you contribute to achieving them?
- Challenges: Identify recurring issues that hinder your boss’s effectiveness. Are these your strengths? Can you take charge of tasks like meetings, communication, and planning?
- Perspective: View the world through your boss’s eyes. Who are the key players?
- Pressures: Acknowledge the pressures your boss faces and how these might influence priorities and your role.
- Hierarchy: Consider the expectations placed on your boss from higher-ups.
2. Take Initiative:
- Approach your boss with solutions to their problems and demonstrate how you can help.
Option 2: Offer Support
1. Recognize Competence:
- Your boss has their role due to their prior successes and strengths.
2. Self-Reflection:
- Assess your attitude. Are you supportive, or do you often complain?
- Examine your ego. Consider if your boss might be dealing with challenging employees rather than being incompetent themselves.
3. Encouragement and Feedback:
- Provide specific positive reinforcement.
- Offer constructive feedback privately and personally.
4. Value the Relationship:
- Acknowledge that a good relationship with your boss is crucial for your future success.
Option 3: Collaborate as Equals
1. Adapt to Your Boss’s Style:
- Doer: Deliver results efficiently.
- Speaker: Support intuition and recognition needs.
- Listener: Allow them to process verbally before getting down to business.
- Thinker: Present logical and detailed information.
2. Mutual Dependence:
- Understand that both you and your boss have strengths and weaknesses. Get to know each other’s capabilities.
3. Crisis Management:
- Stay calm during crises; gather essential details about needs, deadlines, and usage.
4. Effective Communication:
- Keep your boss informed, especially about issues that may affect them, to avoid surprises.
5. Problem-Solving:
- Bring well-thought-out solutions and recommendations when discussing challenges.
6. Be Dependable and Honest:
- Emulate the kind of employee you would want to have, demonstrating professionalism and reliability.
---
About the Author:
Terence R. Traut is the president of Entelechy, Inc., specializing in unleashing organizational potential through tailored training in sales, management, customer service, and more. Reach Terence at 603-424-1237 or ttraut@unlockit.com. Visit Entelechy's website at [www.unlockit.com](http://www.unlockit.com).
You can find the original non-AI version of this article here: Managing Upward - Working WITH Your Boss.
You can browse and read all the articles for free. If you want to use them and get PLR and MRR rights, you need to buy the pack. Learn more about this pack of over 100 000 MRR and PLR articles.