1. Managing Your Boss
The two-way conversation of management
By Prof. Sattar Bawany
Managing Your Boss or commonly known as managing
upwards describes the two-way conversation of management,
i.e. that subordinates can influence their own workload and
their manager’s workload in the same way the manager can.
Closely aligned with emotional intelligence, managing upwards
requires a relationship of mutual trust and respect, based around
a commitment to common goals. The benefits for both parties
are significant. The subordinate can significantly relieve the
load of the manager, and more effectively meet their needs. The
manager can make more effective decisions, and provide better
support for the subordinate’s needs and objectives.
Management is a two-way street, and effective managers need
to maintain and develop good relationships - not only with their
teams, but with their senior managers, too.
As a business leader, you will also need to be able to exert
influence upwards - whether directed towards an immediate su-perior,
or a wider senior team - to drive and deliver appropriate
organizational policies.
As well as influencing direction, effectively managing upwards
can help to alleviate pressure on both sides, by managing and
aligning expectations, and reducing the incidence of manage-ment
by interference.
Where do you start?
Form a thorough understanding of the person to be managed or
influenced, and their raison d’etre. Appreciating what motivates,
disheartens, or even frustrates the individual will help you to un-derstand
their priorities. What defines their working style? Under
what circumstances are they likely to feel pressured? What are their
expectations and scope of their role? Do they have any burning issues?
Put yourself in their shoes and try to get under their skin. Confirm
what it is they want as this will bypass common misunderstandings
and enable you to successfully meet and surpass their requirements
and expectations.
One of the most important things for successfully managing upwards
is understanding the context your boss works in, i.e. what are the
priorities, pressures, strategic drivers, key measures/performance
indicators, etc. that define success (and failure) for your boss. Under-standing
these factors allows you to identify the kind of information
and action that best supports your boss. When you are proactively
meeting your boss at their point of need, this naturally leads to an
increase in your credibility. On the one hand, this means being given
tasks with more responsibility, and on the other, more attention to
the advice that you provide.
You can learn a lot about your boss’ context from watching them
interact with others, especially their peers and superiors.
Understand yourself
Effective upward management requires a good understanding of
the strengths that you bring to the table, and how they complement
your boss’ strengths and weaknesses. Do you share a common passion
for strategic thinking? Are you able to navigate effective solutions to
challenging relational problems? Knowing your abilities allows you to
identify and contribute to the issues and challenges facing your boss.
Be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses, as how you behave
in the relationship is just as important as what makes your manager
tick - it is also the part over which you exercise greatest control.
Contemplate your personal style of management and gauge whether
you have any obstructive personality traits. Conversely, you may have
attributes that will smooth the path of the relationship, so identify
them and utilise them fully.
Relationship building
Having acquired an understanding of your manager and yourself,
it is time to develop the practical side of the relationship. This should
extend to being fully conversant with and sensitive to their timetable.
Don’t, for instance, present your best ideas 24 hours before a board
meeting, as they will be preoccupied with the next day’s agenda.
You should also have determined whether your boss is a ‘reader’ or
a ‘listener’ (management guru Peter Drucker claims all managers fall
into these two categories). Readers prefer information presented to
them in report form, so they can study it methodically, while listeners
would rather have the information presented orally.
Create an environment of mutual respect, where if you know they
have weaknesses, or even dislike certain aspects of their job, you can
offer to take on or share those duties. Above all, keep the lines of
communication between you open and lively to ensure you stay on
side and share priorities.
In brief, managing your boss really means “managing the relation-ship”
you have with your boss. You can’t control his actions; all
you can control are your own actions. When there is a conflict in a
boss-employee relationship, the best employees usually are the first to
leave. But if you can’t leave right away, develop coping skills. Try to
deal skillfully with the situation and avoid career-limiting moves like
setting up a crisis situation between you and your boss or lying to your
boss or deliberately withholding important information from him. LE
Prof Sattar Bawany is the CEO & C-Suite Master Executive Coach of
Centre for Executive Education (CEE Global). CEE is a premier network
for established human resource development and consulting firms around
the globe which partners with our client to design solutions for leaders at all
levels who will navigate the firm through tomorrow’s business challenges.
Email sattar.bawany@cee-global.com
Website www.cee-global.com
leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 10.2014 Submit your Articles 47