The document discusses effective communication strategies for employees to use with their managers. It recommends that employees understand their manager's preferences and challenges in order to manage expectations. Employees should focus on communicating clearly, concisely, and considerately based on the "7 C's" model. The document also provides advice for an intern named Ameena, who is struggling to connect with her busy manager; it suggests steps she can take to improve their communication and what to do if her manager remains unresponsive.
2. 2
Check-In with Coaches
Think about your relationship with your manager:
• What have you learned about working with
him/her?
• What are the benefits to having the manager
you have?
• What are the challenges?
3. 3
Managing Your Manager
Managing your manager means you manage:
• Expectations of your manager
• Your manager’s perception of you
• Success (to the extent you can) of your manager
• External perceptions of your manager
• Communications
• Your relationship with your manager
• What your manager says about
you to others
4. 4
The 7 C’s of Effective Communication
CORRECT
EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION
CONFIDENT
CONSIDER-ATE
CONVER-SATIONAL
COMPLETE CLEAR
CONCISE
5. 5
Ameena, the New Intern
Ameena is a new intern but she hasn’t been able to connect
with her manager, Mr. Thompson, who is very busy. As a
result, she feels like she does not get a lot of time with Mr.
Thompson. When Ameena and Thompson do meet, they are
usually not on the same page. Ameena is really worried,
because she wants to be respected by her supervisor. She
knows she needs to be able to effectively communicate with
her boss but she is not sure what to do.
What can Ameena do to improve her communication with
Thompson?
What should Ameena’s next steps be?
What should Ameena do if Thompson is not responsive?
Editor's Notes
Check-In with Coaches (15 min)
Think about your relationship with your manager? What have you learned about working with him/her? What are the benefits to having the manager you have? What are the challenges?
Review of Lesson 13: Your First Week at Your Internship and Managing Your Manager
In Pro Skills, we spent time on how to manage your manager. This is important because managers want to be able to trust their staff, they want to feel informed, up to date, and know that they have staff who are on their side and that they can rely on.
Managing your manager means all of the following:
Managing the expectations of your manager
Managing your manager’s perception of you
Managing the success (to the extent you can) of your manager
Managing external perceptions of your manager
Communicating effectively--keeping your manager informed in the right way.
Managing your relationship with your manager
Managing what your manager says about you to others
As interns, you now have a better sense of why managing your manager is important component of workplace success. The most important aspect of managing your manager is effectively communicating with him/her.
Remind students of the fundamentals of effective communication they learned and practice in Pro Skills. These skills include active listening and the 7 C’s:
Concise: Gets to the point quickly.
Complete: Includes all necessary information.
Conversational: Invites interaction through a conversational tone as opposed to confrontational.
Clear: Information is clear as to avoid misunderstanding.
Considerate: Provides space for questions and clarifications. Considers the audience’s viewpoint, background, level of experience, etc.
Confident: Presented with a clear and commanding tone.
Correct: All data and facts are confirmed before being communicated
Use the following questions to facilitate discussion with the group:
What can Ameena do to improve her communication with Thompson?
What should Ameena’s next steps be?
What should Ameena do if Thompson is not responsive to her efforts?
Role-play: Invite students to role-play their suggestions.
Note: Make sure that a multitude of possibilities are represented: Thompson as receptive; Thompson as not receptive; Absence of opportunities to meet with him, etc. It is important that students visualize the spectrum of scenarios.
