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A Note from Linda ...

All important relationships need to be managed. Your relationship with your boss is no different.

Regardless of your managerial level within your organization, the responsibility falls on you to make sure that your "manager-boss" relationship is steady, positive and productive. It's called "managing-up" and contrary to some believers who think that managing-up is about accumulating "brownie points," managing upward is all about consciously working with your supervisor to achieve results that are best for your boss, you and the company. In other words, it's about creating a relationship where everyone wins.

Today's ezine summarizes a Harvard Business Review article entitled "Managing Your Boss." Even though it was written many years ago, the article offers powerful advice that has changed the way people work, enhanced numerous manager-boss relationships and improved corporate performance and bottom-line results.

So how well would you say you are doing at managing your boss?

My best,
Linda Yaffe
Certified Executive Coach

"Managing up is the deliberate effort to bring understanding and cooperation to a relationship between individuals who often have different perspectives" -- Thomas Zuber and Erika James

A Checklist for Managing Your Boss

There will always be those who view the concept of managing upward as flattery and manipulation. Others hold the common belief that if bosses are wise, they don't need to be managed and such efforts will be viewed solely as attempts to play office politics.

But managing upward is not about ambition, promotions or raises. It's about the job and how to be effective at getting things done.

Here's a review of key points from a classic Harvard Business Review article originally published in 1990, and it remains pertinent today. "Managing Your Boss" was written by Professors Emeriti John J. Gabarro, PhD, and John P. Kotter, PhD.

Mutual Dependence

Two people can be temperamentally incapable of working together. Personality conflicts occur all the time. But when they happen between bosses and managers, differing personalities are only a small part of the true problem.

People usually have unrealistic assumptions and expectations about the nature of boss-subordinate relationships. They fail to recognize that it's one of mutual dependency between two fallible human beings, so they avoid managing the relationship altogether or do so ineffectively.

Some managers behave as though their bosses are not dependent on them. They don't see how much the boss needs their help to do his job efficiently; how their actions can severely hurt him; and how they truly need to be cooperative, dependable and honest.

Other managers see themselves as completely independent of their bosses. They gloss over how much information they need from the boss to perform their jobs well. In truth, a boss can play a critical role in linking managers to the rest of the organization, making sure priorities are consistent.

Other managers assume the boss is a clairvoyant who will magically know which information or help is needed and magically provide it. This is dangerously unrealistic.

Managers must recognize that mutual dependence between two fallible humans requires two components:

1. Having a good understanding of the other person and yourself, especially regarding strengths, weaknesses, work styles and needs

2. Using this information to develop and manage a healthy working relationship—one that is compatible with both individuals' work styles and assets, is characterized by mutual expectations and meets the other person's most critical needs

Understanding Your Boss

Managing your boss requires you to understand him and his workplace context, as well as your own situation. Some managers aren't thorough enough in this regard.

At a minimum, you need to appreciate your boss's goals, pressures, strengths and weaknesses:

* What are your boss's organizational and personal objectives?

* What are his/her pressures, especially from his/her boss?

* What are your boss's strengths and advantages?

* What are his/her weaknesses and blind spots?

* How does your boss like to get information: memos, emails, meetings, text or calls?

* How does your boss handle conflict?

Without this information, a manager is flying blind and problems are inevitable.

Understanding Yourself

You're not going to change your (or your boss's) basic personality, but you can learn which traits, habits or behaviors impede or facilitate working together.

A manager is typically more dependent on the boss than vice versa. This dependence inevitably leads to a degree of frustration and anger when one's actions or options are constrained by the boss's decisions. The way in which a manager handles these frustrations largely depends on predispositions toward those who hold authority positions.

The Counterdependent Manager

Some people's instinctive reaction is to resent the boss's authority and rebel against his or her decisions. A manager may even escalate a conflict to inappropriate levels.

Psychologists call this pattern of reaction to authority "counterdependent" behavior. The counterdependent manager sees the boss as the institutional enemy — a hindrance to progress and an obstacle to be circumvented or, at best, tolerated.

Reactions to being constrained are strong and sometimes impulsive. These managers strongly defend their sense of independence and self-sufficiency, making it difficult to accept orders, especially from a boss who tends to be directive or authoritarian.

The Compliant Manager

At the other extreme are managers who ignore their anger and behave in a compliant fashion when the boss makes what they know to be a poor decision. These managers will agree and conform, even when a disagreement may be welcomed. Often, a boss wants push-back and would easily change a decision if given more information.

The Passive-Aggressive Manager

A third style involves the passive-aggressive manager, who may appear to be compliant and cooperative, but holds counterdependent beliefs of anger and rebelliousness. This manager can be even more dangerous and disruptive because the reaction is covert. Instead of arguing and expressing resentment, he or she will sabotage in subtle ways.

Reactions to Authority

Bosses don't have unlimited time, encyclopedic knowledge or extrasensory perception, nor are they evil enemies. All bosses have their own pressures and concerns that are sometimes at odds with a manager's wishes — and often for good reason.

If you believe, on the one hand, that you have some tendencies toward counterdependence, you can understand and even predict what your reactions and overreactions are likely to be.

If, on the other hand, you believe you have some tendencies toward overdependence, you may question the extent to which your overcompliance or inability to confront real differences may be rendering both you and your boss less effective.

Developing and Managing the Relationship

Ultimately, the burden falls upon the manager to learn the boss's expectations. Working for someone who tends to be vague when expressing expectations can be difficult, but savvy managers always find a way to overcome barriers.

No doubt, some managers will react to this article with disdain, arguing their jobs are complicated enough and they shouldn't have to invest time and energy in managing upward. They fail to realize how managing the boss can actually simplify their jobs by eliminating the potential for severe problems.

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WorkingMatters' principal, Linda Yaffe, a Leadership Development and Certified Executive Coach, uses her senior and executive level management experience to help you achieve your business and career goals.

Whether you are jump-starting a business, advancing your career, an executive or president, Linda’s coaching expertise will provide you with the essential focus, skills and behaviors needed to perform, advance and lead in today’s business environment.

As well, Linda works closely with companies like yours focused on "high potential grooming and leadership performance enhancement" geared toward your top talent and next generation of leaders.

Linda delivers bottom-line benefits to individuals and organizations focused on moving to the highest levels of learning, performance and achievement.

In addition to coaching, Linda delivers Leadership Workshops to small and large businesses.

Linda abides by the strict code of confidentiality and adheres to the highest standard of ethics in accordance with the International Coach Federation.

For more information, please contact Linda by email at LYaffe@WorkingMatters.com

 
 
 


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