Managing up and across

Managing your boss

• Think of the relationship as a partnership in which depend on each other to succeed and influecne each other

  • Are you meeting expectations?

    • performance targets
    • information
      • develop a sense of what your boss wants to know
    • support and loyalty
      • when you do honestly agree with your boss, say so clearly and explicitly
      • be generous and assume the best intentions, even when you disagree

  • Does your boss trust you?

    • negotiate what you both mean by "do the right thing"
    • make sure you share a common understanding of the challenges
    • make sure your boss knows your goals and plans and agrees with them
    • do u negotiate expectations when you're given an assignment?
      • do this at the beginning, and update expectations periodically. warn your boss of potential risks, and play out various scenarios of how you might handle them

  • Do u see and understand your boss as a person?

    • do u know enough that you're able to see the world through his eyes?

  • Can u identify your boss's strengths?

  • Are u clear about what you need and expect?
    • negotiate what you need from your boss. what can he do to help u?

• Think of her dual roles as extremes between which he moves back and forth depending on the situation

  • in small ways, test her willingness to provide support
    • you can see when, where, and how he's likely to focus on development rather than evaluation
  • learn his feelings about what's important in management
    • such as careful planning, decisiveness, building consensus - and make sure you develop and display those qualities

Get to know your boss's boss

• Interact with her

  • smile and say "hello" when you see her
  • ask how you can help her. Re-introduce yourself if you see she doesn't remember you
  • treat her like the very important customer she is

• reach out to her when oportunities arise

  • send her a congratulatory e-mail if she gets a promotion or award
  • send her a link and ask whether she's heard about it if you find an article or book that's relevant to her interests

• tap her for advice

  • ask for input on courses you're thinking of taking
  • "John thought you might have some helpful insights for us...", also make your boss look good

• leading or joining a cross-functional team is an opportunity to raise your visibility

make your boss look better to his boss

reference

• [HBR Guide to Managing up and across]