Thread by @greaterbayo

#21Lessonsin21years: The Ten Commandments of Managing Your Boss (3)- Part 1

Knowing how to handle your superiors may well be one of the greatest skills you need to have at work. Your boss holds the power of life and death (in a manner of speaking) over your career.

He/she determines who is promoted or fired. Fortunately, we can control how our bosses perceive us to a very large extent. I usually tell colleagues at work that it is the duty of the subordinate to manage up his/her superior. It is not only subordinates that need to be managed.

Managing people is actually a three-way thing: managing upwards (your superiors), managing downwards (your subordinates) and managing sideways (your colleagues). The most critical is managing upwards. More people fail at managing upwards than downwards.

It will be crass ignorance to leave things to chance when you can influence the impressions your superiors form about you.

Managing upwards is not about manipulating or controlling your boss. It should not be misconstrued as eye service. It is an aspect of emotional intelligence that you can leverage on to improve your career.

Your boss determines so many things about your career. If you’re going to work for others, you will always have a boss no matter how highly placed you are.

So here are the the Ten Commandments of Managing Your Boss:

1. Recognize that your boss is not perfect.

Your boss is human- no matter how highly placed. He/she can make mistakes. Bosses are not infallible. The best of bosses still have feet of clay. Make allowances for their foibles.

I expect my supervisor to make mistakes. Which human doesn’t? I manage my expectations using this particular law. I am therefore not too disappointed when certain things happen. I judge them the same way I judge myself- by giving them allowances to make errors.

I cut them some slack and this helps me to apply discretion in my assessment of them.

2. Understand your boss.

It is your duty to study and understand the person you report to. People are different and so are their styles. How do they prefer to communicate? Some bosses love to communicate one-on-one. Some prefer e-mails. Others prefer phone conversations.

What’s the most effective way to reach your boss? What’s his/her style? When is the best time to get your issues across to them?

Study their moods. What do they like or dislike? What irks them? It’s better to understand your boss than to seek to change them.

Most of them are already set in their ways and attempting to change them is an error in futility. Your life will become easier when you understand you can’t change your boss but you can understand them.

3. Give your boss credit. Always.

There is no human on earth who doesn’t like to be praised. I learnt this law very early in my career. Always make your boss look good. Truth is if your boss looks good, so do you. If your boss looks bad, so do you.

A superior will never forget any subordinate who makes him/her look good. Anytime I’m doing a presentation at work with my bosses present, I start by acknowledging them and I find a way to give the credit for that presentation to my direct boss.

That does two things: the boss you gave credit to will be delighted and you’ll also have his/her support for that deal/transaction- after all, they have taken ownership by receiving the credits.

Give your boss that feeling that you’re not in competition with him/her and you can get away with almost anything.

4. Loyalty is 120% or nothing

Listen to a truth today: When it comes to choosing between loyalty and competence for leaders, many will choose loyalty. I’m not saying this is the right thing to do but it is what it is. Loyalty is actually a very scarce commodity.

Many confuse eye service with loyalty. A loyal person is the same whether in the presence of the boss or outside of it. Loyalty is not dependent on circumstances or location. You are firm in your support and unwavering in your commitment.

Never speak ill of your boss and don’t keep company with those who do. No one should ever have to say ‘ you said or didn’t say’.

A loyal person is never double-mouthed. Work in such a way that your boss does not have to watch his/her back. If he has to look over his shoulder with you, you will always have to look over your own shoulder too.

I tell people that when I report to any boss, my loyalty is to the company and also to my boss. A loyal person is not necessarily a ‘yes’ man. A loyal person can disagree with your methods but is ready to offer full support to the outcome.

5. Convert your complaints to practical suggestions

When you have a complaint, do it in a positive manner to get better results. There will be areas of disagreement with your boss. You’re not a zombie. You won’t always like their methods.

However, learn to disagree in private and never in public. Don’t put down your boss in public. Don’t try to prove him wrong. Rather, approach him/her and look for ways to bring out practical suggestions from those knotty areas.

Use words of affirmation. Be positive in your outlook. Rather than say, ‘It’s impossible’, say ‘it looks challenging’.

To be continued..

Bayo Adeyinka

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