How You Can Help Your Boss Manage You Better
Unfortunately, bosses and supervisors are all too often targeted as the enemy. While this might have a positive unifying effect on the cooperation of a team when united against the boss, it can also have a detrimental effect on your career progression. Many of us expect too much from our bosses, assuming that they are indeed capable of managing people effectively, when the reality is that some have been promoted for their talents in other areas such as productivity, strategy and knowledge rather than for their aptitude for actually dealing with people. That is why learning how to help your boss manage you better is a win win situation. Read on to find out more.
Why you should help your boss manager you better
When you do a great job, your boss looks great too! Contrary to what we often think, our bosses want us to succeed. After all, when you do a great job it reflects directly on him or her and is great for the company. Most of the time, our bosses don’t really know how to get the best out of us. They might have been on a variety of team leading courses or management training weekends, but the majority of them will learn the most important lessons about managing people on the job. So why not stop complaining about the flaws of your boss’s management skills in the coffee room and start helping your boss better manage you towards a promotion? You will find that the results will be highly beneficial to you and make work a lot more pleasant.
Why should I help him or her? They are paid to manage me, not for me to train them
While this sentiment is very true, the reality is that if you are unfortunate enough to have a boss who is not very good at managing you, then they are not likely to do a better job without your help. Helping your boss to manage you is not about making their job easier or helping them get another promotion, it is about making your life at work more pleasant and productive, allowing you to shine. The idea is to help your boss help you to perform even better.
Actions you can take to help your boss better manage you:
Get to know your boss’s preferences and peeves
Knowing how your boss works, what irritates them and what they require from you, is the first step to being able to help your boss manage you better. That way, you can target the areas that you know they are capable of addressing without stepping on their toes or activating any irritation on their part. If you know they don’t like to be told what to do or reminded constantly about things that are already on their to-do list, then you will be able to incorporate this information into your own strategy for creating a more harmonious working relationship that will allow you to be able to guide them to manage you better.
Set your boundaries
Depending on what you have discovered about your boss with regards to the previous point, you can go about setting your boundaries. That might include clearly establishing your working hours and how you will handle last minute urgent tasks. Will you take calls on the weekend? Are you open to working extra hours when there is a major deadline and does that mean you negotiate extra flexibility at other times of the month? All of this will help to relieve some of the stress that comes when you feel you are being constantly bombarded with last minute tasks.
Reinforce good behavior
This might sound like dog training, but this technique works in a whole array of learning situations. When your boss demonstrates the kind of behaviour you like, such as giving you detailed feedback on a project or some key guidance, you can encourage your boss by thanking them specifically in order that they may repeat the action. You might say something like: “The feedback you gave me last time was so helpful, would you mind do the same again for this project?” Or you might frame your praise like this: “It was really helpful last time when you allowed me to work on the project from home. I was much more efficient. Can we apply the same work ethic for the upcoming project?”
Ask for a regular review of your work
Look to your boss for a regular appraisal of your work and use that time to highlight the way you like to work and discuss how you can improve your working relationship. For example, if you know you are the kind of person who likes to work to tight deadlines, communicate that so that your boss is not always on your case stressing you out: “I’m happy you were pleased with the results of XXXX, I really do work best at the last minute, under pressure. You can always trust me to deliver on time, although it seems like I might not make it, I appreciate that you gave me the space to prove that I can.” Likewise, if you are the kind of person who needs to sleep on ideas or work alone before joining a group activity, communicate this preference: “For the next meetings, could you give me a heads up the day before about the key issues we will be brainstorming as I am much more creative when I can think about ideas beforehand.” After all, your boss wants to bring out the best in you.
Know how you work
Being able to help your boss manage you better requires that you know yourself and take time to discover how you like to work. There is no point in expecting your boss to magically know what you need if you, yourself, have no idea.