If you have a great boss, congratulations. If yours is not so hot, my condolences. In either case, it's important for you to know how to manage that manager. It's a skill set that can have a profound effect on your job satisfaction and success.
Business professors John Gabarro and John Kotter published an article called
"Managing Your Boss" for the
Harvard Business Review way back in 1980. You have to pay to download HBR reprints, but
here's a link to a free HBR summary.
The profs write:
No doubt, some subordinates will resent that on top of all their other duties, they also need to take time and energy to manage their relationships with their bosses. Such managers fail to realize the importance of this activity and how it can simplify their jobs by eliminating potentially severe problems. Effective managers realize that this part of their work is legitimate.
They maintain that without a deep understanding of your manager's world, you short-change yourself. They encourage you to understand your boss's goals and pressures, his/her strengths, weaknesses and work styles. Then assess your own, and take reasonable steps to align both sets. I say reasonable, because no one is advocating becoming a liar in order to accommodate a dishonest boss. We're talking about everyday relationship issues, not the extremes.
I teach "managing up" sessions in many of our Poynter seminars. I've also written columns on the topic, including
"So Your Boss Isn't Perfect" and "
What Do You Have in Common with Your Boss?"But the piece that gets the most response is "
20 Questions about Your Boss," which is based on a quiz I developed for my teaching in seminars and newsrooms. I get lots of requests for copies (the price is right: free.) Those requests come from all kinds of organizations, not just newsrooms. Managing the boss is a universal challenge. You can download a PDF version of 20 Questions here:
20 Questions About Your BossThe 20 Questions quiz checks to see if you can answer key questions that will help you shape that boss/employee relationship. Among them: What's your boss's biggest current pressure? Who's the best boss your boss ever worked for? What's your boss's vision for the organization? What's your boss's blind spot?
Feel free to download a copy of the quiz. On this video, I'll explain how you can use it in your workplace:
