How to Manage Your Boss

 How do you see your Boss - as a boon or a burden?

It is as much your job to create an effective working relationship with your boss it is his/hers. After-all It takes two to tango. If the relationship is poor, you must be at least half the problem. Once you realize this, you can be at least half the solution.

In normal business situations, we do not get to choose our bosses. This is just like the fact that in our personal lives, we usually do not get to choose our relatives. So, unless we want to make life hell for ourselves and our subordinates, damage the company, or move on, we must find means and ways to effectively collaborate with our bosses. This is to achieve their priorities as well as our own, in pursuit of organisational goals.

There are for important things to remember about bosses:

• They are human i.e they are not infallible and have the same needs and hang-ups as rest of us.
• They are dependent on us as we are upon them.
• They have different constraints, pressures and priorities than we have- it is never quite possible to fully appreciate the view their window.
• They have bosses too.

Not only it is in your own interests to maintain an effective working relationship with the bosses, but as manager, you are also a representative of your subordinates in from of your boss as well as organisation. If your have read my previous blog on Knowing Yourself, identifying your strengths and weaknesses. You use that information to manage your relationship with your boss too.

Managing your boss also means - Influencing your boss. And it is worth remembering that there are four major sources of power:

1. Expertise
2. Personality
3. Resources
4. Status

You and your boss will have varied levels of elements present out of the above four sources of power. In many situations, you and your boss might be almost at par except the fourth one.

 you know about yourself, you boss, and your powerbase, you may influence your boss, in following ways:

• Work on Creating Rapport with your boss.
• Nothing succeeds like success, but only if he the boss knows about it. Find ways to inform him/her of your people's achievements and of your own success.
• Make your boss look good - in front of his boss, management, and his teams.
• Do not let yourself or your team be perceived as problem creators, but as problem solvers.
• Set up healthy boundaries, in yours and your team's relationship with your boss.
• Check out with your boss that staff development that you propose is compatible with company culture and your boss's idea.
• Associate closely with your boss on discussions, propose seminars etc - to enable your boss to effectively develop his team and yours, to help him get to his business goals.
• Involve your boss, in your team's development activities and sessions.
• Share the progress reports and other developments in his business environment. Keep him abreast with whatever is happening and impacting business.
• Nurture contacts and relationships with help of your business, and involving him.

I suggest that you closely discuss with your teams and add more action points. Idea is to create a cordial working environment by creating yourself as an extension of your boss. 

After all your and your boss's objectives are same - Get to the Business Objectives.