FREE online courses on CRM - Developing People-The Key To Success - Support
- Manage Your Boss
Is your relationship with your boss a ‘boom' or ‘GLOOM' situation?
If it's the latter, if you don't hit it off with him, then it's probably your
fault as much as it's his; it takes two to woo!
Remember four things about bosses: -
-
They are HUMAN.
Being mortal, they too have needs and hang-ups
-
They are as dependent
upon
you as you are on them
-
They have different
constraints, which you will probably never be fully able to
appreciate
-
They, too, are
answerable (to someone, if only their wives)
For your own sake, and for your people,
you have to vibe well with the boss.
That doesn't mean you have to cringe before him, but due deference apart, you need to complement him to pull together as a team.
He has to see your strengths as his
own, and you have to be sure that he will always back you up if your need is
justifiable and genuine. Examine
these aspects of your relationship:
-
What are his aims, objectives, priorities and values?
-
What does he expect of you?
-
What are his main strengths and weaknesses?
-
DOES HE KNOW OF YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS?
-
How often does he want you to make direct contact?
-
How does he like information? Anything special? Does he want post facto
feedback?
Most problems are opportunities yet to be managed, and so is a
shaky boss-subordinate situation.
Douglas Bader, the legless RAF fighter pilot found he had an
advantage
over
others: in a steep dive in his Spitfire or Hawker
Hurricane, he did not tend to black-out like other pilots due to tremendous
G-forces (blood draining away from the brain) since his ‘no-legs' status
short-circuited the blood cycle and blood reached his brain faster). When he was
shot down, in 1942-43, and taken POW, he had 22 confirmed kills and at least 5
‘probables', one of the highest scoring aces of the war. (Germany's Adolf
Galland had 44 kills at the time of his death). Bader was not known to be a great respecter of red-tape, a
firebrand bosses got along with well with
because of his enormous personal charm, the fact that he was a folk-hero and the fact that, had the
war not intervened, he would have worn the England colors in Rugby.
We can't all
be Baders, but see that:
- You
don't hide your
light under a bushel
- You use/develop skills to your own/ your
boss's advantage
- You use what charm you have; smile; you
may not have the charisma of an RAF ace, but being
pleasant
is not hard
- You put your resources at his disposal
Now use whatever you have gleaned from the above data to influence your boss's
attitudes towards your department's training needs:
-
Bosses tend to allocate ‘training/ dev.' to performing departments
-
Demonstrate to him the scope for improvement of your staff, bring up your
personal development plans, specific recommendations
- Share
with him positive results of T& D efforts
- Take
his help by suggesting intra-company contacts/ net-working which would be
beneficial to you
- Give
him thanks for being so supportive!
QUESTIONS:
- How
do you get along with your boss? What do you think is the reasons for this? Why is it important, organizationally,
to have good vibes with him?
- How
would you systematically go about analyzing the situation, and what sort of a
checklist would you prepare to optimize the relationship? What would be point
of the whole exercise?
