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Secret To Success
Manage your boss

BY: MICHAEL STERN March 8, 2004

You strive for excellence and lead by example. You praise in public, correct in private, and motivate, delegate and empower.

Sure, this makes you a management icon. But it still doesn't guarantee career success.

Today's most successful executives don't just lead teams of subordinates. They also manage their bosses, to ensure they are both in synch in terms of the job they're doing and the results that are expected.

“Managing up” means there are no surprises, no gap between what you are doing and what your boss expects you to do. It means you actively seek to understand your boss's vision, anticipate her needs, and mesh your working styles.

Sadly, not many Canadians think about managing their relationship with their boss. And even fewer do it well.

Many people think managing your boss means manipulating the boss - trying to influence him or her unduly to act the way you want them to. But such tactics rarely pay off. As in so much of business, success doesn't come from chasing personal gain, but from creating genuine win-win situations that leave both sides eager to collaborate again.

Even the best employees need to shore up - or at least review - their relationship with the boss. It would be nice if all superiors came clean about their expectations, pet peeves and preferred working styles. But since this happens about as often as the Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup, it's your job to manage the relationship by clarifying your boss's preferences and aligning your style to match.

When conflicts occur, they usually involve communication. Our executive search firm recently helped a client recruit a bright, ambitious senior executive we'll call Brad. Realizing that he was on a steep learning curve in a new industry, Brad bounced into his boss's office regularly with questions and suggestions.

Brad was just trying to learn as much as he could and to avoid making mistakes. But he never asked himself whether this was the behaviour his boss expected.

When I called my client (the CEO and Brad's boss) to see how the new hire was shaping up, I got an earful. Why was he always asking so many questions? Why couldn't he figure stuff out on his own? Why didn't he just get out there and start producing results?

Fortunately, I was able to convince Brad to sit down with his boss to discuss his preferred ways of interacting and communicating. He soon realized that his boss believed in fewer, more substantive meetings. After Brad adjusted his working style, my client couldn't have been happier with his performance.

Neither side was wrong; they were just different. I've seen the same thing happen in reverse - where new recruits go out and spend most of their time with their team, motivating and learning from the troops. Nothing wrong with that - unless you have a high-touch boss who wants you to put in face-time at the office and expects you to bounce into his office regularly with questions and suggestions.

Managing such a boss doesn't mean you have to change your style. But it does require you to recognize the potential for conflict, and to act to head it off.

The best way to manage up is to initiate a meeting with the boss. Tell her you want to know the best way for the two of you to communicate. Does she prefer formal weekly meetings, or ongoing, regular chats in the hall? Does she want scheduled written reports, or is it OK to pop in from time to time just to brief her on what's happening? How often does she want to be involved in decision-making?

And ask about her take on bad news: Does she want to be alerted early to every possible problem, or does she just want to be consulted on the critical issues expecting you to quietly solve most of them yourself?

Even if your style and that of your boss prove different, conversations such as these are the first step to achieving a better relationship. Once you know what the boss expects, you can propose compromises, such as spending one day a week in the field or substituting weekly e-mail memos for formal reports.

How do you know if you have a problem with your boss? There are lots of warning signs: under-his-breath critiques about the quality of your reports, comments on how hard it is to find you in the office, awkward encounters at the water cooler, or meetings that end with frosty flourishes such as, “Is there anything else?”

If you encounter this sort of feedback, it's time to try to rescue the relationship. Suggest to your boss that the two of you touch base “just to make sure I'm delivering what you want delivered.”

At worst, the boss will be impressed by your initiative. In the best case, you may just salvage a deteriorating relationship - and turn a potential problem into a powerful ally.