Managing Your Boss

Creating a good working relationship with your boss is critical to your success—and to theirs.

The relationship with your boss is critical to your success or failure. Yes, the relationship between you and your boss can be tricky. It’s not exactly a relationship of equals. Bosses have more power than you do. They evaluate you and can make or break your prospects in the organization. The bottom line—you need your boss’s support in order to do well.

Perhaps you need resources for your team. Maybe you need critical information or access to key people. And you may need to leverage your manager’s influence to get those things. Your boss can open doors for you to get you those stretch assignments and provide you the coaching you need to meet your career aspirations. You’re almost always aware of how dependent, and you are, on your boss. Don’t forget that your boss is also dependent on you. Managers need your high performance and commitment in order to succeed. Sometimes you’re the only one who has the information or insight required to give them the feedback they need to avoid a misstep.

Because of this mutual dependence, there’s a huge opportunity for you in this relationship. Your trip to work every day will feel better if you can build a strong alliance with your boss, or I should say bosses, for those of you who work in a matrix organization. Imagine how motivating it feels when you know that you can really communicate with your manager, that your relationship is based on mutual trust and support, when you know that you can have constructive conversations and solve problems together, when you can share your needs with them to get an immediate task done and fulfill your long-term aspirations.

Of course, there are some really bad bosses out there. And no boss is perfect. Nobody is.
But as you get to know their strengths and weaknesses, their priorities and pressures, how they like to work and make decisions, you usually can find ways to support them. The better you know your boss, the better positioned you are to perform at your best.
It is your job to create the conditions for your success.
Make time to think about building a partnership with your manager, so you both can deliver for your organization.*

1. What Is Managing Your Boss?

When you understand what managing your boss involves—and why it is important—you take the first step toward building a mutually beneficial relationship with this key individual in your work life.

1.1 Working well with your boss when you work remotely

If you work in a different city or country than your boss does, you need to take an especially proactive approach to managing that relationship. To develop trust and establish accountability:

• Set rules for communication. People on virtual teams assume that connecting more often solves the problem of distance. But this usually leads to information overload. Instead, set an appropriate cadence of communications: Is it a daily call or a weekly call?
• Build interpersonal trust. Having things in common help steams bond. Send an email to your boss to tell her more about who you are. And start off meetings by spending 30 seconds or so sharing what’s going on personally and professionally in your life, and finding out what your boss is up to.
• Don’t be conflict avoidant – it’s one of the most destructive attributes of many company cultures.
• And go overboard to help. Generosity accelerates emotional bonding and shows you care about your boss’s success.

1.2 Why it matters

1.3 The benefits

As organizational structures continue to flatten, and team-based work becomes the norm, many more people find themselves reporting to multiple bosses. This presents opportunities and challenges. On the positive side, you often have significant autonomy over how and when you complete your assignments. On the negative side, you may run into scheduling issues if each manager demands more time than you have available.

To mitigate the risks and make your job and your bosses’ jobs easier, consider taking these steps. While you may take direction from several people, chances are good that only one is responsible for your career within the organization. Find out who completes your reviews, who contributes to them, and who makes decisions about promotions and compensation. While this may seem mercenary, it’s important to know from the outset who can help and hurt your professional progress.

Also be sure that all of your bosses know everything you’re working on. Use a shared document or regular check-ins with your managers to communicate about your projects and tasks. Most bosses appreciate when you bring them solutions rather than problems, but this is complicated with more than one manager. If you experience work overload or conflicting priorities, involve your bosses in problem solving. Schedule time for them to communicate directly, whether in person or electronically. If constant interruptions regarding one project prevent you from accomplishing your work on others, set times when you can focus on specific tasks without intrusions.

Negotiating the world of multiple bosses can be challenging, but with a positive attitude and a commitment to following these steps, your success is assured.

1.4 Tips for working with a boss at a different location