Understand below points of your manager
Motivations
Challenges
Expectations
When & How to communicate
Why association with boss important
For any activity of yours(hiring, change in plan), you need boss/manager's hand
Boss has more power and status than you
Boss has more responsibilities many of which you might not be aware of and likely not understood well even if you know
Boss can become a catalyst for greater impact
Benefits
More informed about changes happening in the organization
More useful to boss
Increased opportunities
Tips for Understanding boss
Understanding boss starts with understanding yourself first
Where you are
What you feel
What you should do
How do others see you?
What are your short-term N long-term goals?
Who in your professional network can you connect with your boss? Means that who in your network can help your boss?
Your social capital
Understand their responsibilities
If they are right, revenue grows and new job created
If they are wrong, job creation can go to jeopardize
Understand work pattern of your boss
How they tend to approach a project
Which task they take first
Identify their favorite goto people, tools and methods
When they like to arrival office, eat lunch, how late they work
Understand work load of your boss
Budget cycle
Hiring pattern
Understand boss' motivation
Need to attention?
Desire to control?
Helping others?
Need for achievement?
Need for affiliation and belongings?
How they behaved in last 6 to 12 months?
Understand What are 1 or 2 primary motivations of your boss?
Understand your boss's expectation with you
Sop assuming that you know what your boss is thinking about you
Building social capital
Papers in journal
Public accolade
Consistent in helping others
Knowing your social capital
think about feedback from your boss you got recently
How have people been interacting with you recently
Whether people are willing to connect you with their professional network?
Executive level communication tips
Be as brief as possible as higher ladders has time as very precious resource
Be bottom line oriented. Don't delve into unnecessary details unless they ask for
Use the right lingo (language)
Tips for success
Be prepared for your performance evaluation
Understand that boss may miss one or two points
After the evaluation, follow-up once in person
Note only once in few(2-3) months or else they may think that you are trying to manage them
Understand how will your boss judge the performance of your team?
Know the team metric they will use for judging
Understand how will your boss assess your citizenship behaviours?
Never let your boss be surprised by what you are working on or what your progress looks like
send FYI mail of biweekly update of your work
Help your boss
Do your job really well is the best form of help
Provide direct physical assistance. For example, stepping up in case your boss is not around and something needs to be done
Help only those, who are also willing to help you
Advocate boss in his/her absence
It means that explaining your boss point of view to team so that it is heard of
Ensure to share your future goals and aspirations to boss so that he will help you as well
A small conversation every 4-5 months will be great
Help your boss make decision
Make it feel like their idea
Appeal to higher level goal and values
Use advantageous data
Speculate about other's reactions to decision
Understand risk of making promise
Know that when you breaking promise, it means that you are breaking word
Promises are risky since people are not good to calculate odds of success
Promise can break if circumstance changes
Although it might not be your fault, following can happen
You create negative emotion
You lose social standing with boss
Repeated break of promise will underestimate relationship
Right way to commit without promising
Promise only work if task is quite small in size
If boss tells that so, you are promising then tell him/her as below
"I will do everything in my power to get this done. Don't worry"
If pressed again, then tell "if it can be done, I will do this"
Risk of promoting yourself always
People think that you are self centric
People think that you are in-sincere
People think that you lack integrity
Effective way to promote
Know the followings
What to promote
Focus only to promote smaller wins. For example, if you could connect with a new customer for the first time
Big wins will be noticed by all anyway
When to promote
Not more than once per quarter
How to promote
Promote your wins as well as group wins
Do evidence based promotion
Use different channels for different times
Promote yourself during performance feedback
Don't promote yourself when boss is giving negative feedback
Say nothing even if it is asked for. Interact little only if at all needed. and this should be query to understand it in detail
If you have strong reason for defend yourself, you put your point just for a while and then also tell that you might be right
Nod
Listen
Take note
Benefits of Documenting conversation
Documenting meeting will let others signal what your next move will be
Document can help you to cover yourself down the line.
Documenting approach
Use if others are involved, document decision so that it will be treated as informal commitment
Document only if it is very important
Biweekly mail to your boss about
What you are doing
Why you are doing
Amount of progress you are making
Avoid following
Over agreeing to boss
Blaming the boss. It is considered as disrespect and lack of loyality
Not doing what you tell boss you are doing
Overly critic of boss's idea
Failing to keep boss in the loop
Learn by coaching others for this skill as and when you learn
Mode of communication with boss
Face to face
Can provide huge amount of information
Ability to clarify misunderstandings
Telephone
Can keep record of conversation
Video conferencing
Physical note
Rule
If message is urgent, uses fastest channel
If message needs confidentiality, use face-2-face
Tips for working with new manager
Let him/her know
Your scope of work
Your progress
Major milestones
Don't assume that new manager everything about people, tools
Meet biweekly and check how he/she doing N try to help
Don't try to manage them
If boss ask for politics
tell that you are not involved and direct to talk with people who were involved
Make sure they know your long term aspirations
Initiate conversation at some point of time
Tips for working with unavailable manager
Indications of an unavailable manager- They are closed instead of being open N interactive
Don't check on you
Don't email the team
No open door
Lots of
Unanswered phone call/messages
Missed meeting
Unexplained absence from office
Reason of unavailable manager
Personality
By genetics, wired to be more quite
They don't like you
Dealing with personal/professional crisis
Risk
Not proper support for team
Your contribution not recognized
Handling approach
Talk to them about communication issue
Be more proactive on your own
Focus on those items which are most important for your boss
Try to have 5 mins chat each day or each week
Tips for working with manager you don't like
Challenge
You will be uncomfortable, upset
You feel helpless and thinking you will not have power to change the situation
Approach
Using rituals and habits to try and live with the relationship as is
Don't speak negatively to them and negatively about them
Keep your interactions to a minimum
Create atleast one or two positive response
Call your best friend
Have something which you like
Be cautious if you want to head-on
Mention the issue but not explain it
Put your partial ownership on this issue
Choose the words wisely
Tips for working with remote manager
Challenge
How to manage the boss when he/she is never in office
Approach
Clearly state about your expectation and their expectation
Take permission on acting for issue in their absence
Schedule regular updates
Regular meeting
Regular update mail
Use video based conferencing
In person meet atleast couple of times in a year
Meet your team regularly and explain how you are communicating with your boss. It will avoid any conflicting messaging which team might be getting from various sources
Tips for working with self-important person
Sign
They believe that they caused every idea and wins
They are sensitive to status
They want to show that they are at higher hierarchy above then you
they see themselves above the law
They ask team-mates to work on weekends, but they themselves will not work
Approach
Don't try to manage them
Talk to HR
Don't talk to aggravate the situation
Protect your future in same company or others based on your networking
Use this as Opportunity to learn from them what not to be done
Tips for Working with less competent manager
Reason
They are promoted due to their skill, in current role, not based on the necessary skill at the next level
Political appointee
Favoritism
Challenge
You feel down working with person who is not competent
Approach
Avoid going over head.
Try to make them agreed that they will delegate their task to you
Document your work well so that your achievement is not stolen by them
Discuss with boss about your aspiration
Communicate to boss of boss about your milestones and achievements occasionally
Identify their weak point and try to help overcoming them
Tips for working with mean/inappropriate manager
Signs
Annoying and awkward
Break policies, laws or mean
Whenever you meet, you feel that little negativity is approaching you
Approach
Try to mean you in personal/public
Politely tell no
Document the event and consult HR
Share opinion on non-work topics
Try to distance yourself
Interact only if necessary
Address the issue or seek help from HR
Tips to repair damaged relationship
Indicators to see if it is impacting you
Frequency of interaction has really reduced a lot
they stopped seeing you as a resource (like they used to always have in the past)
Have they stopped including you in various types of reports, emails or other form of communication
Direct evidence based on what they directly told to you
Approach
Apologies for your part of contribution for this damaged relationship