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By R. David Silva
As mentioned in the previous article (How to Manage Your Boss Part 1), your goal is to have your boss be an advocate for you and your ability to contribute to the firm. In order to have your boss achieve this level of commitment to your career, you need to develop an effective strategy for handling your boss. Remember you are marketing yourself to your boss.
Let's concentrate on the boss who is very knowledgeable about how to perform your functions. You can think of this kind of boss as a teacher. You can learn a lot from he or she and you should try to do so. While this approach will be flattering to him or her, it will also help you to learn more quickly and should get you high marks for not wasting time by making mistakes that the boss may have previously made. When confronted with various challenges, you should develop alternative solutions and ask the boss to play devil's advocate with your solutions.
Over time you will build your confidence and your abilities to handle the tasks. This will allow your boss to become more comfortable with letting you handle more responsibility. Bear in mind that once you have learned how your boss thinks and how the boss handles various situations, you should minimize the time you request of the boss to do your job. Once the learning curve starts to flatten out, you should be able to rely on status reports or status meetings to keep your boss informed about your plans and programs.
Remember that your boss is a teacher and teachers like to see students learn the material and move on to the next level (graduation). Your ability to handle your level of responsibility can be viewed as a positive for your boss’s management skills. You want your boss to feel comfortable enough to recommend you for his or her job when he or she is being considered for a promotion.
Next month we'll examine how to handle the boss who knows little or nothing about how to do your job and is worried about how you do your job.
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R. David Silva
Business Editor
25+ years experience
in the world of business/marketing.
silva@4fashionadvice.com
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