10 Rules To Manage Your Boss

faster decisions, better decisions and more trust.

1. Decisions: if you don’t want a no, give him/her a hand.

• Remind where left it last meeting

• Remind the objective rather than the what and the how

• Remind past problems because no decision.

• Summarize options and your reasons for selecting your option

• Tell him/her what you expect from him:

Tell him what you expect

• Simply to inform• To decide jointly• To share the risk• To add one criterion• To re-examine the option• Focus on the points where you need help• Be prepared with backup data• After your meeting, summarize in writing to

make sure of the understanding• Once decision is made; do not criticise externally

Manager his/her time

• You may represent only 1% of her problems; don’t make it as if it is 100%

• The more simple the problem the less time you should need.

• Do not confuse more frequent problems with the most important ones.

• Book your manager for several meetings in advance so you don’t have to wait

3. An opinion: If you ask for one, he/she will always give you one.

• Once given, the opinion may become a constraint. Was it an order?

• Don’t ask if you don’t need.• Choose the right moment to avoid procrastination.• Prepare for your meeting:first because the advantage is

to the one who is prepared, second because thepreparation helps you reduce the time taken to come to the central issue.

• Show the forest before the trees in a discussion. If you want to avoid spending a lot of time on going back to basics before she is at full speed with you, start with the basics yourself. Remind her of the objective, where you stand today, and what you want her opinion on.

4. Information: It is not data

• Don’t be the mailman passing the thick document of endless stats to the boss; be visual;group the data, bring out what is essential. Data overload creates stress, which creates denial, rejection, and numbness.

• As a manager, you are paid to collect grapes and turn them into wine (useful info)

4. Information, grapes con’t.

• Don’t give only bad news. Give good news, too.

• Or, little by little, you become the bad news, too.

• Don’t minimize the good news because you want to focus on the problems – by doing that you contribute to creating a bad atmosphere.

4. Grapes con’t.

• Make sure he does not get the info from others too often; we may not think it relevant;

• Others, however could do it before you

• “I heard that”…”Why didn’t you tell me that”…

4. Grapes not souring con’t.

• Trade off between info overload causeing boredom and restlessness or information starvation.

• Round off: do you tell him 79.27% vs 21.73% or 80 vs 20.

• Participate & contribute to his informal network. Provide him with the extra that you believe would give greater understanding of the environment.

5. Problems – come with solutions

• Good bosses hate 2 kinds of behaviour – the yes person who says everything they do is great and the pyromania who comes running in to say” There is a huge problem…..but don’t worry…I ‘ll solve it!”

• Third problem: …the monkey transferor.

• She has a problem and she puts it on your shoulders, rather than bring a solution

6. Assumptions

• Please help, you are the expert.• You spend all of your time and your team

on the issue – you live with the data, pressure points and levers, your boss does not.

• Most senior people dangerous when they get involved in making micro-decisions – their point of reference is not the current one (outdated)

Delegations: test the waters

• Either you play it safe and always asks for her/his opinion – lead to paralysis, bottlenecks and your own demise (boss will think you are unable to take responsibility)

• Or, you assume too much, take decisions and learn after the fact that it was not yours to decide.

• In between, there is the test the waters strategy.

8. Promises

• Don’t promise what you can’t deliver.Trust is at stake

• Trust not develop overnight; depends on the predictability of the other person

• In the same way, you will not fully trust your boss if she changes her mind too often or says things contrary to what you were told the last time.

Promises con’t

• Avoid being seen as unreliable by not delivering on what you promise

• If you think you are in too deep; sit down and re-discuss priorities before proceeding. Involve your boss in the process, so it becomes a common priority

9. Our differences

• People who like to control, introduce processes, develop more the now;

• People who are more concerned with people, develop more the impact on people.

• People who are more concerned with getting things done, start with key actions;

• People who are more concerned with ideas, frame proposals in concepts

Know your boss…..

• And try to present accordingly.

10. Trust:

• Don’t be sloppy in your documentation. It undermines trust.

• Don’t erode trust by not doing your homework, mistakes in spelling, grammar etc.

11. Make your boss laugh

• Humour bonds!