Transcript Managing your boss.ppt

Presented: Giang Dang
Managing your boss
by John J.Gabarro and John P.Kotter
“Successful managers develop relationships with
everyone they depend on – including the boss”
Misreading the boss-subordinate relationship
 Personality conflict: very small part
 Unrealistic assumptions and expectations: the nature
of boss-subordinate relationship is mutual
dependence between the 2 fallible human being
 Failed to see the dependence of the boss on his
subordinate: help, cooperation and honesty
 Some are too self-sufficient: no need critical
information and resource a boss can supply
Misreading the boss-subordinate relationship
 Unrealistic expectation: all boss can provide
information or help subordinates
 Reasonable expectation: boss can only provide modest
help. Effective managers should seek information and
help they need instead of waiting for their boss to
provide it
Misreading the boss-subordinate relationship
 Requirements to manage mutual dependence among
fallible human being:
 Good understanding of other person and yourself:
strengths, weaknesses, work styles and needs
 Use this information to develop and manage healthy
working relationship: compatibility, mutual
expectation and critical needs
Understanding your boss
 Goals and objectives: organizational and personal
 Pressures: from his own boss and others at the same
level
 Strengths and weaknesses
 Preferred working styles:
 How a boss like to get information? Memos, meeting, or
phone calls
 Does he thrive on conflicts or try to minimize them?
Understanding your boss
 Should be more sensitive to work styles of a
new boss
 Should seek out this information on a going
basis as priorities and concerns change over
time
Understanding yourself
 Boss is one-half of the relationship
 You: the other half and have more direct control
 Effective working relationship: know your own
strengths, weaknesses and personal style.
 Not change the basic personality structure of you or
your boss
 But be aware of what is about you that impedes or
facilitates working with your boss
 Take actions that make the relationship more
effectively
Understanding yourself
 Gaining self-awareness and acting on it based on past
experience
 Subordinates more dependent on the boss:
frustrations
 Handle these frustrations based on predisposition:
 Counter-dependence
 Over-dependence
Understanding yourself
 Both these predisposition lead managers to unrealistic
views of what a boss is
 In fact: bosses are imperfect and fallible: they don’t
have unlimited time, encyclopedic knowledge, or
extrasensory perception nor are they evil enemies
 Awareness of these extremes and the range: useful to
understand your own predisposition, implications,
and predict your reaction and behaviors
Developing and managing the relationship
 Compatible work style:
 Listeners vs. readers
 Decision-making style: involved or not
 Complement skills to make up for each other’s
weaknesses
 Mutual Expectation
 Boss’s expectation: broad or specific
 Communicate your own expectation to the boss
Developing and managing the relationship
 Mutual Expectation: to deal with inexplicit
expectation of the boss using different approaches that
depend on the boss’s style:
 Detailed memo with key aspects of a manager’s work
approved by the boss
 Initiate an ongoing series of informal discussions about
“good management” and “our objectives”
 Getting information indirectly through those who used
to work for the boss and through the formal planning
systems
Developing and managing the relationship
 Flow of information:
 How much information the boss needs depends on the
boss’s style, situation and confidence with the
subordinates
 How to deal with a good-news-only boss: management
information system, communicate immediately
Developing and managing the relationship
 Dependability and honesty
 Be consistent and meet the deadlines
 Be honest to gain trust from the boss
 Good use of time and resources
 Boss has limited time, energy and resources: be wise to
draw on these resources selectively
 Recognize that managing relationship with the boss
takes time and energy
 Effective managers understand that this part of their
work is legitimate
Summary: Checklist for managing your boss
 Understand your boss and his or her context:
 Goals and objectives
 Strengths, weaknesses, blind spots
 Preferred work style
 Address yourself and your needs:
 Strengths and weaknesses
 Personal style
 Predisposition toward dependence on authority figures
Summary: Checklist for managing your boss
 Develop and maintain a relationship that:
 Fits both your needs and styles
 Is characterized by mutual expectations
 Keeps your boss informed
 Is based on dependability and honesty
 Selectively uses your boss’s time and resources