Managing up and across

Managing your boss

• Think of the relationship as a partnership in which depend on each other to succeed and influecne each other

• Are you meeting expectations?

• performance targets
• information
• develop a sense of what your boss wants to know
• support and loyalty
• when you do honestly agree with your boss, say so clearly and explicitly
• be generous and assume the best intentions, even when you disagree

• Does your boss trust you?

• negotiate what you both mean by "do the right thing"
• make sure you share a common understanding of the challenges
• make sure your boss knows your goals and plans and agrees with them
• do u negotiate expectations when you're given an assignment?
• do this at the beginning, and update expectations periodically.

warn your boss of potential risks, and play out various scenarios of how you might handle them

• Do u see and understand your boss as a person?

• do u know enough that you're able to see the world through his eyes?

• Can u identify your boss's strengths?
• Are u clear about what you need and expect?
• negotiate what you need from your boss.

what can he do to help u?

• Think of her dual roles as extremes between which he moves back and forth depending on the situation
• in small ways, test her willingness to provide support
• you can see when, where, and how he's likely to focus on development rather than evaluation
• learn his feelings about what's important in management
• such as careful planning, decisiveness, building consensus - and make sure you develop and display those qualities

Get to know your boss's boss

• Interact with her

• smile and say "hello" when you see her
• ask how you can help her. Re-introduce yourself if you see she doesn't remember you
• treat her like the very important customer she is

• reach out to her when oportunities arise

• send her a congratulatory e-mail if she gets a promotion or award
• send her a link and ask whether she's heard about it if you find an article or book that's relevant to her interests

• tap her for advice

• ask for input on courses you're thinking of taking
• "John thought you might have some helpful insights for us...", also make your boss look good

• leading or joining a cross-functional team is an opportunity to raise your visibility

make your boss look better to his boss

reference

• [HBR Guide to Managing up and across]