Tip: The first step to Managing Your Manager starts with having regular one on ones with your boss. I show you how in the free online one on ones course for employees.
What are the Myths About Your Manager Which are Self-Limiting Beliefs
MYTH #1: High Performers Don’t Need a Boss
Just consider this - the highest performing athletes all have professional coaches. No matter how good you are, everyone needs guidance, support and encouragement to succeed. The most talented people will not reach their potential without support.
And if you're a high performer but your boss doesn't know what you're doing - you will not get the recognition you deserve. Or worse you will be performing at a high level but on the wrong things. And even high performers have blind spots that they are not aware of.
MYTH 2: Your Manager Will Speak to You When They Need to
Your boss CAN speak to you whenever they want but most under communicate. It's far too common to get to your performance review and find out that you missed some performance criteria that your boss never told you about.
Bosses don't communicate because of many reasons including: Insecurity, a desire to be liked, conflict avoidance, incompetence and a lack of boss training. Right now you could be doing something your boss doesn't like but hasn't told you. This is why you can't afford to leave communications up to your boss.
Tip for managing your boss: take responsibility to make sure you meet regularly with your boss even if they don't ask. Use the email template provided in the free training for One on One meetings with your boss.
MYTH #3: Some Bosses are Too Busy to Meet With You
The truth is that your boss does not have time to not meet with you. Your boss may have “more important” responsibilities but your boss is responsible for what you do and how you do it. The only reason for your boss not to meet with you is if your job has no relevance at all and if this is the case then you don’t have job security let alone recognition. The way to get job security is to make sure that you stay relevant. And how you stay relevant is by regularly meeting with your boss to ensure that you’re doing the right things.
Keep your one on one time with your boss concise and useful. If your boss feels like they don’t need to meet with you because they don’t think what you do is valuable then explain your achievements and why they are valuable. If you don’t, you will fail to get recognition, get stuck in a role, get isolated which leads to a dead end.
When you make yourself valuable to the boss then your boss will realize that time with you pays off.
Tip for managing managers who are “too busy”: A big risk of bosses that are “too busy” is that they have expectations for you that they don’t tell you about. That’s why you need to take responsibility for managing upwards to find out their expectations and demonstrate to them that you are making a contribution. Tip to manage your boss: Regularly check in with your boss to check in with expectations.
MYTH #4: Hiding Mistakes and problems Avoids Trouble
Bosses do not like surprises. I can tell you this because my boss told me this and as a boss I don’t like surprises. The best way to “cover your ass” is to disclose problems and mistakes before they become more significant. You want your boss to find out when they can still help to fix them. Rather than afterwards when it’s too late.
Tip to manage your boss: The best way to avoid trouble is to cover problems and risks as part of a regular one on one meeting with your boss. There is more information about how to do this in the free course on one on one meetings with your boss.
MYTH #5: No News if Good News, But Getting Performance Communication and Being “Coached” is Bad News
No news isn’t a sign that everything is OK, it's a sign of a boss who is neglecting their management responsibilities. Firstly for you - it’s difficult to operate in a vacuum without getting acknowledgement it’s difficult not to feel unimportant. Secondly unless you’re a mind reader, you are going to be out of alignment with the boss. Whether this is on priorities, ways of working or any pet peeve your boss may harbour.
Performance communication and coaching have got bad names because historically they have been misused to “manage out” poor performers. But this is a sign of an incompetent boss. Performance Communication and coaching are how you get better at your job, it’s how you grow and learn, it’s how you progress in your career (including financially) and it’s also how you find out about your blindspots that are holding you back.
Managing your boss tip: Don’t wait to be coached to fix problems. Be proactive with your boss to ask where you can be better. Be proactive by asking your boss where to improve your skills and capabilities. This will 180 degree change your relationship with your boss from seeing you as someone with problems they have to fix as a duty to seeing you as someone trying to be better who they can help as an opportunity. And of course the best place to have these conversations is in one on one meetings with your boss.
Remember every boss has something to teach you. And if your boss doesn’t have the time to train you themselves they can still refer you to other people or coaches who do.
Start Managing your boss through One on One Meetings with your Boss over here.
Comments:
What's your experience with bosses? Do you have any comments, questions or tips regarding myths about bosses? Please share in the comments below.
BOSS CAMP
The research indicates that most bosses are disliked and most employees don’t respect their bosses. This is why it’s so hard to motivate your staff. This isn’t someone else’s problem it’s the problem that you have to face every day as boss. WWW.BOSS.CAMP is about tried and tested, ethical management techniques for the every day manager like you and me. So that instead of worrying if your employees like and respect you, you can worry about where to put your world’s best boss mug. The program includes topics such as:
- How to motivate employees,
- What are bad employee motivators,
- What you must do as a manager but isn't on your job description,
- How leaders get power.
