11 STEPS FOR MANAGING YOUR BOSS

This week, we bring you a post on managing your boss at the office.

You spend most of your time working with your boss but can you really manage your boss?

How do you manage up?

Step 1: Understand Yourself

You have to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Set career objectives and paste them somewhere within your line of vision in your workstation. Understand you pressure points, blind spots, work style, motives, and agenda.

Step 2: Understand Your Boss

Similarly, you have to identify your boss’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Understand his/her career objectives and pressure points, blind spots, working style, motives, agenda, and limitations.

Step 3: Recognise Your Boss’ Biggest Strengths

After you have understood the parameters above about your boss, you have to intentionally discover your boss’ biggest strengths and build on those strengths and cover the limitations. Don’t attempt to change his/her preferences and agenda to suit yours, instead, find ways to align them.

Step 4: Focus on the Highest Value

Carefully seek out those activities that deliver the highest results and carry them out diligently. Find the solutions that work best and maximise them.

Step 5: Build a Professional Relationship

You cannot enjoy your work if you are at loggerheads with your boss. Make the effort to ensure there is a smooth professional relationship

Step 6: Communicate on Career Progression

Don’t be afraid to discuss your career growth and progression with your boss. As you develop yourself, improve your work, and expand your capacity, be bold in requesting a promotion. However, first understand your company’s organisational structure and process.

Step 7: Build Your Emotional Intelligence

Practice calmness and patience when relating with your boss and focus on the job. Build your emotional resilience to become emotionally intelligent.

Step 8: Avoid playing the ‘Blame Game.’

Become accountable and do the needful without making excuses to your boss.

Step 9: Create Healthy Boundaries

Set up healthy boundaries for your off days and after work periods. Although in the work environment, the individual may be your boss, outside of the work environment, there is still a need for a clear understanding of your relationship.

Step 10: Make your boss look good.

Give them the credit they deserve, cover their gaps, don’t prey on their weaknesses, and exploit their blind spots.

Step 11: Think and Act Positive

Be a consistently positive force when relating with your boss. In all situations, endeavour to think, speak, and act with positivity. Stop complaining about everything and think forward.