Getting Straight Answers from your Boss |Dodging Landmines

Music Sydnie Kohara: Let's say, I have a manager who just refuses to give me a straight answer when I ask for direction. I want to do the right thing, but I just don't get any direction. Edward Muzio: You are guideless in a sense. That's a problem and what you intend to do which is the wrong thing is just walk out of there in frustration and just do something any way and see what happens. Sydnie Kohara: You're right. Edward Muzio: That's not the right approach. What you want to do is you want to layout a plan in front of the manager and say, look this is what I'm planning to do. I'm showing it to you so that if you don't give me any feedback you know where I'm headed. Sydnie Kohara: What if you'd still can't get a commitment and your manager continues to be just wishy-washy, oh let's see how it goes. Edward Muzio: Let's see how it goes. So, then your answer is, fair enough, I can tell that you're not ready to commit at this point. So, I'm telling you now, this is my plan. I'm going to execute this plan for the next, you know, X-days or weeks and I'm going to come back and re-visit with you. If you need me to change course sooner please let me know, otherwise I'll re-visit with you at that time. Sydnie Kohara: So, why is this the best approach? Edward Muzio: Well, it's the best approach because it's creating accountability. It's accountability for you and that you're putting a clear plan in front of the manager, this is what I'm going to do. It's accountability for the manager because you're having them basically sign off on it. And by the way you want to do this in writing, follow up with email, that way the accountability is firm. Sydnie Kohara: In summary? Edward Muzio: In summary, you want to layout a clear plan, make it clear that silence equals approval and then make it clear what the check points are and if you need to change before that it's up to the manager to come to you.

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