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Manage Your Manager

Smart or stupid, friendly or frigid, helpful or hindrance — you don't get to pick who will be your boss. Try these tips to master the proper care and feeding of the most important relationship in your career.

Speaker: Tracy Lord, Dir. Training & Employee Relations, TiVo Inc.

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Tags: Friendly, Professional Development, Career, Managers

 

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Manage Your Manager

Smart or stupid, friendly or frigid, helpful or hindrance — you don't get to pick who will be your boss. Try these tips to master the proper care and feeding of the most important relationship in your career.

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>> There are bad managers out there and there are new managers and you know in a worse case that can really make an employee feel helpless.

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>> You don't always get to pick who your boss will be and a manager's style of leadership can play a large role in your overall job satisfaction. A study by the Saratoga Institute found that 80% of employee turnover is due to poor management and leadership. So what are the useful tips to master the most important relationship in your career?

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>> I think there's a common saying out there that people join companies but leave managers, and more often or not that is the case. Managers usually think that somebody leaves for a compensation reason and that's rarely the case. Usually it's because of a bad relationship with their manager or an underdeveloped relationship with their manager. Employees don't often realize that they can actually impact the relationship.

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>> I think it's important for employees to treat their managers as they would a client and this includes basically staying professional at all times. In casual work environments we often become friends with managers, we build a repoire that's like a friendship, but we need to realize there is a fine line between friendship and manager, and that the business comes first and friendship second. For example, I was helping out a manager and an employee one time dealing with a performance issue, and while I was sitting in the meeting, the employee started rolling her eyes at the manager. I think we just need to take a step back and say is this something that I would do with a customer in front of me and if the answer is no, then don't do it with your manager.

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>> I think there are bad managers out there and there are new managers, and in a worse case that can really make an employee feel helpless; so what the employee should do is focus on what's in their control and as an employee I would say don't be a victim. Take responsibility for the work that you're doing and don't blame others when things don't work out.

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>> I think first we need to understand that we should not make commitments that we can't keep; and so first you want to sit down with your manager and set goals and agree upon them. Not only are you making a commitment to your manager but your manager is also making a commitment to you, and then prioritize them together. Another thing you might want to think of is that you should not wait until the last minute to let your manager know that there's a commitment you can't keep.

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>> Be sure that you're offering solutions. Don't come in and just complain about your job or the situation that you're in. Often I hear employees complaining about processes and the last thing a manager wants to hear is complaint after complaint; so what they should do as an employee is come over to the manager and say, "You know this process is broken or it can be improved in this way."

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>> Conflict with our managers is not necessarily a bad thing. It could be something that will help us improve. We all have performance blind spots and the good manager is the one who's actually going to give you feedback about those performance blind spots. So take a step back, listen to the feedback and try not to be defensive. It's very difficult but it's something that we all have to do; and if it means walking away for a day and thinking about the information and then coming back and having a discussion, that might be what you need to do. And also I would say thank your manager for giving the feedback because it really is about them investing in you.

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>> One other thing employees might not think of is that they should really try to understand their manager's tendencies and pressures. Your manager may have a big deadline and it might not be the best time to go and ask them for something or communicate information to your manager. So what I would say is try to understand your manager's work style and the pressures that they're under. Know how they like to receive communication whether it's e-mail, voice mail or face to face.

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