Why Partner with Your Boss?
The employee/boss relationship has always been a tricky one, no matter how high (or low) the parties rank on the corporate ladder. Management guru Peter Drucker once said, "You don’t have to like or admire your boss, nor do you have to hate him. You do have to manage him, however, so that he becomes your resource for achievement, accomplishment and personal success."
What does it mean to "manage" your boss? Although the phrase may sound a bit manipulative, what it really means is to form a powerful partnership with your boss, for the benefit of both of you, your team unit and your organization. The manager/employee relationship is not a one-way street — both of you share the responsibility for your mutual success.
The course book for a new AMA seminar, Partnering with Your Boss: Forming a Powerful Alliance, explains: "A mutually satisfying relationship between you and your manager can be compared to a successful partnership. People enter into partnerships because they believe that by working together and combining efforts, they can achieve their goals and objectives better than they can when they work alone. In organizational life, solo is a dangerous route to pursue, especially in today’s complex organizations. It is critical for individuals to work together to achieve departmental and organizational objectives."
Six Steps Toward Building a Better Partnership with Your Boss
Step 1: Keep Your Boss Informed
When you keep your boss informed, you demonstrate responsibility, good communication skills and concern. Keep your boss up to date about projects’ progress, assignment completion and any anticipated problems. Treat problems and challenges as opportunities to show your boss what you can do. Don’t just tell your boss about a problem — have a solution in mind. You may not have a complete solution, but when you approach your boss with your ideas, you demonstrate your professionalism and ability. If you can anticipate problems and work to solve them, your boss will regard you as a valuable resource.
Step 2: Do Good Work
Good work is the hallmark of being a professional. To do good work:
- Be knowledgeable about your job, your company and your industry.
- Actively seek out new information through networking, trade shows and training opportunities. Share this information with your manager.
- Check your work and make sure it is accurate and reflects positively on you.
- Exceed performance standards.
- Set personal and professional goals for development.
- Build your management skills.
- Keep your word and demonstrate personal integrity and honesty.
Step 3: Praise Upward
In order to effectively provide praise to your boss, use the "P-R-A-I-S-E" model:
Personally
Regularly
Assertively
Immediately
Sincerely
Explicitly
Praise is a powerful agent for change. It can alter behavior more quickly and more effectively than negative feedback. When people receive praise, they like it so much that they try to reenact the behaviors that brought them the praise. So if you want your boss to act in a certain way, praise him or her.
Step 4: Help Your Boss Succeed
Your boss’s success is one way to measure your success. People often assume that a good boss surrounds him/herself with competent people. Conversely, if your boss is seen in a negative light, this can adversely impact you.
In addition, you were hired to help your boss succeed. When your boss interviewed you, he or she believed not only that you could do the job that you were hired for, but that you would have a positive impact on him or her, the department and the organization.
Step 5: Handle Conflict with Your Boss
Conflict is a part of life, and a conflict with your boss is likely to occur at some point. What is important is how you handle the conflict. Here are some general guidelines:
- Make sure your arguments are about principle, not personal gain.
- Keep your arguments impersonal. Focus on the content of the argument, not on personal attacks.
- Listen actively when discussing differing points of view. You will have time to talk if you listen first.
- Don’t forget to keep your boss’s ego intact. Never publicly belittle or embarrass him/her.
- Choose your battles. Know when to pursue an issue and when to let it go.
- Make sure things are "smoothed out" after an argument. Although you can disagree on issues, you must work at maintaining the relationship.
Step 6: Have Regular Performance Reviews with Your Boss
Even if your organization doesn’t require an annual performance review, you should request regular feedback from your boss. A performance review is a tool. You can use it to synthesize information about yourself and also about your boss’s expectations of your objectives and performance. Remember that it’s what you don’t know that can hurt you. Even though it isn’t pleasant to hear a negative comment, not hearing that comment could be detrimental to your career.
Even if you have quarterly appraisals with your boss, your boss still only knows roughly 20-30% of what you actually do in your job. A good way to keep your boss informed about what you do is to submit a "5-15 Report" at the end of each week. This report is roughly a half page in length, takes about 15 minutes to prepare and takes your boss five minutes to read. Here are some items you might include:
- How I made the company/department money this week
- How I saved the company/department money this week
- Crises I prevented this week
- Crises I handled this week
- Where I can use my boss’s help in getting something done
If you do this report every week, at the end of the year, your boss will have 52 reports with which to document your progress.
This article is reprinted from the website of the American Management Association at www.amanet.org. ASME members can access the "members only" area of the AMA free and get discounts on books and courses by signing up at http://www.amanet.org/alliances/asme.
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