National Boss’s Day was just around the corner when millions of indebted employees took full advantage of this day; thanking their boss’ for their support, inspiration and guidance all through the year.
Well… Your rapport with your boss is possibly the most essential relationship you have at work! Because great Boss management evokes enhanced performances, improves your working life, helps you strike a work-life balance and gives you immense job gratification. But the old opinion where we expected our bosses to manage us is passé’! Nowadays, with the fast paced working life, the most successful people are effectively managing their Bosses!
So here’s how to create that ‘perfect working relationship’ and build a connection with your Boss:
Know your Boss and what they expect from you:
Make the first move and take the responsibility of the relationship! You have to first get to know your boss, learn their goals and discover how they mesh with the company’s mission. Start by knowing their management styles: are they a micro manager or big picture thinker? Do they prefer to talk through ideas or simply read and reflect? Or do they like involving everyone in decision making or prefer taking the final call themselves? It’s extremely important to be well aligned to your boss and their expectations. Know what is expected of you! Your annual review should not be the time to realize that you’ve been out of alignment with your boss’s expectations. Here you have an essential role to play! Make an effort to discover the top few things they expect of you. Even though you think you know, you should ask and check in frequently to confirm your assumptions. Your relationship should be such that they should be giving you pointers all through the year to avoid surprises in your appraisal.
Keep them informed:
Bosses are busy people normally juggling a lot of plates. They focus on several different initiatives and people at a given time. So having established how often to meet your boss, you need to keep them well-informed about what’s going on in your domain. Try to become the ‘go-to person’ for them. Look for opportunities to give them a hand without appearing to be condescending. Be absolutely clear about how they want to be conversed with. You might have a manager who gets in early and is keen to have 15mins a day with you then. Or someone who fancies a ‘pop your head around the door’ every time you need 10 minutes. Whatever be the case, it’s very important that you find the ‘how’ of working with your boss.
Manage their time and become a problem solver:
While your time is totally devoted to your boss, do not expect the same from them. Save their time, know when to approach them. Work out when you need to see them and book in focused, short meetings. Prepare & recap data and present options, ideas and resolutions to keep the meetings action driven. Even better, become the problem solver and cultivate your problem solving skills! Get into the pattern of analysing the available data to gather facts. Then brainstorm the possibilities you have and involve others to help you reject or polish the options. Finally think of the inputs or outputs you want from your Boss and then schedule a focused meeting with them to debate solutions. Don’t be the person your Boss dreads: the whiner complaining about problems or even worse someone who dumps glitches in their lap.
Be careful of Open-door policies:
A lot of organisations have “open-door policies,” that allow employees at any level to approach someone at any other level at any given time. This sounds great in principle, but in reality, no one likes to be blind-sided. It’s basically courteous to let your boss know if you are having a discussion with one of their peers or their boss. You don’t really need their consent in an organization where such a policy exists, but you need to keep them informed.
Develop a relationship based on Trust:
Always deliver what you agree to deliver. Trust doesn’t develop suddenly and depends a lot on the behaviour of both the parties involved. There should be transparency between you and your Boss and you should both know what needs to be achieved and then follow that with action. Agree on the yardsticks and stick to them. There is no room for sloppy errors or poor quality work. You need to role model a rock-solid connection here.
In essence, discover the definition of a great employee and use constructive psychology in all working relations. And remember your Boss requires a positive stroke too! Know your work and responsibilities, perform them with independence but also know your limits of authority. Also know what your boss expects of you; and when uncertain… Ask!
