Three Ways to Manage Your Boss!

Robert Houghton|July 2, 2024

If you boss wins, you win, right?

Your objective is to make your boss more effective to get them promoted. And if your boss is unsuccessful, rarely does the next person in line get the job…you guessed it; it is someone brought in from the outside.

I do this all the time: 95% of our searches are to find someone on the outside to replace someone on the inside who was unsuccessful.

So exactly how do you do this?

· BOS/NOW: Build on Strength, Not on Weakness. Spending timing to fix a weakness is a loser’s game. It will sap you of your energy. Ask any professional athlete.

Don’t try to reform and “fix’ your boss. Set the table for them to spend time on their areas of strength. Get them promoted.

For example, if they are a great communicator and public speaker, get them invited to more networking events, conferences, industry forums, etc.

If they are the classic “numbers guy”, volunteer to take on more of the client-facing responsibilities allowing them to focus more in their comfort zone and area of strength.

I had a boss 30 years ago who was a former top sales guy and loved to network. The issue was that nothing was getting done in the department at a tactical level and everyone was suffering.

Over time, I arranged for him to attend a never-ending series of external networking events, key client meetings, and give speeches at industry conferences. He was on the road constantly…and loved it. Meanwhile, I ended up doing all the day-to-day duties back at the office and we both got promoted – twice in one year!

· LISTEN & LEARN: Take the time to listen and learn your boss’s habits and manners. Understand them. Are they a “listener” or a “talker”?

This will drive how you communicate with them and arrange for them to communicate with others more effectively.

Some like group discussions with charts and graphs; some like direct face to face conversation across the table. And, yes, some like my old boss just liked to talk. Unless you get “talkers” in a one-to-one environment, you will never be able to get them to focus and communicate with you.

As mentioned above, my old boss was easily distracted and a big talker. The only way I could communicate with him effectively was to get him focused and alone in a non-group meeting setting.

I used to wait until the end of the day around 5pm to ambush him while he was winding things down in his office. I would conveniently stop by and he always seemed happy to see me to wind down without the usual distractions. He talked so much, he’d be hoarse by the end of the day. Fortunately for me, he would be so emotionally drained, he would agree to just about anything I pitched to him!

· ENGAGE WITH YOUR BOSS: Don’t be afraid to engage with your boss. Know their wants and needs. Notwithstanding the example above, ex-bosses from years ago tell me now that I should have engaged with them more by stopping into their offices, inviting them out to lunch to establish more personal rapport.

Building a professional relationship is important, but never discount the value of a personal relationship too. Establishing common personal ground is the key to building a long term relationship with anyone.

One notoriously difficult boss I worked for well into my career, was a guy that I discovered loved to bowl. Once I discovered this, I quickly found a local bowling league and had the firm be our proud sponsor. My boss was the first one invited on the team. We still email each other 20 years later about our bowling game.

If you can build on your boss’s strength, learn their communication style, and proactively engage with him/her, you’ll be in a great position to ride that rocket ship to the top.

Thanks for reading and we look forward to your continued feedback and ideas for future blogs. Rob