If you want to move up the hierarchy of the company where you work, if you are simply looking to keep your current job, or even if you are wanting to leave your current job, your direct boss is very important for you to get what you are looking for. Your salary level, your growth opportunities and even your emotional tranquility depend on how productive and positive your relationship with your direct superior is. Your boss will be important to your career even when he stops being your hierarchical superior, since others will consult him regarding you.
It is therefore convenient to invest time and effort in having the best possible professional relationship with the boss, even more so if your desire is to advance professionally and access better conditions in the company.
Here are some recommendations aimed at caring for and improving that relationship.
Objectives and Expectations
The most important point in your relationship with your boss is the expectations you have regarding your tasks, objectives and deadlines. Nothing hurts the relationship more than unfulfilled expectations. You must ensure that what your superior expects from you is always totally clear, well defined, ideally in writing and fully understood by both parties. A description of the position and a document with objectives, resources and deadlines is ideal. If they do not provide such documents, prepare them yourself and discuss the matter with your superior.
If you are suspicious of the fact that you request to clarify and establish the objectives in writing, clearly explain that your intention is to fully meet expectations.
Be cautious with the objectives, do not forget that you must not only meet them, but exceed them.
Seek help from your boss, but not too often
Asking the boss for help, resorting to seeking guidance and advice, is usually a good attitude as it shows that you are striving, that you are willing to learn and develop and that you value the contribution that your superior makes. However, there is a limit, since if your requests for help are very frequent and repetitive, your superior may consider that you do not have the necessary skills and abilities for the position you hold.
Remember that an authoritarian boss prefers to be consulted frequently, whereas a participatory boss prefers to act as an occasional consultant. Analyze the type of leadership that your superior exercises with you, and use your good judgment to know how much help you can request.
Maintain frequent communication with your boss
Positive news can also become unpleasant surprises, if you have not kept your boss always informed of what is happening. Inform the news with prudent frequency. When the news is positive, allow your boss to take credit. When the news is negative, don't hide the information, present the facts and communicate your action plan to reverse the inconvenience.
Worse than the negative news itself, is that you have not delivered the information in a timely manner, as this places a great question mark regarding your credibility. Always inform in a timely manner, even if it hurts.
Never an inaccuracy
If you don't know the answer, don't make up. If you don't have the information, don't pretend you have it. It is best in these cases to ask for time to give an exact answer, investigate, and then respond.
It takes a long time to gain the reputation of being trustworthy, a few seconds are enough to stop being reliable. And whoever stops being trustworthy, never is again.
Collaborate with your boss
We all like comfort. And nothing more appreciated than a collaborator who cares about helping beyond what is formally required, making things easier for us. Take advantage of your contact with the boss, find out his obligations, challenges and tasks in addition to those that have to do with you, and offer your collaboration in a discreet way, taking care not to appear as a busybody, but as a sincere collaborator.
Remember that to get there, you have to travel a few extra kilometers.
Don't overshadow the brilliance of your superior
Do not think that showing yourself too talented will win the favor of your boss, on the contrary, it can cause serious problems. We all suffer from insecurity. Make your boss always feel comfortably superior, because if you become a threat, you will win a very dangerous enemy. Watch yourself and take care of your own vanity, learn to show yourself discreet, reliable, but without shining more than is convenient. Don't miss your chance to praise your boss when he deserves it. Give him credit, mention his contribution, so you recognize his superiority. Remember that you need their good disposition with you.
Always calm
Don't react defensively to criticism. If there is any discontent or disagreement on the part of your boss, avoid the blow. Stay calm, serene, bite your lips if necessary, but do not defend yourself at the moment of criticism, even if it is terribly unfair, because you will only increase the tension. Say you will dedicate yourself to solving the problem and do it. Wait for the opportunity. There is always a next day and everything can be solved and improve for you, if you stay calm. Because beyond the specific problem, if you are calm and under control, you will be showing highly appreciated attributes in a professional. A serene person can take care of the most important and sensitive matters. You will be achieving positive points and turning the game in your favor.
Remember that he who gets angry loses.
The difficult boss
First, examine the situation very well. If you expect to find bosses without flaws, you should know that this species unfortunately does not exist. They are human beings with strengths and weaknesses. And in the face of defects - insecurity, frequent changes, huge ego, excessive demands, lack of recognition of the work of others, excess control, manipulation, abuse, etc. - it is best that you develop a plan with strategies to counter the problem:
- Do not argue, do not argue, do not verbally react against
- Avoid criticizing your boss or taking your claims to other levels in the company
- Ask your boss for advice to overcome the inconveniences
- Show your boss the possible benefits of alternative forms of action, without confronting
- Congratulate your boss on his achievements
- Seeks to set goals clearly, ideally in writing
- Critically review your performance and performance
- Leave work problems at work.
- Plan B: look for another job
Remember that it is very common to have a difficult boss, and that people hardly change. If your strategies to counter a difficult boss don't work and the situation becomes absolutely unbearable, you should examine the importance of that job to you and your chances of finding another one. But do not volunteer to make other people change, this is always a waste of time and energy, resources that are scarce and that you should preferably apply to efforts that can give you better results.
