The Hard Realities of Managing Your Boss

The Hard Realities of Managing Your Boss
By Bruce Tulgan

Let's face it, you answer to a boss. In fact, you probably answer to different people on different days depending on exactly what task you are doing that day. Most of your bosses have probably moved into positions of supervisory responsibility because they are very good at something, but not usually for the reason that they are especially good at managing people. Once promoted, most new managers receive very little in the way of effective management training.

What are the hard realities? You cannot always find a "great boss." Most bosses are somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. All bosses have strengths and weaknesses when it comes to managing YOU.

Even if you have a "great" boss, "great" bosses have bad days, bad weeks, and even bad months when they drop the ball when it comes to attending to their management responsibilities in relation to YOU. And even great bosses make mistakes in managing YOU that can have a huge impact on YOU if you are not sharing the responsibility for practicing the basics in your management relationship.

Often bosses think expectations have been made clear, even though you might not understand them. But YOU are the only one who really knows if YOU understand the expectations for your performance.

No matter how clear the expectations may be at the outset, sometimes circumstances change, things go wrong, and course-corrections become necessary.

YOU can't always work in your area of strength because there is lots of work that needs to get done, and you're hired to do what needs to be done. On top of that, necessary resources are not always available and sometimes you need to get the job done anyway.

YOU can't afford to fail in your chosen livelihood and YOU need direction and resources. You need feedback to know how you are doing in order to succeed, in order to do better and earn the tangible rewards that you need to survive and prosper. These are the things YOU need. YOU need to take responsibility for getting them in your relationship with every single manager.

About the Author:
Bruce Tulgan is an adviser to business leaders all over the world and a sought-after keynote-speaker. Founder of RainmakerThinking, Inc., a workplace research and training firm, Bruce is the author of numerous books including the bestseller "It's Okay To Be The Boss" and the classic "Managing Generation X." He has written for the New York Times, USA Today, the Harvard Business Review, and HR Magazine. Bruce holds a fourth degree black belt in Karate and is married to Debby Applegate, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Bruce's free workplace video newsletter can be seen at www.rainmakerthinking.com.

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