Managing your manager (2)
Don’t delegate up: Build confidence in your ability to do the job when it should be done, not when you are ready. And if you’re the manager, refuse to take it over even if it’ll be quicker to do it yourself than to wait much longer for someone else to do it.
Make them shine: This is easy to do when the boss is generally a fairly reasonable person. And if they are chronically hostile, guess what? The professional response is to still support them. Don’t upstage them. Bosses do not like to play second fiddle, especially if their boss is around. What is your boss really good at? Help them become even better. Even better, if you have a strength that makes up for a weakness of theirs, roll it into action.
Don’t be high maintenance: The high maintenance person drains the manager’s energy and takes more than their fare share of his or her time. They often create so many problems and distractions for the boss to deal with such. Examples of such behaviour is when you take issue with too many of the boss’ decisions or are clueless about the politics surrounding an issue. A big ‘no no’ is going behind the boss back to further your own personal agenda. Keep the boss informed but don’t go to them for every little decision.
Now take action: Identify one way you can support your manager better?
