Business

Manage Your Manager by Stephen Viscusi

Viscusi, S. (2001). On the job: How to make it in the real world of work (pp. 120-124). New York: Three Rivers Press.

Friend, client, and one-time job candidate George Kordaris, a vice president at Herman Miller, once said that the best way to deal with your boss was to manage up. Here are five steps to optimizing your relationship with a supervisor:

1. Observe and understand your manager’s traits, values, and style. Know his family situation, eating habits, even religion.

Does your boss take care of business ahead of time or wait till crunch time? Does she get flustered or stay calm when unexpected problems arise? Blame others or take responsibility? Keep well-organized or waste time finding things? Is she willing to cut corners when it’s expedient or is everything scout’s honor? These are the kinds of things you should be looking for. The way to keep your manager happy will depend on how they like things done, and what weaknesses of theirs you can compensate for.

2. Devise a working strategy based on this knowledge.

Strategize. Once you know with whom you’re dealing, you can devise an overall approach and specific techniques to deal with your manager’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, if your manager is a bit of an absentminded professor, take charge of organizing your projects as soon as possible, so the supervisor knows it’s not necessary to sweat anything when you’re involved. If possible, even photocopy the papers that he keeps to track the project, and bring them to your progress meetings. By lightening the supervisor’s mental burden, you’ll be a star in his eyes.

3. Find ways to make yourself useful (this also means not making yourself a liability). Be low maintenance but high payback.

The best way to be of use to your supervisor, of course, is by doing a terrific job, which makes him or her look like an excellent manager and trainer with a sharp eye for hiring good...