Your relationship with your manager is one of the most important relationships in your life and has a demonstrable impact on your progress and well-being. So, what can you do to encourage a good working-relationship with your line manager? Here’s what I have learnt both as a people manager and as someone who has had 4 line managers over the last 3 years with very different management styles.
Most of us are used to top-down organisational cultures, subconsciously emphasised by corporations being modelled on the military (e.g. with a headquarters, Chief Executive Officer and frontline staff) where decisions flow from the top. The idea of managing your manager seems alien to many of us, and almost manipulative.
But it shouldn’t be. This isn’t about being manipulative, but about building a two-way, open relationship. While you support your manager’s objectives, your manager can make sure your priorities are consistent with organisational needs and help secure the resources you need. They can also help identify gaps and provide guidance on career development.
1 – Get aligned
Are you sure you know what your manager expects of you? If not, find out. Then reconfirm at the appropriate times. It can be easy to assume that others know when you are struggling, but it might not be so obvious. You can use both formal (setting objectives, performance reviews) and informal (one-to-ones, project meetings, team meetings or a chat over a coffee) channels to stay connected.
2 – Who knows what?
Do they know what you know – or remember what you told them? It is always a good idea to recap! But keep it brief. One of my direct reports is great at giving me just the right amount of information. There are 10 people in my extended team working on over 70 active projects so its easy for me to lose track of the details. In our one-to-ones he briefly recaps his priority projects before updating me on their progress. Might sound trivial, but makes a big difference in making our sessions more productive.
A two-way information flow is very important, but you should also understand that there may be times when it is not possible for the manager to share sensitive information with the team.
3 – Don’t hide bad news
It’s rare for projects to be done in isolation and your work surely affects the rest of the pipeline, and the wider team. If you think you will miss a deadline or need additional help, flag it as early as possible to give you both time to plan around it. Don’t suffer alone, and never assume you can wish the problem away.
4 – Compatible work styles
What’s the best way to get your manager to listen to your ideas? To get your point across and make it stick, you might need to understand the other person’s working style. For example, Peter Drucker divides managers into two categories based on how they process information.
Listeners prefer to be briefed in person so they can ask questions and then focus their reading accordingly.
Readers want to process written information first and then meet to discuss so they can ask focussed questions. Getting this simple thing right can make your sessions a lot more productive.
5 – When is the right time to challenge your manager?
You certainly don’t want to be perceived as a ‘yes person’, but it would be exhausting and unproductive to challenge every single move. Getting the balance right between knowing when to disagree, when to question, when to clarify and when to just get on with it will mean that when you do challenge your manager, you are likely to be taken more seriously.
6 – Disagree and commit
Variations of this technique have been used by major organisations such as Intel and Sun Microsystems, and was more recently adopted by Amazon as one of its leadership principles. Not having a debate on important issues leads to a dangerous herd mentality, but once a topic has been discussed and a conclusion reached, everyone in the team needs to commit to the decision.
7 – We are all human
Many people see their manager as one of two extremes, what psychologists call counterdependence and overdependence. This is best explained through the work of John Kotter from Harvard Business School.
Counterdependence – The boss is a hindrance to progress, an obstacle to be circumvented or at best tolerated.
Overdependence – The boss is an all-wise parent who should know everything, train me, take responsibility for my career and protect me from peers.
Both views ignore that managers, like everyone else, are imperfect and have their own time constraints, deliverables, biases and pressures that might sometimes be at odds with your priorities or wishes.
It’s unlikely that any of us can fundamentally change our personality traits but being more aware of what it is about us that aids or hinders that relationship can make it much more mutually beneficial.
This article was first published in The Bulletin, the British Council’s employee magazine.
