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Manage Your Boss



How much time do you spend managing your own boss?

Front line leaders can spend so much time leading their own people that it's easy to forget how important it is to develop your relationship with your own boss. You do need your boss's support for any plans, discipline, or development you have for your people. You do need your boss's cooperation when your team members go over your head about an issue and go directly to your boss. And, you'd like your boss's help in developing your career.

But your boss is busy. Your boss has personal tasks to take care of. Your boss has a challenging boss to keep happy. It's easy for you and your boss to drift apart as you both work hard to accomplish your goals. But still you've got to find a way.

The toughest task for any boss is managing their own boss.

Although it may be tough, your future could depend on it. Without your boss's help, everything is harder. With it, almost anything is possible.

Here are some quick ways to manage your boss:

  • Schedule and complete weekly conversations with your boss to talk about your goals
  • Be the "go-to" person for your boss -- that one person your boss can always rely on
  • Smile!
  • Appreciate your boss -- so often we're quick to let our boss know what's going wrong and then we forget to appreciate the boss for how they have already helped. Say thank you!

Which one of these will you do today?

-- doug smith



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