Principal
McKinsey & Co.
Boston, Massachusetts
At the core of the endless trove of "how to manage your boss" lore is the idea that the employee is somehow smarter and more enlightened, informed, and capable than the boss. The problem with this fable is that it creates the romantic illusion of the lone leader of change, taking innumerable risks, walking to the edge of the cliff, heroically dragging his resistant boss or the rest of the unwitting organization behind him. Beware the legend!
I think one of the keys to effecting real change -- and by extension managing your boss -- is to realize that you yourself did not stumble over your brilliant insight or ingenious project idea in one glorious moment. Undoubtedly, you arrived at your idea over time. It was a process. When your boss doesn't understand your ideas immediately, don't label her an ignorant bureaucrat -- a force to be reckoned with. That attitude will back your boss against the wall and make it difficult for you to get your point across.
Instead, recognize that your boss has to go through a similar journey of understanding that you traveled to "get there." Ultimately, self-discovery is much more powerful than any preaching from on high -- or from below. Help your boss discover what you're proposing, and you'll find that you won't have to waste time maneuvering or dodging.
Mark Maletz (mark_maletz@mckinsey.com) is a principal in McKinsey's organization practice as well as an associate professor of management at Babson College. As a change architect, Maletz has been responsible for more than 50 large-scale change initiatives across a variety of industries.
Senior Vice President for Development
Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island
I've got three words for you: Suck it up. Intense psychotherapy and pharmaceuticals might have a significant impact on your boss's behavior -- but you won't. It's not up to you to change your boss, but you can change your situation. You can do this in one of three ways: impose or relax constraints on the situation, work your way around the situation, or get out of the situation.
Yes, it's a grim and unjust reality: Most of us work in hierarchical organizations -- and we have bosses. Therefore, the consequences are grave when you establish a mindset that says, "You are not the boss of me. I am the boss of me." Sometimes I marvel at people who expect their boss to move heaven and earth to accommodate whatever idiosyncratic interest or point of view they have -- without considering peers, efficiency, or hierarchy.
My first job, at age 19, taught me an invaluable lesson about working for dumb bosses. Back then, I worked for the state government of Rhode Island. My boss was as dumb as a rock. But he required only three things from me: He needed to get credit for everything; he wanted to be fully briefed weekly; and he wanted me to get him into the newspaper as much as I could. If I did these things, I had the latitude to do whatever I wanted with my work. Although my friends thought I was working for a complete dope, I was thinking that this situation was a gift from heaven. At age 19, I had opportunities that I could never have had anywhere else -- experiences that, down the line, made me substantially more valuable in the job market. If you work for a dumb boss, don't be dumb to the opportunities that exist. Find them, and then exploit them for your own benefit.
Unfortunately, there are bosses who simultaneously are dumb and don't let you do anything. If you're working for one of those, my message changes to just two words: Move on.
Leonard Schlesinger (len_schlesinger@brown.edu) was the George Baker Jr. Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He now heads Brown's fund-raising enterprise. He has written several books, including The Service Profit Chain, which he coauthored with J.L. Heskett and W.E. Sasser (Free Press, 1997), and The Real Heroes of Business: . . . and Not a CEO Among Them, with W. Fromm (Doubleday, 1994).
Cofounder
Worklife Productions
Whitewater, Wisconsin
Dumb bosses aren't dumb in terms of IQ. They're dumb when it comes to operating in the world of relationships. A dumb boss usually couldn't care less about how other people feel as long as the work gets done. But don't let a dumb boss make you do something dumb yourself. The worst thing you can do is to sabotage your own work to spite your boss. I see this happen all the time. A good antidote to the dumb-boss epidemic? Do your job well!
Email
Digg
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Buzz Up!
LinkedIn
