When presented in a situation where you are required to manage your manager in order to continue moving a project forward, what are some useful tactics that can be used?
In my position, there are times when I need to reach out to my manager for assistance/guidance, but rather than focusing on the one part of the project that their expertise is needed for, my manager gets stuck in the weeds on all other details that don't pertain to their involvement. This tends to slow down the process and wastes time. Any advice on ways to keep the conversation focused without deviating? Saving Changes...
All great advice!! I would add, especially if this is going to be a long relationship, get personal with him/her. The key is to get them to think of you as more than just a person they can seek to put projects onto and see you as a person. Both are key, but when you have a long term relationship spanning several projects. This is true of all stakeholders as well, but you will see results with your immediate manager for sure! A word of caution though - it might open your eyes to who your manager is... good or bad Saving Changes...
Zehui ZhangCEO| Aura International Consulting Hongkong, Hong Kong
I’m not clear about your situation,but hope below can be useful for you to to manage your manager.
First of all, you have to establish a cognition: the boss is the "customer". Wait, how can these two be linked? Let me give you reasoning. What is a customer? The definition of a customer is "the person who pays the bill". More specifically, it is the person who pays for your "effort" (time). In other words, since the person who pays is the customer, the boss is of course the customer, and in many cases the most important customer.
How to communicate with the customer "Boss"?
After establishing that the boss is the customer and the boss is the most important customer, you have to ask yourself: How can I serve this most important customer?
In this VUCA situation, we have to increase the frequency of communication with customers, and use MVP (Minimal Viable Product, minimum viable product, refer to "Lean Entrepreneurship"), the method of minimum prototype method, continuous communication with customers, is the only way to survive. To put it bluntly, in fact, many times, customers don't figure out why they want this. He came to you to let you think about it for him and make it. And you think he thinks about it clearly, and then the two communicate through imprecise language, introducing a lot of noise. This is the source of the tragic ending of many projects.
Channels of communication include face-to-face meetings and WeChat, corporate IM, and email-all channels that can be low-cost and high-frequency are good channels.
The way of communication is to use demo, physical, progress summary.
Communication is not about Yes, Yes, Yes, but constantly asking questions and asking good questions
To be able to keep asking new questions, you must also be able to "converge" in time-projects that cannot be converged can never be completed.
Why do they need to be managed? Do you need something from them? Are they micromanaging you? Are they doing something behind the scenes. I've learned to establish a relationship with my boss for them to understand how I work best and then deliver. I've had bosses who didn't respect that and let me know I work for them. We then have a hard conversation. There is a balance to this and you don't want to appear like you can't be managed. Saving Changes...
Marcus UdokangProject Manager| Aivaz ConsultingCalgary, Alberta, Canada
Apr 30, 2020 8:06 AM
Replying to Sergio Luis Conte
...
Employees must make their bosses work, not the other way around. Take into account I say this since I have been in boss positions since I was 25 years old.
I agree with you Sergio, that clarifying the work to do, giving the needed tools and recources to do the work, and establishing the priorities, are all bossess work. That is vitally important. It can be challenging for a worker when these items are either not provided by the manager, or the manager makes it very difficult to get access to these items. The manager may be consciously or unconsciously doing this. Saving Changes...
Dinah YoungProject Manager / Software Asset Manager| Prince William CountySpringfield, Va, United States
This is actually something I always say. As an employee you need to manage your manager and as a manager you need to figure out how to best manage your employees. I always try to tell my manager's the best way to manage me upfront. And I try to figure out what my manager needs for his job and how he wants me to supply it. Over the years, and many, many managers I have been mostly successful. There have been a handful that we could just never get into sync. I will not say that person was a bad manager, we were just not the best pairing. I have actually had great relationships with some that I would consider a "bad" manager because I found a way to make it work and be successful. McKenzie - it will be a trial and error period to get what you need. If your manager is feeling like he is not comfortable with his knowledge of the project, what can you do to give him that comfort. Does he need more one on one briefings, status meetings or access to more details? If you can get him to a point where his comfort level is high enough that he does not feel the need to delve into the weeds, then maybe you can get the support you need. You may need to carve more of your time out than you want, but the payoff may just be worth it. Good luck. Saving Changes...
