How to communicate with superiors? Ask for instructions, report, report, and take responsibility, and do these four basic skills well

Communication is a very important thing in the workplace. Konosuke Matsushita once said: "Business management is about communication in the past, and now it is about communication in the future." Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric, also attaches great importance to communication. , he once talked about how to allocate his effective working time and said, "I spend about 30% to 40% of my time dealing with people and communicating with subordinates." At the same time, Jeff Immelt also asked middle managers at all levels Management attaches great importance to communication to ensure effective communication between superiors and subordinates.

We all know that an important role of middle managers is to link the previous and the next, and they are an indispensable role in corporate communication. If there is a problem with the middle management communication, it will bring huge trouble to the enterprise.

There are three main directions of communication with middle managers: communication with superiors, communication with peers, and communication with subordinates.

These three communication directions have different emphases. Today we mainly talk about how middle managers communicate with their superiors.

Upward communication, also known as upward management. What is the purpose of middle management's upward communication? Let your leaders understand what you are doing, why you are doing it, how your progress is, and what kind of support and help you need from your leaders if you encounter any problems. At the same time, you should also let your leaders realize the importance and value of your work, so as to gain their support. and help, as well as the appreciation and reliance of leaders.

Therefore, it is very important for middle managers to communicate with their superiors. So, how should middle managers communicate with their superiors? There are four directions for middle-level managers to communicate with their superiors, namely: asking for instructions, reporting, reporting, and taking responsibility.

01 Ask for instructions

Let's talk about the first direction first: ask for instructions.

The general manager of a certain company was passing by in the corridor. At this time, someone came out and stopped him. It was a department manager. The department manager reported the problems encountered in the work to the general manager, what should the general manager do? The general manager was very unhappy when he heard what the department manager said. He criticized the department manager: "What should I do? You ask me what to do? I don't know what to do! How to solve these problems, it is up to you to decide, you can handle it yourself! Don't ask me about small things like this in the future. . This is your job, you just need to do your job well and report back to me."

Hearing this, the department manager sweated on his forehead, and then said to the general manager, "Okay, I'll go back and write the plan, and then come back to you for instructions."

There is a saying that is very good, it is called "asking for work and telling a plan". If a middle-level manager encounters a problem and asks a superior for instructions, it is a dereliction of duty for the middle-level manager. What is an important role for middle managers? The content we shared in the previous part has already been mentioned, that is, to convert the superior's strategy into an action plan, and then lead the subordinates to implement the action plan.

Who decides this plan? Of course it's up to the leader. The way the general manager handled it was very sensible. He gave clear instructions to the department manager. Don't ask him for instructions on trivial matters, especially for some very minor matters that require subordinates to make their own decisions. What problem does this avoid? Anti-authorization. If the general manager Sesame has to take care of the big and small things, then he is not too busy to die! Therefore, the work of middle-level managers should also be considered from the perspective of the superior leaders. The request should be divided into major matters and minor matters, major matters should be asked by leaders to make decisions, and minor matters should be decided by themselves, so as to reflect their own value.

Let's continue to talk about this case. What should the middle manager directly ask the general manager to do? He is asking a question. The general superior will not tell him what to do, so what should he do?

He should make several plans, and then ask the general manager for the plan, and finally the general manager will make the final decision.

Of course, if you ask for instructions with a plan, you can say something like, "General manager, I have encountered such a problem, I have made several plans, I prefer the third one, you can take a look. I want to hear from you. Opinion."

When you say this, the general manager will not think that you are a subordinate who is causing trouble for him. The general manager only needs to quickly browse your plan, and then give his own opinion, or determine an optimal plan from the overall perspective of the company. In this way, it saves the general manager a lot of time, and makes the general manager feel that this department manager is worthy of reuse and is a useful material.

Here is a point to mention that there must be a plan for the work of requesting instructions, preferably alternative plans, and then try to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each plan as clearly as possible, and then list them out for reference and decision-making by leaders. This is not only conducive to the rapid decision-making of the boss, but also the rapid implementation of the subordinates, and it is also conducive to the improvement of the management level of the middle-level managers themselves. Therefore, the middle-level managers must practice such a basic skill.

Therefore, when middle managers ask their superiors for work instructions, they should pay attention to two points: first, they must ask for instructions, and do not ask for instructions indiscriminately; second, they should ask multiple-choice questions instead of asking questions.

02 Reporting

Well, let's move on to the second direction of upward communication for middle managers: reporting.

After the tasks assigned by the senior leaders, an indispensable link in the execution process of the middle managers is reporting.

Why report it? Because if you don’t report a problem, you think you can fix it, but the problem can’t be contained, and you report it to the leader. At this time, you have missed the best time for remediation, which is likely to bring losses to the company. Therefore, an important task of middle managers is to report to senior leaders.

The reporting work is considered from two aspects: first, report to the leader when the execution is successful, so that the leader can rest assured that "this manager has done a good job, and you can rest assured to hand over more important things to him in the future"; second, when encountering difficulties, report to the leader. Leaders report, you can get support and help from leaders. Difficulties and problems encountered in the implementation, at this time, reporting to the leadership can avoid greater deviations. You can listen to the opinions of the leaders, which is more conducive to the further implementation of the work by the middle managers. Therefore, middle managers should be good at reporting and be able to report, so as to help themselves in their work and win the trust, support and appreciation of their leaders.

03 report

We then move on to the third direction of upward communication from middle managers: reporting.

After the task is completed, the middle managers should report to the higher-level leaders. What does the report mainly say?

The main purpose is to tell the leader about the completion of the task. In reality, many of our middle managers often have many problems when reporting to the leader. There are five points that are worth noting.

(1) The report has no focus. When many middle-level managers report to their leaders, they always talk about a lot of big things and small things, which makes the leaders confused. There is no key point, and the key point is not prominent. This is the most important problem. Whether it is doing well or not is impossible to judge.

(2) Don't say the result. Many people may be afraid that the leaders don’t pay enough attention to them, that the leaders don’t know their hard work, and they always exaggerate their hard work when giving reports. It seems that they are not as hard as they are. how is it? There is no other way, the leader has to listen patiently, if you do it well, it will be fine, if you don't do it well, you will talk a lot and see how the leader trains you. We also think about it ourselves. We have done so much foreshadowing in front of us. It is like making a delicious meal. Our ingredients are all airlifted from thousands of miles away. We have invited five-star chefs and we have used the best cooking oil. , we have a 5-star kitchen...As a result, the meal is mushy. I think, I have the heart to kill my subordinates. Therefore, if the middle-level managers want to lead the report, they should talk about the results first, the results first, the results first, and the important things are repeated three times, making less excuses and less hard work.

(3) Logical confusion. Many middle-level managers have no logic or hierarchy when reporting tasks, and the leaders do not know what you are talking about.

(4) No data support. After a task is completed, an important criterion for good or bad is data. How much you have done and what kind of achievements you have made, if there is a clear figure, you must say it, otherwise it will be difficult to convince the leader. Leaders are busy all day, and they don’t have the time to listen to your long speeches, and they don’t have the mood to listen to your official essays. They are more concerned about the results, especially the results that can be measured by data.

(5) Complaining too much. We all know that many middle-level managers are actually very hard. However, your hard work is your hard work. When you can't make a report, you will complain a lot, talk about difficulties and problems, and have various excuses for not performing well, and the reasons for not completing the task. It seems that it is all the fault of others. Such middle managers are incompetent. Senior leaders will not like such middle managers.

The above five points are the problems that often arise when middle managers make reports. So how should the report be made? Let’s sum up: straight to the point of the results, concise and to the point, logical in one, two, and three points, use figures to explain the results, and be honest and take responsibility without complaining. Do this report, show your attitude, show your ability, let the leadership see your talent, and win the leadership's appreciation.