Workplace start: learn to manage your boss upwards and open your career promotion and salary increase
My colleague Qiao Qiao called me. After the Chinese New Year, she was going to change companies again. This is the fourth time she has fired her boss after graduation.
On the phone, she began to complain about the former boss again: "The boss has a good eye and a low hand. He sets targets and goals all day long, and then he shakes his hands and waits for the end of the month to see my performance. He doesn't tell me anything and doesn't give me support, just let me do it myself. Come on, do you want me to empty my gloves and white wolf?"
Qiaoqiao is not an exception. Disagreement with the boss is the main reason why most people in the workplace resign.
Some data show that 88.4% of people resign because of various reasons for disliking their bosses. For example, the boss is too mean, unfriendly, deliberately embarrassing others, etc.
Resigning after a disagreement is not the solution. However, if you don’t resign, you have to endure the boss’s various grievances, and you feel too aggrieved.
How to do it?
Workplace start: learn to manage your boss upwards and open your career promotion and salary increase
In fact, this phenomenon can not only be avoided, but we can also ask our boss to help us, provide us with various supports and resources, and even give us promotions and salary increases.
This practice is called "managing up," and having this skill can change our dissatisfaction with our boss, and in turn be able to influence the boss, change the boss, and even become a good person to manage the boss. Doing so puts us on the same channel as the boss, from a subordinate relationship to a cooperative relationship.
How to do it? This is where the facet approach is needed.
This method is usually used in psychological counseling, and in the workplace, it means that we need to find the contradiction with the boss, explore the contradiction between the two sides, and finally achieve the unity of each other's needs, and also obtain the boss's affirmation and support.
Let's first take a look at what kind of dissatisfaction Qiaoqiao has with the boss
The boss is against me and doesn't give me a chance
Qiaoqiao is good at making PPT.
At many presentations, her PPTs have always been well received by clients and colleagues. Her colleagues often come to ask her to teach her various skills in PPT. It is no exaggeration to say that she is recognized by the company as a PPT god-level figure.
However, every time there is a big project, the boss never allows Qiaoqiao to participate, and also entrusts the task of making PPT to other colleagues who are not as skilled as Qiaoqiao.
This Qiaoqiao was so angry that she felt that the boss was targeting her and would not give her a chance.
Is it really?
Workplace start: learn to manage your boss upwards and open your career promotion and salary increase
The fact is that everyone in the company, including the boss, knows Qiaoqiao's strengths, and they also thought of letting Qiaoqiao participate in the production of the project. Project Team.
You see, there are opportunities, but Qiaoqiao just wants to wait for the boss to call her to do it, but in the workplace, opportunities are to be won by yourself. No one is obligated to take the opportunity to hand.
Qiaoqiao, who was unwilling to take the opportunity, felt that the boss did not look down on me and did not want to use me, and felt uncomfortable.
The boss is embarrassing me, and the demands are high, but he doesn't help me solve the problem
When working on a project, the boss asked to give customers more product experience. Therefore, Qiao Qiao wanted several departments to provide some business support and cooperate in a product exhibition experience meeting.
But when she asked the boss about this, the boss did not agree, but thought it was a waste of the company's manpower and material resources, so Qiaoqiao went back and made plans again.
Qiaoqiao turned around and complained to us: "The boss is so selfish, and he wants to have good results, but he also wants to not spend money. Besides, this project is not mine alone!"
In fact, many people feel that the requirements they put forward are what the company needs, and the personal needs have been expanded into the needs of the company and the boss.
Unconsciously, he turned his own thoughts and requirements into orders, and the other party, as the boss, must agree. However, in the eyes of the boss, these needs are not necessarily what he thinks they need, and there can be better alternatives.
The needs and ideas of each other are asymmetric, and finally there is a difference in understanding between the two sides.
It is not difficult to solve this problem. As long as you control the needs of both parties and put forward the needs of the boss, you can manage the boss well and achieve your own needs.
The three-step approach to managing upwards
01 Find the real needs of your boss
Isn't what the boss needs what he asks? Why even look for it?
No, sometimes, the requirements he put forward are not the fundamental "purpose", but the results he needs. If we don't dig deep into the requirements and just do things according to his requirements, we will often be overwhelmed.
For example, does the boss ask Qiaoqiao to give customers more product experience just to improve the experience? Do you want to increase sales, or do you want to get product recommendations from customers? What aspect of the product did you experience?
Only through empathy to find out the possible needs of the boss, and through inquiries, we can know the real needs of the boss.
At this point, you can put forward your own suggestions, open up ideas with the boss, get the boss's approval and support, and make the best plan.
Workplace start: learn to manage your boss upwards and open your career promotion and salary increase
02 Express your needs correctly and get support
Objectively describe the current situation you have encountered, put forward your needs and goals, and explain what the consequences will be if you cannot meet the needs.
This is like, Qiao Qiao proposed to hold a product experience meeting. The boss saw that he spent money and sent people. There was no antecedent and no result. He only saw the requirement of paying, and no one would agree to it.
But if, Qiaoqiao told the boss, the competition for the same type of products is very strong now, the loss of old customers is increasing, and the number of new customers is small.
Through the experience meeting, it can increase communication with old customers and improve their confidence in product quality, and can also drive some potential customers.
If not, the sales plan for this quarter may only be 73% completed.
At this time, the boss is likely to be willing to implement a clever plan and give financial and human support.
03 Find the common goal of both parties and achieve a win-win situation
It's normal to have disagreements between people, let alone with your boss. We learn various communication methods and skills, and the goal is to continuously improve our ability to meet the requirements of the job and the requirements of the boss.
However, it is really not easy to manage the boss. For example, the needs of the boss are like a snowball, too fast for us to keep up. Our great difficulties are nothing in the eyes of the boss.
Compromise, you will suffer, if you can't finish it, there is no good fruit to eat. I finally finished it, maybe the boss will give it another meal next time, and by the way, he also sent a sentence: "I can finish it last time, and I can also do it this time."
Facing the asymmetry of demand, we can only dig deep into the needs of both parties and strive for a win-win situation, which is the best way to deal with it.
If we and the boss have different views on things, then look for common ground in the results of things.
Everyone has their own limitations, and we must have the courage to accept each other's limitations.
Therefore, people who can manage their boss upwards will treat the boss as a partner, listen carefully to find his needs, have the courage to express their own needs, and change from passively accepting the boss's needs to seeking cooperation with the boss until the results are satisfactory to both parties.