Gonzague Dufour - Managing Your Manager

MANAGING YOUR MANAGER

How to Get Ahead with Any Type of Boss

Gonzague Dufour

Copyright 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-175236-7

MHID: 0-07-175236-6

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To Jacky, who knows so well the corporate world.

Thank you to Bruce Wexliar; without your support this book wouldnt have been that good.

How can I deal with my boss?

Ive probably asked myself this question hundreds of times over the course of my career, and I suspect youve done the same. It is a question we ask not only when were frustrated by someone who we view as a bad boss, but when were trying to help a good boss do the right thing.

Its also a question were asking more now than ever before.

This is a time of tremendous stress in most workplaces. Organizations are pressuring managers to deliver better results with fewer people; theyre asking them to work in new, flattened structures; theyre insisting on diversity initiatives; theyre rotating people in and out of groups frequently; and theyre introducing new technologies that take some (or a lot of) getting used to.

In the best of environments, bosses can be challenging to deal with. In the worst of environments, they can be more than challengingfrustrating, perplexing, aggravating, and impossible.

Yet they can be managed. If theres one thing Ive learned working for and observing many different bosses, its that the right approach usually pays off in much more positive, productive relationships. Right approach are the key words. Your approach must be researched, planned, and executed properly. Most important of all, you must know your market. In this instance, knowing your market translates into understanding your boss type.

More specifically, understanding the six most common boss types: the Bully, the Good, the Kaleidoscope, the Star, the Scientist, and the Navel. I realize that many of these terms probably arent familiar to you (at least when it comes to describing managers), but as you read about them, these archetypal bosses will become instantly recognizable. The odds are that you have, had, or will have at least one of these managerial types. Even if your boss doesnt fit the type exactly, youll see enough of him or her that the descriptions will be familiar. More important, the advice about how to manage each type will be relevant.

Before explaining how this book evolved from my experiences and how the advice will impact your relationships with bosses and your career, I want to tell you a short story that illustrates why this book is so necessary now.

A number of years ago, I went sailing with my boss at the time, and it started out wonderfully. The sun was shining, the wind was steady, the sea was calm. Best of all, my manager was in a great mood, and we were having a great time talking about work issues as well as other matters. A few hours later, though, a front moved in and the sea became rough. As conditions deteriorated, he reverted to form. As a manager, he was a Bully typetough, aggressive, decisive, used to giving orders and having them obeyed without question. Though he could be gracious and accommodating when it suited his purposes, his classic Bully traits would come to the surface whenever he was under significant stress. As the wind stretched the sails tight and the boat rose, fell, and tilted at a precarious angle, my boss ordered me to put my life jacket on. He snapped at me when I asked a question. He shouted at me to get something from the other end of the boat and told me, Hurry up!

I recognized that he was becoming the tough captain of the ship rather than my friend and colleague, and that he was responding in the only way he knew how to a difficult situation. Nonetheless, it wasnt a life-or-death situation but one that required him to take charge. An outside observer would have thought him rude and bad-tempered.