Do You Make Work Harder by not Managing Your Boss?

Wouldn’t it be great if you could get your work done and have your boss support and encourage you?

There’s an interesting thread going on over at the Blogging Boss about managing your boss.

In the first post, More about Managing Up Eric quoted some of my thoughts about managing up -

This is a great point. It is also important to point out to stay positive about it. When your boss makes a decision that goes against what you expected or believed what was right for the company, do you take it to mean that your boss is an idiot or do you use it as a way to recalibrate?

To recalibrate, after your boss makes a decision that you didn’t expect you should be asking yourself questions:

• Is it because he has access to more information or can see more of the picture?
• Did I not give my boss enough information to make the correct decision?
• Is it not the right time, is it not for the right reasons, or the right cost to make this decision?

If you are of the my boss is an idiot mindset and you use that as an excuse to undermine them, you are hurting yourself more than your boss. If they are an idiot, most likely everyone else knows it as well - and all you do by pointing it out or trying to make your boss look bad is to make yourself undesirable by other managers in your company. Why would a manager want an employee like that working for them? Wouldn’t they rather someone who is able to get good work done without making others look bad?

That said, if this truly is the right decision to make, there are many ways to force your boss to make the right decision without undermining him…

In the next post, Managing up Dave’s Boss Eric talks about another strategy for managing your micromanaging boss - Withholding information.

I have discovered the best way to deal with that is to give him as little info as possible while still addressing his questions. I have also been standing up to him more when he brings out the steamroller. It has been awhile since he has really railed on me.

He still gets in his jabs and token jerk quota.

I tend to disagree with this strategy. Put yourself in Dave’s position and start by asking yourself “Why?”

• Why does my boss continually pester me for more information about what I am working on?

If your answer is “because he is a micromanaging idiot…” you are already going down the wrong path. It is your responsibility to teach your boss how to manage you. If you don’t they will manage you how they want to manage you. Seems easy enough?

Some reasons your boss micromanages you

• It’s all they know how to do, they have never managed any other way
• Their boss micromanages them, they don’t know how to manage up, and so it just keeps coming down the line
• They feel disconnected by a lack of information
• The Peter Principle has kicked in, and to compensate they over manage
• They don’t have faith in your ability to do your job

Here comes the hard part, how do you deal with it? The answer to dealing with a micromanaging boss is to overwhelm them with information. Know what they want to know, manage them so that when they want information you have already sent it to them the day before. Make them look good to their peers and their boss. Give your boss ideas that will make him look good, and then praise and give him credit for coming up with them.

It may seem unfair, or that this isn’t your job but the more you do it, the more people who know you as someone that can get work done.

Tell us how do YOU manage a micro manager in the comments below.