When at work place, you often wonder – “How to handle your boss ?”. This question comes out normally when you start finding it difficult to please your boss and get his eyes and ears to your work. The observations and thoughts presented in this write up is a commonsensical look at the way people behave at work place. May be you can appreciate and relate with some of the thoughts presented.
Bosses don’t want to be bothered. Yeah ! I feel that’s true. So when people say – Boss is always right , I feel its just presenting one aspect of – Bosses don’t want to be bothered.
To elaborate I will add: Bosses normally don’t like bad news, and bosses don’t want to be bothered. As long as you can keep the bad news off their head and as long as you can keep them tension free you are going to do great.
Now, how to keep your boss from the bad news , and what people normally do to avoid bothering their bosses.
- Some of you keep off the bad news by working hard. Nice approach.
- Some of you keep it off by making others work hard, and getting things done. If this is your style – great. Getting things done by delegating effectively or forcing work down some ones throat, can also give you ample time for networking with others and having a chit chat with your boss.
- Some just keep it off by keeping the bad news under wraps. This can lead to problems in the long run – so you need to be smart enough at handling situations if you resort to this method.
- Some just stay out of sight. Staying out of sight can definitely be a negative at the time of your appraisals. Even if you have been great at delivering, sitting away, trust me if you are not visible you have done nothing.
- Some just keep the boss entertained and happy. Life is beautiful when you can just chat away to glory with a thought that there are others to finish critical stuff. Well this can be damaging during appraisals, but if you follow this approach at workplace , may be you understand your bosses and your organizations expectations.
Now, another thought – people who can practice all the above mentioned approaches well with due focus on maintaining a balance are the ones who are able to move up pretty fast and are always preferred by their bosses. You just need to know when to deliver, when to get things done, when to put some thing under wraps, when to stay off sight and when to plan a casual chit chat.
Write to me, with your experiences if you can relate to the thoughts or even if you differ in part or completely with my thoughts as presented in this article. I am available at praveen@hiringsquare.com. You are welcome to add to the above through feedback, thoughts, questions observations etc. in form of comments, e-mail etc.
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Praveen is the Founder & Principal Consultant of KHEdge, a boutique HR & Business Process Advisory firm. Over last 15 years he has advised & worked with promoters, founders, business leaders, HR leaders in areas of - Business Strategy, HR Strategy, Organisation Design etc.