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Five Essential Strategies for Managing
Up
Losing Perspective: The #1 Mistake Senior
Executives Make
Ten Moves Guaranteed to Alienate
HR
July
Ten Moves Guaranteed to Alienate HR
To keep the alliance strong and working to your benefit, here are ten things you should NOT do:
1. Treat HR staffers like glorified secretaries or gofers.
2. Bring in your own search firms without getting HR’s approval list first.
3. Promise raises and/or promotions to your staff unless you’ve first cleared them with HR for consistency with others in similar jobs or grades.
4. Fail to attend a meeting arranged at your request to discuss a performance problem with a member of your staff.
5. Say anything remotely politically incorrect in a public place and then try to explain away your gaff by saying "but everyone knew I was kidding".
6. Miss the deadlines for performance appraisals, bonus recommendations, merit increases, or job requisitions.
7. Yell "With all the paperwork you require, it’s impossible to run a business!"
8. Tell HR it is their job to develop job specs for your department.
9. Be out of the office when candidates have been scheduled for job interviews.
10. Ask for confidential information about salaries.
Five Essential Strategies for Managing Up
Remember tetherball? There’s a tall metal pole planted firmly in the ground with a long cord attached at the top. At the other end of the cord the ball is tied. No matter how hard you hit the ball, which direction it’s headed or how fast it’s going, the ball remains attached to the pole. The same goes for your relationship with your boss—and you can guess which one of you is the pole and which one is the ball.
For as long as you’re in the game, you’re firmly attached to your boss, to his history, reputation, politics, choices, and to some extent his future. How closely you entwine yourself with your boss will affect your reputation and will have a major influence on what you can accomplish on the job and where your career goes.
There are five laws that you absolutely must follow if you have any hope of creating, maintaining, and managing any productive relationship with your boss:
Never outshine the master: You’re making a big mistake if you’re outsmarting, outwitting, or outmaneuvering your boss. Always do your best, but do it in a way that complements your boss’ strengths.
Make your boss look good: Engaging in a smart game of professional flattery positions you as a person who is not only ambitious, but also supports company objectives.
Exceed expectations: If your achievements make your boss look great, she won’t see you as a competitor but as an indispensable member of the team.
Bring solutions, not problems: The smartest way to succeed and get promoted is to be the person that your boss looks to first when there is something that needs to be done, managed, or fixed.
Protect your boss’ back: First, keep confidential any
professional or personal issues that might reflect negatively on your
boss. Second, stand in for your boss without hesitation if he is ever
unavailable—but be sure to give him credit. Finally, never use
your position to trade information.
Losing Perspective: The #1 Mistake Senior
Executives Make
Overstepping Boundaries: Don’t make the mistake of choosing a staff member to serve as a confidante. Instead, pull together a personal Board of Directors from outside the company.
The Unanticipated Pitfall: Beware of unpleasant surprises that can come from places where you least expect them: from above.
Avoid Out of Sight Oversight: Since not all of your subordinates may work in the same building as you do, it’s essential that you maintain your perspective about everyone who reports to you. When you manage outside offices, show up on-site unannounced.
One More Look in the Mirror: Be aware of your own biases in dealing with staff. Always remember that the last time you’ll ever hear completely honest and undistorted information about what’s going on in your company is the day before you start arranging those pictures of your family on your new desk.
You have the challenge of creating an environment that invites high morale, low turnover, consistently peak performance, and a reputation for integrity and fairness. Remaining vigilant and learning how to spot potential landmines will help you avoid derailing your career.
©2008, by the authors of I Didn't See It Coming
Nancy C. Widmann (New York, NY) was the first woman president at CBS, Inc. She managed CBS Radio for eight years and was inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2005. She now serves as an executive coach for senior managers and frequently speaks on corporate politics.
Elaine J. Eisenman, Ph.D. (Wellesley, MA) is Dean of Executive Education at Babson College. She holds a doctorate in industrial/organizational psychology and has over 25 years of experience as a consultant, business executive, and board director for both public and privately held companies.
Amy Dorn Kopelan (New York, NY) moved upward for 20 years through the executive ranks of ABC Television and managed programming at Good Morning America for nine years. She is founder of COACH ME, Inc., which provides group coaching for mid-level managers in Fortune 500 companies.
For more information, visit www.ididntseeitcomingthebook.com
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