How to Manage Your Manager

1000s of books have been written about managing people "below" you.

But how do you 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 "𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘃𝗲" 𝘆𝗼𝘂? In 2015 I complained about a client: "he's such a micromanager".

I blamed him.

And I did not start a conversation.

Instead, I started to cc him in almost every email.

Ridiculous.

Obviously, this didn't solve the issue.

I was not good at 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗽𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀.

Now I take a different approach.

Talk with the person to understand:

😲 What is their fear?

🔺 What do they need?

✅ What can I do to help them meet their need?

In my personal example:

😲 𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗥: He feared being "out of control".

🔺 𝗡𝗘𝗘𝗗: Having an overview of the activities in his teams.

✅ 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗖𝗔𝗡 𝗜 𝗗𝗢: Send a weekly update in 5 bullet points, taking into account what HE finds important.

More tips in the infographic (source: stl-training).