Your boss is continually hovering over your shoulder asking what you're doing and why - and when you're going to be done.
It sounds like a classic case of micromanagement. But for corporate trainer Bruce Tulgan, these are in fact symptoms of being undermanaged, and he suggests to those rankled by an overbearing boss that it's time ask for more direction, not less.
Mr. Tulgan is president of Rainmaker Thinking Inc. in New Haven, Conn., and the author of a new book, It's Okay to Manage your Boss: The Step-by-Step Program for Making the Best of Your Most Important Relationship at Work. In an interview, he explains his views:
It sounds counterintuitive to say people who rankle at the meddling of their supervisors should ask for more face time. How did you reach that conclusion?
I've done more than 10,000 in-depth interviews with managers and employees for my company, Rainmaker Thinking Inc., since 1993. From these, I've concluded that nine out of 10 employees are undermanaged and that nearly everyone would benefit from having more face time with their supervisor and getting more explicit direction. Every manager wants self-starting performers who don't need to be managed; it's just that those people don't really exist. I've found that high performers only seem like they don't need to be managed because they take the effort to clarify the goals and expectations in advance and get regular feedback so they don't end up going in wrong directions and wasting time and resources.
What are the signs that you're undermanaged?
If you don't have expectations spelled out clearly enough that you can list them; if you have projects for which there is no project plan; if you don't get ongoing feedback from the boss and if you are frustrated that you are not getting the credit you deserve. These are good indications that you are being undermanaged.
Most managers manage by special occasion: when something goes terribly wrong or when something pops into their head or when they happen to pass by you in the hall. These and performance reviews are the times when most managers usually have conversations with their direct reports. My view is that your boss has power over your career and livelihood and that shouldn't be taken lightly or handled haphazardly.
Why is it up to employees to take charge now?
The lack of management is becoming more common because of the pressures managers are under to recover from the recession. There is no question that many managers are scrambling because they have fewer resources and tighter budgets, and have responsibilities for more people and more competing demands for their attention. People who become high performers do things to help the manager get their management work done as effectively as possible.
And my advice to managers is it actually will save you time if you take the effort to work more closely with your reports and specify your expectations in advance. If you manage well in the first place, you won't have a lot of things going wrong that you have to devote your time to resolving later.
What do you find that high performers do that others don't?
Over my years of consulting, I have found a consistent trait of high performers is that they take personal responsibility for getting what they need from the boss in terms of guidance and feedback. They say "let's be clear from the outset: what's expected and what is the deadline? What exactly are the goals and the guidelines?" High performers work with the boss because they know that if they just say "let's take a crack at this," without clarity, the job will end up taking longer and will be less likely to meet expectations.
Low performers, by contrast, put all the responsibility on the boss, and blame if things aren't going well. It turns out that people who don't get that clarity make more mistakes and end up doing work that they didn't have to do and do subultimate jobs, where they could have turned in something better if they had more direction from the outset.
What's the best way to manage the boss?
Communication is key and the ideal is a dependable structured time for a check-in, which I think should be about 10 minutes every week to review progress, document and give the feedback you need. To keep discussions brief and focused, I suggest jotting down a list of questions that come up over the week and preparing a quick update of what you've accomplished and questions you need answered.
This lets the boss know how well you're doing and how fast you're doing and how many points you're scoring. The responses you get will give you a reading on whether you're doing as well as you thought, you are moving in the right direction or need to recalibrate. All this is best done individually. The worst things for managers to have are weekly pro forma group update meetings. These invariably take too much time and make people want to try to avoid them.
What can be done to get an overbearing manager to back off?
When managers are always looking over your shoulder, it is really because they don't know how to do the hard work of setting out goals, setting guidelines and time frames. When managers don't know the goal and how the tasks should be done, it leads them to be anxious. The have to keep hovering because they aren't sure where things stand. Agreeing on clear goals from the outset and checking in frequently on progress will make your manager less anxious and less likely to feel the need to constantly check in.
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FIVE WAYS TO MANAGE YOUR BOSS
Understand what's expected: What are your concrete goals, timetables for accomplishing those goals, and clear guidelines for every goal?
Ask for clarification and help: Talk through what skills, tools, and resources will be necessary for you to meet the goals. Lay out potential snags you see.
Be the superstar: Report on every success with the boss.
Solicit constant feedback: All along the way ask for honest appraisals of your performance and advice about potential course corrections that could be more effective.
Discuss rewards: Make it clear you'll go "the extra mile" and that you think you deserve special recognition and rewards in exchange for your performance.
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FIVE WAYS MANAGERS CAN HELP
Make discussion regular: Set up a brief dialogue weekly with each report.
Get personal: Team meetings are no substitute for one-on-one conversations.
Think like a teacher: Break expectations down and spell things out.
Document performance: Set up a report card and give people a regular account of how their work measures up to expectations.
Stay alert: Address small problems before they turn into big ones.