Managing your manager

How to use

At a minimum, you need to appreciate your boss’s goals and pressures. Without this information, you are flying blind, and problems are inevitable.
(Gabarro and Kotter, 2005, p. 94)

Have you ever stopped to think about why your manager behaves as they do? Or how understanding your manager better can help both of you work more effectively? In 1980, John Gabarro and John Kotter introduced the idea that managers also have to manage their boss, and this idea is now taught across management training programmes worldwide. They suggested that consciously managing this relationship is an essential, but often overlooked, part of management. Their article remains highly influential and was reprinted in 2005.

Here is Gabarro and Kotter’s checklist for managing your boss.

Understand your boss and their context:

• goals
• pressures
• strengths and weaknesses
• preferred work style.

Understand yourself and how this influences the relationship:

• strengths and weaknesses
• personal style
• expectations from authority figures.

Develop a relationship that:

• fits both your needs and styles
• is based on mutual expectations
• is based on dependability and honesty.

The information you gain from this process is incredibly powerful. Horstman and Auzenne (2012) recommend focusing on the following five key areas.

• Boss goals – Your manager will have other commitments, so they may not spend a lot of time on your particular unit. Be sensitive to this.
• Boss communications – How does your manager communicate? Do they like email, telephone or face-to-face contact? What language do they use and why?
• Boss schedule – Be sensitive to your manager's time. Pay attention to their schedule and how it affects your working relationship.
• Boss work style – How do they like to work?
• Boss relationships – What are their working networks and where do you fit in?

The tool we have developed draws together these ideas under the framework of the four building blocks of the fully rounded caring manager.

Managing your relationship with your manager is a legitimate part of your role within health and social care, which can avoid unnecessary problems arising, ensuring a safe and efficient service with positive outcomes for service users. This isn’t about being the boss's ‘pet’, but about you choosing to be consciously aware that developing a greater understanding of your manager as a person can help everyone to do their job better. Even if you get on very well with the person who manages you, it is still a worthwhile exercise and, in the spirit of transformational leadership, you might find it useful to share the tool with the team you manage, so they can think about their working relationship with you!

References

Gabarro, J.J. and Kotter, J.P. (2005) ‘Managing your boss’, Harvard Business Review, January, pp. 92–9.

Horstman, M. and Auzenne, M. (2012) Manager’s Tools [Online], www.manager-tools.com (Accessed 3 March 2013).

Jay, R. (2002) How to Manage Your Boss, London, Prentice Hall.