You can’t fix your boss, but you can ‘manage up’

Dear Bob …

I found “First Refuge” (Keep the Joint Running, 5/26/2009) very interesting. [Its premise: Coercion is the first refuge of the lazy leader. – Bob]

I work for a small manufacturer that employs about 100 people. Examples of lazy management seem to be the rule rather than the exception. We have to hire two or three people before we find one that actually can do the job for which they were hired. Information about projects is doled out on an absolute need-to-know basis. There is little sense of teamwork. The president rules with an air of dismissive impatience. He has his favorites, and if you aren’t one of them, you are treated like the plumbing: Something to ignore until a problem demands attention.

I have one person reporting to me. He is excellent, able to solve all kinds of problems, not just those within his job description, using his curiosity, intuition, and logical thinking skills. We communicate often and regularly about the tasks at hand. I express my admiration for his successes and make it a point to be aware of his weaknesses — looking for opportunities to nudge him in the direction of taking responsibility for improving his performance and skill set. If I meet a strong resistance, I comment on that (“Wow, you seem to dislike that idea”), and we talk about where that resistance is coming from and whether we can come up with an alternative with which he can function more comfortably. Sometimes I just have to tell him to do it anyway and let him know that I’m open to suggestions of how to do it differently next time. Other times, he looks at me like I have suddenly grown an extra nostril, and with a little coaxing, I get him to tell me where I’m all wet.

To sum up: We seem to have a sense of teamwork and comraderie that is rare in my company. The top brass seems to manage from an emotional distance — I suppose they would call it “professional.” I would call it the “Holding Employees at Arm’s Length So They Can’t Hurt Me With the Truth” management method.

Any suggestions for someone like me who is a couple rungs down from the top of the ladder? Should I just be grateful for the good working relationship I have already? I fear that if I broach this subject with my current superiors, I will merely make them uncomfortable and be labeled a troublemaker.

– Troublemaker

Dear Troublemaker …

One of the benefits of being the boss is that you get to establish the working style you want, even if it isn’t the style that works best. Such is the case with the folks who run your company, it appears.

Which means that so far as the way everyone from the president on down to your boss are concerned, you should view their behavior the way you’d view the laws of gravity, not the way you’d view a broken faucet. You can’t fix it.

The good news is that with some time, thought, and ingenuity, you can become increasingly effective at manipulating them to your advantage. The bad news is that you have to.

So start learning their emotional buttons and levers, and how to push and pull them to your advantage.

It might sound unethical, phrased the way I’ve put it. It isn’t, though. The polite words for the same concept are “persuasion” and “salesmanship” — surely good things, assuming that what you’re trying to sell them are good ideas that will benefit the company.

– Bob