Office politics 8 tips that will help you supporting your boss
by chess master on 24/01/10 at 9:08 pm
As the office survivor, your career prospects often rely on how effectively you interact with and support your boss or others farther up the organizational ladder. In front of every competent person there will eventually be a vacant chair; and your boss will have a major voice in determine who gets to sit in it. Often, your success will depend on your boss success, so he or she will need your continuing support. Keep these suggestions in mind if you want to support your boss…
1. Get to know your boss
Getting to know your boss is for some a big obstacle. We keep our life private as we can, exposing so little to the outside. Knowing your boss involves knowing his working habits, his motivations, and his private personal state. You will need a lot of your office politics ability to gain as much information. We brought several inquires you might use:
- Find out all you can about your boss-likes and dislikes, quirks, expectations, interests and prejudices.
- By observing and by asking others get to know how your boss likes things done.
- Learn your boss’s style of writing, for example. Is a succinct proposal on one sheet of paper preferred or a details argument?
- Finds out what’s really important to him or her and make sure that’s what you deliver.
- Study him to understand what catch is their minds, stimulate their souls and turn their stomach.
- His age. This is an important factor. Maybe your boss is going to retirement and his replacing is already known?
- Get and understand his personal state life? Is he married? Have kids? What age?
- Get to know his academic past and resume.
- Try to analyze his position in the organization, put yourself in his place, and see where would you like to promote your self if you where him. Try to approve you analyzing with smart and politics private talking’s with him to assure your assumptions.
2. Keep your boss informed
Informing your boss can be sometime difficult. As an office survivor, at one point we will start holding back valuable information and not telling all of it to our boss. Its basic human behavior because we know think these little secret can keep out job safer in the future once we will decide to use it. But we thought of bringing several methods an office politics master might use, when he is willing to spread the data.
- Keep your boss up to date on all matters you are responsible for, as well as other items that you find are needed.
- Always anticipate your boss’s information needs and questions.
- Press clippings, media releases and internal online information can provide valuable data.
- Be sure to include a ‘with compliments’ slip with your signed, personal, but business-like message.
- Never let your boss hear good or bad news from others when your job to provide it.
3. Find out when and where your boss is most approachable
Private Meetings with the boss is important to the office survivor and its part of the “office-politics” game. you need these meetings once in a while for two reasons .keeping good relations with your boss, getting him like you and gain confidence with you and the second is to try and get his voice supporting you in a critical decision making.
- If your boss is an early starter, morning may be the best time to meet for discussions.
- If your boss takes some time to warm up, the end of the day might be a better time.
- Learn to read changes of mood. The boss’s personal assistant is often a valuable ally. Remember that timing van be vital.
- Try to see where will be to best place to tackle him: office, lunch, after work or home.
4. Deliver the goods
When your boss gives you a task, do you see it through to completion-or do you turn in a half finished job with all the tricky bits left for your boss to tidy up? If you’re asked to do something do you do it promptly and thoroughly?
This question is important in your office politics design. You need to ask yourself what is your strategy and limitations. While you are in the process deciding whether to take a task or in the task you might ask yourself:
- Are you delivering what your boss anticipates from you?
- Are you delivering what you’re inside conscience telling you?
- Are you lazy to deliver 100% job?
- Do you have enough time to deliver?
- Are you trying to look busy?
- Are you agreeing to take on tasks that others find to challenging or to demanding of their time?
- Is attracting the attention and respect of your boss is a priority?
We need to clarify an important subject: taking a task does not require you to do it manually. you might use outsourcing or delegates it to other while managing the progress. This you might finds you have more time and you are less busy. Then it a game of what you want to present to others. Success comes when you start managing others and work less. Then you become an office manager and not just a survivor.
Remember to not offer promises; just deliver what you intend. Don’t make excuses when something goes wrong. Deliver next time. Be though self-critic and always deliver the goods promptly and well.
5. Focus on solution-not problems
Henry Ford is supposed to have said;
don’t giver me a problem. Give me a solution
You should also adopt this approach. Make it a personal rule to provide solutions, or at least options for consideration-never problems, for the boss to solve. Bosses don’t need messengers conveying bad news. They want to hear what you done about any problems. Gain a reputation for being a solver, not a crier.
As part of the office politics game, try to throw several ideas and solution while talking to your friends at the office. Don’t givers them full picture but do it smart. Try to see what pros and cons your ideas have thus you can prepare yourself and change your ideas and solution before delivering it to your boss.
Another approach will be sniffing around with your boss and see what he think. If you don’t have enough resources and time, next time just repeat his ideas .this way you are showing support and bringing his ideas as they were yours. This might be a good tactic to use with collaboration when you and your boss need to pass a decision, and you boss don’t what other to think he is pulling to a specific direction, thus letting you pull it. However this is tricky because you can take the heat and get burned. Trust is an important issue and you need to trust your boss and see if he will come to rescue live on the meting when you strategy fails.
6. Demonstrate your loyalty
Be as loyal to your superiors as you would wish them to be with you. Remember however to show equal loyalty to and openness about your colleges as well, so that you don’t earn a reputation as the boss pet or the office crawler as appose to the office survivor.
- Don’t criticize your boss in front of others. if he made a mistake confront hum in private doors.
- When you honestly can, speak well of your boss to other people.
- Offer protection when necessary as long you feel it will help you getting more scores.
- Serve as buffer and absorb some of the shocks when you can prudently do so. From time to time let your boss you did it.
- Always, help your boss “to be right” without yourself being subservient.
- If you are fortunate enough to have one who deservers it, don’t be too proud to express admiration for you boss.
7. Gain your boss confidence
If you are determined to support your boss, you should show that you can be relied on; not only to do your own job but also to help your boss to do his. So, whenever the opportunity arises, you should try you convey some of these messages and key office politics sentences.
- I’m happy to have you talk to me about your concerns and problems
- I’m keen to be allowed to take some of the load off your shoulders
- I have certain strength you can use.
- I am always available
8. Match strength and weaknesses
Have a good grasp of your own strength and weaknesses as well as your boss. You will then know where you can complement each other, where you conflict and where you need help.
Conclusion:
Some of the finest collaboration whether in business or arts come about because the individuals involved complement each other; the writer helping the speaker, the details thinker supporting the big picture person, the late night person spelling the early riser. if you are strong where your boss is weak, and vice versa the resulting team can be far more effective then be alone. A good working relationship with your superior is the foundation of being successful manager.
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