Inspiration - September 2010

Strengthen Your Relationship With Your Manager

Our relationship with our manager is in direct correlation to our satisfaction and success with our career and often we don't even realize it!  Here are some examples of changes that take place in our work environment that can lead to challenges with our manager that we may not see right away...

• You have a new manager whether through a merger or usual transition in leadership - a new manager has new expectations
• You recently started a new job and all eyes are on you - you are forming expectations
• You were promoted to a new role and have the same manager - expectations will be different for your new role
• Your manager has a new set of responsibilities and expectations put on them - their expectations of you may change

When to create the relationship

Most relationships begin when you meet the first time, whether by securing a new position, stepping into a new role in your current organization or welcoming a new manager. What we sometimes overlook is the need to re-create
an existing relationship with someone you already know. This could happen when a colleague is promoted and becomes your manager, or when some of the above changes occur.

How to develop the relationship

Whether you are working with a new manager or the same one for years, here are some tips to strengthen your relationship:

Learn their communication style

How does your manager prefer to be communicated with? How do they prefer to communicate? Do they prefer face to face, e-mail, or phone? Do they share the big picture but not the details? Are they focused on the details
without sharing how they fit in the overall picture? Understanding your managers' style of communication gives you the opportunity to adapt to it, work with it and integrate it with yours.

Discover what matters most to them

What drives your manager? What will they go to bat for? Does your manager highly value relationships with their colleagues or team? Are they bottom-line or productivity focused? Perhaps they are service oriented? Knowing what matters to your manager gives you a deeper understanding of their motivations and expectations.

Clarify their expectations of you

What results and level of productivity does your manager expect of you?  What methods do they want you to employ? How do they expect you will interact with your colleagues? Ask, restate, use examples, and clarify to be
sure you are clear. It is up to you to learn what is expected of you, by when, and how. When you have a clear picture of these expectations, you can choose the actions and behaviors to achieve or exceed them.

Know what is expected of them

What is your managers' role within the organization? Who do they report to? What are they are expected to produce or achieve? Knowing what is expected of them helps you see the bigger picture. What you do has a ripple effect on them, how they are perceived and treated by their manager.

Understand their management style

Are they a partner, supporter, advocate or mentor? Do they leave you alone to work independently or do they want to be involved in your process along the way? Their style of management may not blend well you your style/preference of working, but when you understand their style, you can seek the win-win.

Creating an alignment

Take all of this information you have learned about your manager and begin to see how you can align it with your needs, values, expectations and style of working. Find the common ground or create it. Some examples of how you
can do that:

• If you need details and they don't readily give them - ASK probing questions to get the information you need
• If you are big picture and they are detailed - share how the details relate to what you see as the big picture, ask for confirmation to be sure you are on right track

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