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Dispatches from The Ideosphere

Seek to Understand Your Boss’s Goals, Priorities, and Pressures
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It is a simple step, but many of us do not take the time to ask. If you don’t know or understand your manager’s goals, you may focus on the wrong tasks and waste valuable time. Simply ask: “What are your goals, priorities, and pressures?”

 

One supervisor I worked with was not forthcoming. He prided himself on being a chess master, “thinking many steps ahead.” He thought that keeping his moves to himself was a strength. This technique was actually a dirty trick used to disorient and destabilize others while he consolidated power. In The 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene cites “law three: Conceal your intentions: Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelop them in smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions it will be too late.” If I and the boss’s other direct reports knew where he was heading, we would have been better positioned to help him achieve his goals. He declined, which was frustrating for me and all of his direct reports. Don’t be a boss who keeps your moves to yourself.

 

One of my best managers at the firm would challenge me with field promotions. I wanted to be a leader, and she wanted to train future leaders, so our goals aligned perfectly. She would give me opportunities for stretch roles where I could act like a manager before I was a manager. Later in my career, she asked me to serve in executive roles while I was still a senior manager. The brilliance of this approach is that I could try new roles knowing that when I encountered challenges, there was no harm, no foul. Stretch roles were treated as lower-risk learning experiences. The added benefit of this approach was to build confidence in myself and my supervisor that I would be successful at the next level. You don’t want to be promoted too early only to fail.

The External Sphere of Influence: Customers, Peers and Influencers, and Strategic Vendor Partners
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The external sphere of influence includes business relationships where you have less direct impact: customers, peers and influencers, and strategic vendor partners.

 

Create and nurture working relationships with customers by seeking to understand their goals and aspirations, delivering value, and genuinely caring about their success. This will build trust and brand loyalty.

 

Whether you are working in your own enterprise or providing services to an external customer, you need to know who your peers and influencers are. Peers are at the same level that you are in an organization. Influencers can be at any level in an organization. Once you identify who they are, you need to understand how you can help each other.

 

“Vendor” implies a short transactional relationship, like you have with a vending machine. I became a strategic vendor by understanding the goals and aspirations of my customers by building the relationship beyond a transaction. When I was on the customer side of the desk, my goal was to build mutually beneficial relationships with vendors we deemed strategic.

The Internal Sphere of Influence: Boss, Executive Leaders, Direct Reports, and All Your Staff
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The internal sphere of influence focuses on those people you can have the most direct impact with: your boss, executive leaders, direct reports, and all your staff.

 

It is your responsibility to understand the goals and aspirations of your boss. First, you need to clarify when you don’t fully understand a directive. Then you need to determine your boss’s goals and how you align with them. Finally, figure out what you have to offer—and offer it.

 

The best way to align yourself with executive leadership is to understand the organization’s strategy and culture. Understanding your organization’s strategy and culture helps you better fit into the organization and work with leadership.

 

When you are the boss, you need to be a mentor, coach, visionary, cheerleader, confidant, guide, sage, trusted partner, and perspective keeper. It also helps to have a sense of humor.

 

When you lead an organization, it is crucial to articulate the organization’s values, set expectations, and establish mutual accountability. Then you can focus on creating a safe work ecosystem. You need to let your team leaders know you care about their success and growth and the success of their teams.

 

Seek to create a safe work ecosystem, especially if you inherit a wounded workgroup. Build a work environment where honesty and trust thrives. Let all your staff know you care about their success and the well-being of the organization.

 

You’ll begin to change the culture by establishing the values of the organization. This is a crucial step to ensure that everyone is on the same page and working toward the same goals.

10 Things Bad Consultants Do
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Unfortunately I experienced some bad consultants. Here are 10 things bad consultants do: 

  1. Wastes the client’s money—doesn’t treat it like it is their money.
  2. Unresponsive to client requests 
  3. Provides boilerplate proposals and solutions
  4. Exudes an outsized sense of self importance
  5. Takes the client executive, or her staff, for granted 
  6. Uses jargon
  7. Inappropriate email communications
  8. Never says “thank you” or “I’m sorry”
  9. Never gives credit where credit is due
  10. Misses deadlines and goes over budget.

The bottom line? Do not hesitate to fire a bad consultant. 

10 Things Great Consultants Do
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In an undergraduate class at a business school, one student asked, “Just what exactly do consultants do?” My answer was simple: “We solve problems.” 

And over the years, I learned 10 things great consultants do: 

  1. Exceeds client expectations: goes the extra mile and more
  2. Builds long-term business relationships—becomes the trusted advisor
  3. Passionate desire to learn about the client’s business and objectives
  4. Identifies patterns and recommends tailored solutions
  5. Personal integrity, initiative, empathy, and competence 
  6. Patience and respect: a humble practitioner
  7. Willingness to tactfully take a stand
  8. Thrives under pressure and delivers on time and on budget
  9. Asks for help and apologizes when necessary
  10. Asks good questions and actively listens

The bottom line? Seek to understand and solve your client’s problems. 

Authentic Business Relationships: 5 Tips for Working With Your Boss
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Building an authentic business relationship with your boss is a critical hard skill. Where do you start? Here are five tips:

 

  1. Understand The Goals and Aspirations of Your Boss

The best way to align yourself with your boss is to understand their goals and aspirations. It’s simple, just ask. Then step back and reflect on how you can best support the achievement of those goals and offer to help. 

 

  1. Deliver More Value Than Your Salary

Strive to add more value to the organization in excess of your salary. Increasing sales, reducing cost, and creating new approaches are time-honored techniques. You want to demonstrate that you are a positive asset. 

 

  1. Trust and Honesty

Begin from a position of trust and honesty until proven wrong. Unfortunately, at times you will be proven wrong. 

 

  1. Bring options to resolve problems

Do not raise problems without proposing options for solutions. If you have an issue with one of your peers, sincerely try to work it out with them before escalating to your supervisor. 

 

  1. Give a Damn 

The most important tip is to genuinely care about the success of your boss. Step back and think about how you can help them be more successful.  

The bottom line? Add more value than your salary.