10 Ways To Get Along With A Difficult Boss
10 Ways To Get Along With A Difficult Boss. Do you have a bad manager? Someone who makes your life miserable all week by criticizing your every move? Sometimes your boss just wants to get the job done, or he is just being difficult. Find out how to deal with a difficult boss below.
1. Identify A Bad Boss
Before trying to fix your bad boss, make sure you really are dealing with one. Is there a reason for her behavior, or are you being too hard on him or her? Observe your boss for a few days and try to notice how many things she does well versus poorly.
2. Identify Your Boss’ Motivation
Understanding why your boss does or cares about certain things can give you insight into his or her management style. If the rules are totally out of control, try to figure out your boss’ motivation. Maybe it’s not that he really cares about how long your lunch break takes; he actually cares about how it looks to other employees and their superiors.”
3. Don’t Let it Affect Your Work
No matter how bad your boss’ behavior, avoid letting it affect your work. You want to stay on good terms with other leaders in the company. Don’t try to even the score by working slower, or taking excessive ‘mental health’ days or longer lunches. It will only put you further behind in your workload and build a case for your boss to give you the old heave-ho before you’re ready to go.
4. Stay One Step Ahead
Especially when you’re dealing with a micromanager, head off your boss’ requests by anticipating them and getting things done before they come to you. A great start to halting micromanagement in its tracks is to anticipate the tasks that your manager expects and get them done well ahead of time.
5. Set Boundaries
Working with someone who seems to have no boundaries means that you have to go ahead and set them. One of the challenges of unlikable people is that they come with equally unlikable behaviorand it’s important to learn how to distance yourself from that behavior.
6. Stop Assuming They Know Everything
Just because someone has a managerial title doesn’t mean that they have all the right answers, all the time. Realize that, just because someone is in a position of authority, doesn’t mean he or she knows everything. This will help you to stop assuming the title ‘manager was equivalent to ‘all knowing..
7. Act As The Leader
When dealing with an incompetent boss, sometimes it’s best to make some leadership decisions on your own. If you know your area well enough, there is no reason to not go ahead creating and pursuing a direction you know will achieve good results for your company.
8. Identify Triggers
If your boss has anger management problems, identify what triggers her meltdowns and be extra militant about avoiding those.For example, if your editor flips when you misspell a source’s name, be sure to double and triple-check your notes.
9. Use Tips from Couples’ Therapy
When dealing with disagreement, pull on some tenants from couple’s therapy to work through the issue. Simply repeat back to him what he said and ask “Is that what you meant?” (a standard trick ripped from couples’ therapy). If he agrees to your recap, ask him to tell you more about it. When you repeat someone’s perspective back to him, you give him a chance to expound and, crucially, to feel heard.
10. Avoid Future Bad Bosses
When interviewing with a new company, do your research ahead of time to make sure you’re not getting into another situation with a less-than-ideal manager. Discover as much about your potential boss as possible, without appearing creepy, of course.
