How to Manage your Boss

Towards the end of my tour in Afghanistan, I found myself in Camp Bastion detached from my Company. The unit were about to launch an Operation so I was on the phone to my Boss giving him the latest on the planning situation. During one of our calls, he asked me to get a load of maps printed, which I did.

Later on that day, I got an absolute roasting from a Senior Officer who told me I’d wasted a ton of paper and time printing maps with boundaries that were going to be out of date within 24hrs.

The Operations Officer could see that I was disappointed and pulled me aside. What he told me has stuck with me ever since.

‘Everyone hates their 1-Up Command Team because they receive a plan based on a fraction of the available information. To them, it makes no sense as they get pulled from pillar to post. Air moves become road moves as helicopters get re-tasked. That kit we didn’t think we needed – we now need.

These changes are inevitable because as you plan, the enemy is moving their troops and equipment around the battle-space. New intelligence is being developed which will change the plan.

But people down the chain don’t see any of this. They get the plan but without any context so it makes no sense. But for information to move quickly, it has to be brief. Sometimes you can’t give the complete picture and we simply don’t have the time to walk everyone through why decisions get made.

Your commanders were stood were you are once, be patient with them because in ten years time, you’ll want your subordinates to give you that patience.’

A plan without any context doesn’t make any sense. Accept it. Trust that your leadership know what they are doing. They are not messing you around on purpose even if it feels like it.

In the corporate world, plans aren’t as fluid as they are in the Military. But the friction between management layers still exists. I think that this is largely due to training and development.

It’s often said that people don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad leaders. Poor leadership has a significant cost to an organisation.

• What does unclear direction and a lack of clarity cost?
• What is the cost associated with poor performance management?
• What is the cost of a disengaged workforce?

But when very few people get any proper leadership training – how can we expect them to be successful?

Your boss is probably trying their best. They are probably working really hard but do they know what information to pass on? Do they know what to delegate and what they need to do?

Don’t attribute a ‘lack of training’ which is the organisation’s fault – to incompetence.

I don’t believe that many bosses come to work to make your life harder. They’re probably unsure on what to focus on and which things are important because they’ve never been told. They are likely to be a reflection of all the leadership they’ve experienced throughout their career – the good and the bad.

A lot of people complain about their bosses. ‘It’s not me, they’re to blame’. This mindset is a variation of the victim mentality. It comes from the assumption that ‘I’m great – it’s everyone else that is the problem.’

Instead of writing off your Boss as incompetent, have you ever thought to give them some feedback or clarify what it is that you need from them? What skills are you looking to develop? Where do you want to go with your career?

If you don’t tell them what you want – how are they expected to know?

If you operate from a mindset of – ‘How can I help this person?’ you might be surprised at the response.

And when you become the Boss – wouldn’t you want your employees to do the same?