How to Communicate With Your Boss
A good working relationship with your manager is all about communication, but how can you ensure that you are delivering the right information at the right time? At best, managers will have a clear understanding of what they want to know and when they want to know it. In fact, however, many of us will eventually take the lead in communicating with our manager – a practice often referred to as “management.”
Here are three ways to do it.
Share your progress
A recent post on Know Your Team suggests that the most important information your manager needs to know is where you are on the current task or project:
We recently conducted a survey of 355 people and found out that the # 1 information managers want to know is the progress made on the project. As a result, you’ll want to ask yourself: Do I share the progress I’m making daily or weekly? You can also ask your boss directly: “How can I give you more information about my work?” or “Are there any solutions or projects that you would like me to be more transparent about?”
Yesterday, when we looked at how to provide feedback that people would listen to , I explained that if the direct reporting is not part of the performance analysis, already knowing what will be discussed, the manager has not done the job. … Likewise, if you meet with your manager to discuss a project and your manager does not yet know where you are in the workflow (and why you are at that particular point), you are not communicating effectively.
Time for your updates
Of course, we’ve all had the experience of sending out project updates to managers that they never read, or returning to information that we thought we had already told them. This brings us to the second tip: find out about your manager’s preferences at work, including when and how they want to receive news about the project. As Know Your Team reports:
The more you know about how your boss loves to work (for example, how he prefers to receive feedback when they are most productive during the day), the more you can adjust your behavior to increase the likelihood of a positive relationship with him. …
You can even use the feedback tips we looked at yesterday with your boss, especially if there are ways to share your sincere appreciation for the work they are doing. If you need to give advice, make it specific and task-focused, that is, focus on how you can improve your results, not on them. After all, one of their roles is to help you with your work.
Know your expectations
On the other hand, one of your roles is to know your manager’s expectations. (Yes, your manager should share those expectations, but remember that we are approaching this in the sense that your manager might need a little extra help.) The Know Your Team team invites you to “make it your mission to clarify two issues. in particular: (1) what “success” looks like (2) how to communicate well to achieve “success” ”.
Once you’ve prepared these elements, all you have to do is get the job done and regularly share your process in the way your manager prefers.