Ways Of Working Guide: Manage Your Manager

I’ve worked in marketing for a decade now (at some pretty cool companies, it you don’t mind me saying). The most underrated skill that’s helped me in my career? It’s learning to manage my manager (you didn’t see that one coming, did you).

Fun fact: I’ve had 13 bosses in 10 years. Somewhere in between bosses 6 and 7 (or maybe 8), I got very good at figuring out how to work with a new boss and essentially, manage my manager. One thing that helps establish this is to run a ways of working session with your manager. Whether you’re new to the team or your manager is- it is one of the highest-impact things you can do to start the relationship strong.

The session is really about establishing how you both like to work, and have your manager clearly communicate with you about what they expect from you. You need to go into quite a lot of detail here to get to the ‘what’ and the ‘how’- but getting down to the nitty gritty will help to ensure you both have a clear understanding of each other’s work styles.

Download my free guide on how to navigate this session here.

A few notes:

• If you can, recommend scheduling this meeting to be in person (60 minutes is ideal to allow plenty of time)

• This doesn’t need to be with a new manager: it can also do wonders for any existing managers that you’re having teething issues with

• It should be a two-way conversation: it’s not just about understanding your manager’s preferences, it’s also about sharing yours so they can understand you better as well

• Bonus tip: put time in the diary for 3 months down the track to review what’s working and what’s not. If you put the time in the diary immediately after your initial session, this will help ensure it feels natural and each party knows to expect this (essentially- avoids the awkwardness of you having to bring up that something’s not working down the track)