Whether it is your first job or a new one, you will be spending a lot of time with your boss. Your boss can make or mar your career. Therefore, getting on with the boss is a very important aspect of an executive’s career. Every boss wants to feel like a boss, to be treated like a boss, and if possible, be respected as a boss. For a salesman, the customer is the ‘star’. For an employee, the boss should be made to feel like one.
But sometimes there is a mismatch. The subordinate could be much better qualified and more knowledgeable and effective than the boss, and very obviously so. The contrast would strike any observer. In such cases, this subordinate had better find another assignment where such a deep chasm does not exist!
This explains why, in many companies, the standards of leadership keep falling with every decade. Mediocre bosses recruit less than mediocre subordinates who, in turn, carry on the tradition—until finally, the levels fall abysmally low. As does the company!
There is the story of a young executive who wanted to meet the boss to get some papers signed. The matter was urgent, but every time he peeped into the boss’ room, there were two ladies present. When, at last, he managed to meet the boss and explained why he could not enter the room earlier, on account of the visitors, the boss waved grandly and said, “Well, you could have come in. It was just my wife and Elizabeth Taylor.” “And which one was your wife?” asked the young man. Surprised and pleased, the boss dug his hand into his pocket, brought a $10 note and pressed it into the young man’s hand. “James,” he said, “when you become president of this company, remember that I gave you a loan of $10 today.”
Such is the refinement of the technique of making the boss feel like a ‘star’.
Getting on with the boss is an art. It must have style. It cannot be obvious. It need not be ingratiating. Many executives resort to unsavoury flattery. They laugh loudest at the boss’s silliest joke. They carry his bag and sometimes, his jacket as well, at airports. They offer to buy vegetables from the market for the boss’ wife. It can be sickening for all those around, and even repulsive to a boss with some modicum of dignity and self-respect.
The boss needs support. He needs to be seen as the leader of a group of loyal men. He needs support at meetings and conferences, and especially when he is not present. If you speak well and respectfully about him when he is not around, he will appreciate it more. Don’t worry, he will get to hear about it.
The boss needs additional information. Not just what he has asked for. Not just a literal following of instructions. There are a lot of things you may not know, especially in the age of information explosion. If you will take the trouble to go beyond the brief and try and get more information to help him make better decisions, he will indeed be appreciative.
The boss needs correction. He will certainly be grateful for help in not making mistakes. Or, being made to realise a mistake as soon as it has been made. And he will be grateful if the correction is done in private, and in the style and manner where it projects genuine help, rather than an ‘I know better than you’ attitude.
The boss needs projection as a leader. When you have made a significant contribution, developed a new idea, negotiated a big order, or whatever, give credit to the boss. He will know that he did little or nothing, and that you still publicly gave him the credit. Unless he is one of those (and there are some) mean-minded guys, most bosses will remember your generosity and compensate you adequately sometime.
The boss wants patience. He does not want young James to be in a hurry to grab his chair. It could give a sense of insecurity; he could feel uncomfortable and the bridge of understanding could be irreparably broken. Nothing is as sacred to the boss as the maintenance of his own position. And the more average he is, the more sacred the mission.
The boss wants you on his side. In any company, there will be groups or camps. It is possible that your boss belongs to one. It is also possible that this camp is in conflict with another camp, overtly or covertly. He will not want you to be a friend of the enemy. At best, he will not mind a neutral stance – neither friend nor foe. And it is best that you keep it that way. You never know when, in future, a member of an opposing camp may become your boss!
The boss needs a listener. Such people are so rarely found these days. Everyone is a talker. Few are the listening type. If there are troubled days, with periods of stress and tension, he needs to talk to someone who is also in the know and understands.
And yet, a word of caution. Loyalty to the boss cannot be absolute. It cannot be blind. It cannot be totally irrational.
No intelligent person will be able to suffer a fool of a boss for long. The primary loyalty is always to the assignment — for which you are compensated, with a secondary loyalty to the company, and only then, loyalty to the boss! Those who do not understand this clearly and follow this dictum will suffer in the hell of the corporate world!
(Some part of this column has been taken from ‘Planning For Executive Success’ authored by Walter Vieira, published by Sage Publications.)
(Walter Vieira is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of India - FIMC. He was a successful corporate executive for 14 years, capping his career as Head of marketing for a Pharma multinational, for India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka- and then pioneered marketing consulting in India in 1975. As a consultant, he has worked across four continents. He was the first Asian elected Chairman of ICMCI, the world apex body of consultants in 45 countries, in 1997. He is the author of 16 books, a business columnist, an international conference speaker and has been a visiting professor in Marketing in the US, Europe, and Asia for over 40 years. He was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award for Consulting in 2005, and for Marketing in 2009. He now spends much of his time in NGO work - Consumer Education and Research Centre, IDOBRO, and some others.)
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