Managing to Change the World

by Alison Green

  Development

  Final revisions of plan for San Francisco Bay Area event (need final plan by Monday; event is 8/26)

  Write memo about fundraising plan for 2013

  Items in bold are “must do” this week.

  Recruitment and Selection

  Prep agenda for message training session with regional directors

  Get tickets, hotel for site visit to Ohio

  Latino marketing: meet with Lucy to measure progress against goals (basic materials available in Spanish by 8/30; look into focus groups and decide on plan by 9/20). Mention meeting James last week—possible partner/resource?

  Regular font items should be done this week.

  Alumni

  Materials for summits in Houston/D.C./Baltimore—due 8/15

  Review draft agenda and talking points; edits to be incorporated by COB Wednesday

  Final read-through of binder

  General Marketing

  Web site Public site: identify contacts for recruitment, HR, development by 8/22

  Train all contacts by 9/30

  Maintain quality control of public and CMA Web site per system established—ongoing

  Print PSA distribution (ongoing as we get requests)

  Consider creating guidelines for policy directors for principal meetings—talk to policy directors, have recommendation for Thomas by 8/25

  Meet with Jason, Dave on this

  PR

  Explore hiring firm to help on the PR front for short term. Convene meeting with Connie and Thomas by 8/29

  Delegate to Jennie: compile a short list of good PR firms that might work for our needs

  Full transition to Johanna of basic procedures/processes/responsibilities and basic media inquiries by 8/29

  Schedule two meetings w/Johanna this Friday to check in on transition so far and in one month to follow up

  Team

  Jennie: delegate finding a PR firm, review preparations for Ohio site visit

  David, Jason: guidelines for policy directors for principal meetings—describe need, ask for input, get sample?

  Johanna: review last week’s media inquiries

  Lucy: Spanish-language materials—step-back, timeline (James)

  Staff meeting: my Ohio trip, vacation schedules

  Personal

  Submit dental reimbursement

  Mom birthday

  Call AF, JW, LT

  Buy The Book of Hard Choices

  In a good system, there are as few homes as possible. Keep one list for both your professional and personal to-do items.

  W/F

  Web site materials from Johanna

  Revised draft of letter from Julie

  Goals from Alan

  Use a w/f (waiting for) section to keep track of the tasks you’ve asked others to do, and a someday/maybe section to capture items for future consideration.

  Someday/Maybe

  Summer reading—Bel Canto; End of Poverty

  Holiday cards and/or party?

  Refresher course for Spanish

  Team hike

  Casa Oaxaca (restaurant recommendation from SK)

  CHAPTER 12

  MANAGING UP

  Up to this point we’ve talked about how to manage people who report to you. But unless you’re a rare exception, you have a boss too. Even executive directors typically report to a board. And just as you can get better results through effective management practices with those who report to you, so you can maximize your results by using the right practices with the person who manages you.

  We want to be clear: managing up isn’t about manipulating your boss or managing her perceptions. It’s about working with your boss in the way that will produce the best possible results for the organization.

  In this chapter, we start by discussing your sphere of control and the importance of focusing on what you can control rather than what you can’t. We’ll look at some specific approaches you can take, including getting explicitly aligned, making it easy for your boss to get you what you need, being emotionally intelligent, and having your own act together. We’ll also address some concerns unique to managers who are in a second-in-command role.

  YOUR SPHERE OF CONTROL

  If you have frustrations about your boss, you’re far from alone. Most people do, even when that boss is a good manager. Maybe your manager isn’t responsive enough to e-mail, or she cancels meetings at the last minute, or she changes her mind after you thought a decision had been made—or you might be dealing with another grade of problems altogether, such as a boss who’s the type of wimp or tyrant that we discussed in Chapter Ten.

  Whatever your frustrations, one key to working effectively with any boss and to keeping your own sanity is to get clear in your own mind about what you can and can’t control and to focus on making the pieces you can control go as smoothly as possible. Rather than stewing over an aspect of your boss that you can’t change, it’s far more productive to understand that her working style may not change dramatically and to find ways to work effectively within that context. (Of course, you can always hope—and maybe leave a copy of this book on her chair!)

  For instance, if you have a busy manager who frequently cancels your weekly meeting, rather than being paralyzed by frustration and unable to move forward without your boss’s input, you could say, “I know you’re really busy, but can I talk to your assistant and get ten minutes on your calendar?” You also might anticipate that she’s likely to cancel your meeting tomorrow because of an upcoming board meeting, and as a safety measure, grab her for two minutes after today’s staff meeting to ask your most pressing question.

  As you brainstorm about how you might respond to a less-than-ideal context, think creatively, and don’t feel locked into how you’ve been doing things up until now (especially if those techniques haven’t been getting you what you need). If your boss doesn’t respond to your e-mails, print the e-mail out and leave it on her chair. Or leave her a voice mail telling her how you plan to move forward if you don’t hear from her by the end of the week.

  Again, the point here is to not get so focused on your boss’s less-than-ideal behaviors that you miss the things that are in your control. So with your sphere of control in mind, let’s turn to some specific strategies that can work.

  Get Aligned

  A lot of disagreements between managers and managees at their core stem from a lack of alignment about what the managee’s priorities should be, how work should be conducted, and how the relationship should operate. This lack of alignment can be a significant root cause of dissatisfaction on both sides of the relationship, so it’s essential to surface it and fix it.

  Ideally you and your boss would agree about what you’ll do, how you’ll do it, and how the two of you will work together at the start of your relationship. But if you’re struggling in an existing relationship, it’s not too late to step back and get aligned now.

  Priorities

  Talk regularly throughout the year about your goals and priorities. Start by getting clear about what success would look like for you this year, as well as what you should not spend energy on at all. At least every quarter and often more, talk explicitly about what you’ll be focused on in the next few months. These periodic alignment checks can be very simple, such as, “For the next two months, I’ll be spending a lot of energy getting the membership department straightened out and I’m not going to worry about filling the gaps on the communications team until after that.”

  Managers and managees are often clear in their own minds on these questions but haven’t connected with each other on them. An explicit discussion can bring conflicting assumptions to the surface and resolve them.

  How to Approach Specific Issues

  In order to ensure you’re both in agreement when it comes to how you’ll operate, it can be hugely helpful to raise potentially tricky situations and talk through how you plan to handle them. For instance, you might discuss how to handle a low-performing staff member who r
eports to you, or how to handle an adversarial coalition member. By getting in sync on these sorts of things up-front, you’ll be able to act with more confidence, knowing that you won’t be unpleasantly surprised to learn that your boss had an entirely different take on the topic than you did.

  Scope of Your Authority

  Proactively discuss what decisions of yours your boss wants to be kept informed about, what sorts of things she’d like to be consulted on, and what she wants final approval over. The MOCHA (manager-owner-consulted-helper-approver) model in Chapter Two is a helpful tool for talking this over. And in keeping with making your boss’s job easy, as we discuss in the next section, you might propose what you think the right assignment of decision-making rights is.

  Communication Systems

  Make sure to establish a system for checking in and getting questions answered. For instance, you might have a regular weekly meeting, plus conversations throughout the rest of the week as the need arises. Whatever system you decide on, err on the side of investing a good amount of time talking at the beginning of your relationship (or when rebooting it); you can always reduce it over time.

  Important: Once your system is established, put yourself in charge of making it work, meaning that if your boss cancels a meeting, you should take the lead on rescheduling it. We often see people in this situation leave the ball in their boss’s court. Although this might be the way to handle a social situation where someone cancels plans, it’s not the way to handle your boss, or you may rarely get to meet with her.

  Make Your Boss’s Job Easy

  As a manager of others, you well know the demands that come with management. Almost by definition, your boss probably has an even broader role than you, with many competing demands. So once you’ve agreed on general expectations and how you’ll work together, another way to get good results with your boss is to make things as easy as possible for her.

  Apply the Principles of Delegation Upward

  When you delegate a responsibility to a staffer, you articulate the desired outcome, constraints, and prioritization (because you read Chapter Two!). Do the same thing when your manager gives you a responsibility in order to make sure you’re aligned. For instance, if your manager asks you to oversee the development of a new logo, you might say, “So we’re looking for a logo that’s professional and modern, and we want it to convey forward momentum. It sounds like the budget needs to be kept under two thousand dollars, and I’m thinking I shouldn’t tackle this until after we’re done with the spring conference. Does that sound right?” Once you’re both aligned, take the two minutes to do a repeat-back e-mail, so that weeks later, you both remember what was decided on. And just as with when you’re delegating to others, help your boss stay engaged by checking in on an ongoing basis, offering updates, and giving her chances for input as the project unfolds. For instance, you might suggest to your manager that once you have developed five good options for the logo, you’ll run them by her to get her views.

  Make It Easy for Her to Give Her Input

  Ask yes/no questions, keep e-mails short, and suggest solutions so your boss can respond quickly with a yes or no. Just as you want to keep your staffers from handing you the monkey (see Chapter Two), keep your own monkeys off your boss’s back. Saying, “What should I do about X?” puts the problem on her. You make it easier for both of you if you say, “I’ve been wrestling with what to do about X. I’ve thought about A, B, and C, and I think we should do C because . . . Does that sound okay to you?”

  Remind Her of Context

  When you’ve been tightly focused on a project, it’s easy to forget that your manager’s attention might have been on other things. Instead of expecting your manager to retain all the details you’ve talked about previously, a simple reminder of context or past decisions can be enormously helpful. For instance, if you’re checking in with your boss about a project that you’ve discussed in the past, assume that she’s probably not as focused on it as you are and say something like, “As a reminder, here’s where we are on the schedule, and this is what we talked about last month.”

  As an example, the first e-mail that follows doesn’t remind the manager of the context, doesn’t suggest a solution, and doesn’t facilitate a quick yes or no answer. Contrast it with the second e-mail. Which would you rather receive from one of your staff members?

  To: Maya

  From: Rick

  Subject: Spring conference

  Rafael Martin will be out of the country in April. Is there someone else we should give an award to instead?

  To: Maya

  From: Rick

  Subject: Spring conference awards

  We talked last week about giving an award at the spring conference to Rafael Martin, but it turns out he’ll be out of the country then. I propose giving an award to Michelle Swenson instead—we can highlight the great work she did in her district around the Senate vote, and this will also give us more geographical diversity in our awardees. Sound good to you?

  Notice Her Themes and Address Them Proactively

  If you pay attention to the kinds of questions your boss asks, you’ll draw larger messages about the sorts of things that she’ll care about in the future. You can then anticipate those things in advance and address them before she has to ask, which will make you both happier with the relationship. It’s also useful to understand why she focuses where she does, so if you’re ever unsure, ask. Asking “What’s driving that?” or “Just so I understand, which part of this is worrying you?” can often lead to a conversation that gives you both more insight into each other.

  Ask for Feedback After a Project Is Over

  While ideally your boss would be offering feedback on her own, in reality she may be pulled in numerous other directions. Make it easy on her, and get what you need, by raising it yourself. Simply saying, “Can we debrief about how this went?” and then offering your own view and asking for hers can make it easier for her to tell you what she really thinks.

  Be Emotionally Intelligent

  We often work with clients who are emotionally intelligent in how they approach the people who work for them but fail to apply the same skill in working with their own manager. Rather than delving into the Freudian roots of these clients’ struggles with authority, our advice is to keep it simple.

  Don’t Take It Personally

  There will be times when you have a different point of view than your manager does on something where she is the ultimate decision maker. When this happens, you should advocate for what you believe, and if you think your boss is making a mistake, part of your job is to explain the reason. But if your boss ultimately picks a different route, it’s helpful to have reasonably thick skin: don’t take it personally, and keep your ego out of it. It’s a bonus if you can find the humility to recognize that she might even be right!

  Don’t Forget Your Boss Is Human

  Now that you’re a manager yourself, you know the deep dark secret: bosses are human too. There may be times when your boss is grouchy, frustrated, or frazzled, or times when she would appreciate hearing that she handled something well. In addition, realize that in the same way you might have sensitivities about the relationship, she may too. For instance, if you’re taking on responsibilities that used to be hers, she likely won’t appreciate hearing that they used to be a disaster until you came along. All of this is to say, be thoughtful.

  Don’t Stew in Silence

  The most effective managees tend to see the responsibility for making the relationship work smoothly as theirs. If you’re frustrated about something, such as your manager undermined a decision you made, raise it, talk about the impact, and discuss how it could go differently in the future. Mistakes will happen, so use them as opportunities to strengthen your relationship. Of course, be smart about this: you’ll get better results if you raise these issues at a moment when your boss has time to consider them, just as you would if you were speaking to a subordinate about a sensitive issue.

&n
bsp; Have Your Act Together

  We hear from a lot of people who think their managers are overly controlling or micromanaging. As you know from being a manager yourself, most managers don’t like being control freaks, but they become that way when they don’t have confidence that things will get done well otherwise. It follows that if your boss is controlling, the easiest way to solve the problem is to give her confidence that things are under control. In other words, stay on top of things, do what you say you’re going to do, take good notes on the subtleties of what your boss asks you to do so you do it right, don’t let things fall through the cracks, and generally be someone she can rely on. You might be surprised how much easier your boss becomes to work with when you have your act together.

  If your boss is a control freak, the easiest way to solve the problem is to give her confidence that things are under control.

  SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR SECOND IN COMMANDS

  More and more organizations are moving to a structure with an executive director and a second in command. These number twos might have the title of managing director, chief operating officer, deputy director, or chief of staff. Although the specifics of the labor division vary, often a number two’s role is to ensure that the organization hits its goals, with all that that entails, including managing people, checking in on progress, and overseeing organization-wide systems. The number one’s job is to make sure the goals are right in the first place by overseeing strategy, to engage internally on high-priority tactical issues, and often to do significant amounts of external relations.