It's Okay to Manage Your Boss The Step-by-Step Program for Making the Best of Your Most Important Relationship at Work

by Tulgan, Bruce

• ISBN13: 9780470605301
• ISBN10: 0470605308
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-09-14
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

Most employees today answer to multiple bosses at any given time, some directly, and others indirectly. Often employees are pulled in different directions by competing authority figures with competing interests, most of whom have the ability to help or to harm the employee's daily work conditions, rewards, and longer term career prospects. Employees are also working harder and facing increasing pressure to work longer, smarter, faster, and better, while adjusting to ongoing organizational changes working in smaller teams with greater requirements. Meanwhile, their managers provide much less guidance, direction, and support than their direct-reports need in order to succeed in today's high-pressure environment.In this follow-up to the bestselling It's Okay to Be the Boss, Bruce Tulgan shows that the number one factor in employee productivity, work-quality, morale and retention is the relationship between employees and their immediate managers. Unfortunately, he argues, we have been focusing so much on the skills and habits of the managers, that we have neglected the role of the employee in these relationships.In It's Okay to Manage Your Boss, Tulgan will first explore the 10 myths about how one should be managed and how to manage up that so-called experts and books have perpetuated over the years. After exploring these myths, he will help readers take responsibility for getting the following four essential things from their boss(es) in order to succeed at their job: Clearly spelled out and reasonable expectations (that is, clear goals with specific guidelines and a concrete timetable to accomplish them). The skills, tools, and resources necessary to accomplish those expectations, or else the acknowledgement that you are being asked to achieve those expectations without the skills, tools, or resources that you need. Accurate and honest feedback about your performance as well as course-correcting direction when necessary. A fair quid pro quo--recognition and rewards--in exchange for your performance.

Author Biography

Bruce Tulgan is an adviser to business leaders all over the world and a sought-after speaker and seminar leader. He is the founder of RainmakerThinking, a workplace research and training firm, and has written for the New York Times, USA Today, Harvard Business Review, and HR Magazine. He is the author of numerous books, including the best-selling It's Okay to Be the Boss, the classic Managing Generation X, and Not Everyone Gets a Trophy. Tulgan holds a fourth-degree black belt in karate and is married to Debby Applegate, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

For more information about the book and to view Bruce Tulgan's video newsletter, please visit www.rainmakerthinking.com.

Table of Contents

Refuse to Be Undermanaged	p. 1
The First Person You Have to Manage Every Day Is Yourself	p. 33
Get in the Habit of Managing Your Bosses Every Day	p. 57
Take It One Boss at a Time, One Day at a Time	p. 75
Make Sure You Understand What Is Expected of You	p. 93
Assess and Plan for the Resources You Need	p. 107
Track Your Own Performance Every Step of the Way	p. 121
Earn More Rewards by Doing More Work, Faster and Better	p. 141
What If Your Boss Really Is a Jerk?	p. 157
Start Here	p. 173
Acknowledgments	p. 189
About the Author	p. 193
Index	p. 195
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