Thanks all for the spelling error. Fixing now. :)

tamar

Great comments here.

"when you start looking at things from your bosses point of view it sure helps you accomplish your day to day tasks with less pushback from your boss."

All true. The better you can understand your boss's job, the better you'll do. It's good for your career, too. As you begin to understand, you'll become more promotable. If you move into management, you'll be more ready to succeed.

moe52

This also assumes that you know and understand what your boss' responsibilities are. I work in an environment where management is basically a black box and information only travels from the bottom up. Sure, we know what is expected of us but it is dictated; not freely available (like a schedule or a plan). Unfortunately, like Four12 says, I work under an "intractable micromanager" and find the best way to work for boss is to avoid including him, as much as humanly possible, in anything I do while getting my job done. Meanwhile, I have myself and headhunters looking for better opportunities elsewhere.

I feel Covey writes usually with the ideal situation in mind, which is fine if you are "in the ideal situation".

Stitched

There is also the intractable micromanager that the more you provide and try to adapt, it feeds the megalomania and creates more work for you. You'll end up being roadkill or at the very least a Stakanovite to your cow orkers.

four12

we always went with the mentality of "train your replacement" in the Navy - you were always looking for someone to groom and train, if they were good they'd slowly take over your job and your boss would do the same to you.

Not sure how that works in the outside world - in the military no one was afraid of loosing a job, outside if someone performs better than you and starts to take on their own and your responsibility then you start to feel threatened (and rightfully so)

but the point I am trying to make is basically when you start looking at things from your bosses point of view it sure helps you accomplish your day to day tasks with less pushback from your boss. Also the instructions you receive from him/her tend to make more sense. Also you have the ability to provide good feedback. So learning what your boss goes through really is a win/win situation.

(i hope that makes sense - it's 830, I'm feeding my newborn son and I am lacking coffee)

baldingnerd

And now the other comments show up, and it looks like I'm just a doofus who likes to pile on.

Roy Jacobsen

That would be empathize, instead of emphasize.

(Something odd going on with comments; when I view the home page, this topic shows two comments, but I don't see any of them here.)

Roy Jacobsen

ROOT ... that would be from the Root - Emphasis

asl4u

I think you meant: Empathize (to feel or experience empathy) - not Emphasize(To give emphasis to; from the room "emphasis")

asl4u

What's the game plan supposed to be if you understand your boss's role better than they do? It's tough to empathize with an inept, lazy dictator.r

cheesebubble

This works if you are trying to be promoted. It's not so important if you don't want your boss's job.

Also, you'll want to guard against enabling a bad boss. A good manager should handle most of this stuff for you, so you can do YOUR job. It's ok to go the extra mile on occasion. But if you find yourself constantly dealing with things up at your boss's level, you might want to ask yourself if you are being taken advantage of.

screaminscott

I think the italics are enough to emphasize empathy. No need to change the word.

trmtrm

This idea's been around since 1980 at least and the googlable keywords that you want just in case you're interested in learning more are: "Managing up"

One take on it is that the supervisor/supervisee relationship is a relationship between two fallible human beings who depend on each other. In a healthy relationship, information, needs and tasks flow in both directions. Empathizing with your boss and adapting to their communication style are two major pieces. Covey's advice sounds a lot like second-guessing your boss as opposed to working interdependently with them. There's the old saying that you should spend more time managing those above you than you spend managing those below you, and that you should spend the most time managing yourself.

This article from the Harvard Business Review is the origin of the modern idea of managing up. You can probably find it on your local public library's online article database: [harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu]

skwirl