Rule No 2: When in doubt, refer to Rule No 1.
Akshay Sharma got these comments in his annual appraisal "He sets low personal standards and consistently fails to achieve them"
Appraisal time and we have a lot of people in every company making power point presentations, making lists, trying to justify their existence in the company.
A time of the that causes anxiety to both the boss as well as the employee.But why should it be like this?
Why should appraisals be a source of anxiety?
Why can't they be an occasion for inspiration and joy?
"Let's be realistic. Lets be practical" you might say. "It is all right for you to say this as a consultant, but you come into our role, then we will see"
We have seen some superb boss subordinate relationships, not many though. And in all the cases, the boss certainly plays a role, though the subordinate does a set of things which are fairly commonsense:
1. The subordinate does his own job well.
Jawaharlal Nehru had once given this advice to Indira Gandhi - "there are two kinds of people in the world. Those who work and those who take credit for the work. Try to be in the first group. There is no competition over there."
Lets get the foundation strong. Do your own job well. This point is a necessary though not a sufficient condition for success that it is often overlooked. Look at your goal sheet. Deliver 120% on EACH and EVERY ONE of those parameters. Do more than what other team members are doing.
2. Anticipate the boss's problems, reduce his workload.
Too often we are so focused on our own issues that we forget that the boss has his own issues and challenges. Do you even know what they are? What are his worries, his concerns? What is happening in his career? What problems are keeping him awake at night? (other than......) He might be worried about his deadline with the MD. He might be worried about achieving his cost targets. Find that out.
Knowledge without action is meaningless, so use this knowledge to share some of the boss's workload. Can you anticipate some work likely to come through in the next few days. If so, help him out there. Do you see a problem happening three days later. Is his boss going to ask him for something which you know but he doesn't? Anticipate and take care of him there. Do this genuinely of course.
3. Make him look good in front of his colleagues.
Everybody wants to look good, avoid looking bad. Your boss is also trying to look good in front of his colleagues. If your boss is a Regional Head in teh company, he is trying to look good compared to his colleagues who are of the same grade. So how do you make your boss look good?
Just one step.
At every interaction with your boss's colleagues and with your own colleagues, compliment your boss on what he is doing right. Just simple statements of what is happening right. Most of the time we complain about what is not happening right. Even if your boss is doing one thing right and ten things wrong (according to you), just talk about that one thing that he is doing right.
Fifteen days. That's all it takes. Try it now.
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Maneesh Konkar
Good one ..Thank you!
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