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Managing Up
Book

Managing Up

59 Ways to Build a Career-Advancing Relationship with Your Boss

Deborah Singer Dobson and Michael Dobson
AMACOM, 2000
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Concrete Examples
  • Engaging

Recommendation

If your notions of how to get along with your boss stopped at the admiring-the-family-photos-on-the-credenza stage, here’s how to move it along. Michael Dobson and Deborah Singer Dobson advance kissing-up to a new, practical level, as they straightforwardly explain their boss-wrangling concepts. You can read the brief chapters in bite-size chunks and each one ends with a worksheet. While these concepts about understanding your boss and playing to the boss’s priorities are not particularly innovative, they are useful and accessible. The Dobsons wrote their book as much for the folks in the cubicles as for the fellow in the office with his feet on the desk. Reading this book won’t change your boss’s personality - but it might blunt his pitchfork. getabstract.com recommends it to staffers who want to get ahead by getting along with the boss, the gatekeeper to the top. And if that takes a little manipulation, well, hey, it’s business.

Summary

Manage Your Boss

As an employee, you have at least one person you are responsible for - your boss. To manage your boss successfully, start by doing your job efficiently. Building good relationships won’t take you anywhere without adequate job performance. Doing good work but having a poor relationship with the boss also dooms you. Follow these steps to provide your employer with an excellent work product, because that is the first step in "managing up."

  • Learn your job description - It is the basis of your company’s expectations. If there’s a gap between it and reality, consider asking to change your job description to fit your job.
  • Exceed expectations - Once you know what your boss’s expectations are, work to exceed them. That is how you create value for your organization. Study the critical elements of the company’s performance-appraisal form. How does it measure superior performance? If your organization doesn’t provide performance objectives, create them for yourself as benchmarks to measure your success. Don’t get so caught up in details that you neglect the future. Address your long-term goals.
  • Demand feedback - Okay, maybe "demand" is too...

About the Authors

Michael Singer Dobson is a seminar leader in project management, personal success and communications. He is also an author and consultant. Deborah Singer Dobson, M.Ed.,is vice president for human resources for GATX Terminals Corp. in Chicago. She has consulted on organizational development and management effectiveness for numerous Fortune 500 companies. The Dobsons live in Chicago.

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