You knew the old boss like you knew your '91 Honda. And like the car, he felt comfortable, almost ignorable. His replacement,
however, is not. The new guy is given to phrases like, "I'd like to see that report in the morning," and "That's not how we did it at the bank."
All is not lost. The new boss can be managed. For one thing, with you being his closest link to his new environment, he needs you more than you need him. You can use this insecurity to bring him around to your time-honored way of doing things. Think of it this way: The new boss has been taught how to manage you. But why shouldn't you try to manage him while you have a chance? "Look upon him as someone you need to train," says C. Gopinath, a professor of management at Suffolk University in Massachusetts, who has studied new bosses.
The first order of business is to determine what kind of boss you're dealing with. New bosses break down into several recognizable types, each with their own annoying traits that, given time, resolve themselves into exploitable vulnerabilities. There are visionaries, credit-mongers, micromanagers, and starship commanders. Some suspect you're a scheming slacker; others think the world of you.
To make it easier, Gopinath includes the above types under the umbrella of several larger categories. Before joining academia, he encountered two kinds of problem supervisors in his own career: the "Standoff Boss," who doesn't want to get involved, and the "Hangover Boss," who has done your job and likes reminding you that he did it expertly. The Hangover Boss is the one employees fear the most - and he or she is the easier of the two to handle. "He wants you to know you're a subordinate," says Gopinath, and proves it by managing every aspect of your day. So let him. "Overwhelm the micromanager with detail," says Jeff Perez, a public- affairs officer who has dealt with bosses of larger-than-average egos. "Bombard him with information until he says, 'You handle it.' Those are the words you're looking for."
Total autonomy, though, is not necessarily what you're after - unless you enjoy hearing the Standoff Boss tagline, "That's what you got hired for." He's a big-picture person, the visionary who doesn't want to know details; he or she just wants all problems solved by 5 p.m. But a boss who delegates too much can cramp your style as much as one who delegates too little. Often, he wants to keep a convenient distance because he's unsure about what he's doing. "Don't bother me with particulars" probably means, "I reserve the right to blame you if things go wrong." And he'll likely try to take credit for what goes right.
Such visionaries have a short shelf life. When it becomes clear their flavor-of-the-month ideas aren't backed up by hard work, they're shuffled out. Meantime, just stay the course and distribute your ideas as widely as possible, so the credit goes to the right place.
Even empathetic and supportive new bosses - the Helpful Boss, in Gopinath's bossology - need to be managed. A systems analyst at a national medical services company (who requested anonymity) has adapted to several new regimes as the company refocused the business. As each new set of bosses joined the parade, they wanted the database to spit out reports in different configurations - with costly, time-consuming, and often-unnecessary adjustments ("Let's put the name first." "Let's put the date first." "Let's give the date a nickname, then put that first!") Realizing that the new superiors' authority was as much at stake as the content of the reports, the systems guy learned to push back gently, alerting them to the nasty consequences of their requests. "New managers are trying to define the boundaries," he says. "It's important to be friendly and supportive in telling them no."
Friendly and supportive doesn't mean kissing up. Back when you were trying to define your boundaries by running with scissors, your parents were friendly and supportive, too. They presented you with a choice between your actions and a negative - like losing an eye. "I can do it, but it will take four weeks," is a good starting place, says the systems analyst. Then, Perez suggests, "Get him to put his request in an e-mail. He'll think twice about having you reprogram your systems once he imagines that his boss might be reading about it."
No matter how you manage it, standing your ground has a nasty downside. "Obviously, it's a political issue," says Samuel Culbert, professor of management at UCLA's Anderson School of Management and author of Don't Kill the Bosses!, a book about boss- dominated relationships. "He's going to think you are trying to do it in a way that's easy for you." If he calls you on your stance, don't get defensive. Explain how life is different from when he did your job, or how the clients are different at your firm than at his old one.
If all else fails, lie low until he figures out for himself why his way isn't better. When you turn out to be right, you'll have won his trust. If you can't wait, find someone else to clue him in. Advises an executive vice president at a London-based financial-services company, "Point it out to someone who's dumb enough to march in there and tell him."
Be prepared, though, to find out that the new boss's way might have something going for it. "We're good at smelling out the other guy's bias," says Culbert. "We're not as good at smelling out our own." Unless the CEO's a close relative, the new boss has likely been promoted because she knows a thing or two. By the time your relationship with her has run its course, she may have taught you some good habits and practical lessons. Like anyone starting a new position, she is trying to make a mark. You can usually help, and gain the boss's trust for the long haul.
This doesn't mean hanging around to point out where the ladies' room is. "Don't try to be her best buddy," says Diane Tracy, author of Take This Job and Love It! The boss's first-week tour guide not only comes off as a suck-up, but soon becomes eminently dispensable once the boss understands the lay of the land. What she can't buy is experience. "There are ways of subtly implying how the place works," says a top-level survivor of publishing's frequent turnover.
A lot can be gained by watching. "Observe what he knows and doesn't know, and see what you can offer," advises the financial services V.P. "You'll have the cleanest slate you'll ever have. Why not have the chance to write what you want on it, instead of settling for what the last boss wrote? You want the new guy to give you a bigger budget and bigger responsibility. Why put yourself in a box?"
Eventually you may even appreciate the changes a new boss brings. "A good leader won't change things for the sake of change," says Rosanne Badowski, Jack Welch's executive assistant and author of Managing Up. "Give him the opportunity to bring in some change for the better." After all, that '91 Honda was nice, but help the new boss through his adjustment period and you may find yourself driving something much nicer.
FETCH, SIR!
Is the new top dog trainable? Put him through his paces.
THE DO-YOU-RESPECT-ME? TEST
Do you have to ask for a get-acquainted meeting, or are you invited? At the get-together, does the new boss just make pronouncements, or are you asked for advice and ideas? And if you make suggestions, does the new boss write any of them down? If he's listening and taking notes, according to career consultant Linda Talley, you're not only able to train him, you've already started.
THE UPGRADE TEST
Memo the new boss for a new piece of equipment, such as a wastebasket or desk fan. Attach the page from an office-supply catalogue with several models and circle the cheapest one. If the boss says go with a better model, you're dealing with Lassie incarnate, says Talley. If his answer is no, check out Cujo from the library.
THE PHYSICAL EXAM
Leave 'stress' vitamins and some medicines in plain sight on your desk. 'Accidentally' drop a bottle in the boss's office while leaving. If the boss doesn't care enough to ask about your well-being, he may bite.
HAVE IT YOUR WAY
Mold the newbie to your advantage.
Before the new boss can so much as find the washroom, start the brainwashing. Advance your own agenda - quick, before she knows what hit her. Based loosely on advice from career coach Cindy Kraft and workplace psychologist Hodges Golson, we came up with some changes you'll want to push through before she wises up.
HIRE YOUR OWN ASSISTANT
Memo the new boss that "a sharp recent increase" in certain shared duties in the department - scheduling, travel, and company- newsletter contributions, for example - require adding a clerk. Offer to supervise that clerk. Voilà: You have your own staff and less to do.
RAISE YOUR VISIBILITY
Schedule yourself for certain daily or weekly interdepartmental meetings that the old boss attended. It's a way to promote your own star, make powerful contacts, and become aware of transfer opportunities.
DICTATE YOUR OWN HOURS
Write the new boss a memo volunteering to work more hours when necessary. Explain that you want to be considered a "24-7" and "go-to" person. Offer your cell-phone number and say it's never off. But also pepper in terms like "flextime" and "telecommuting." Play your cards right and you'll end up with work hours shaped to your liking.
INVOKE THE BOSS'S NAME
Try suggesting one of your ideas at a meeting while invoking the new boss's support. Something like, "I think this way follows the style used by (New Boss)." Or, "Here's something in the innovative tradition we expect from (New Boss)." You're staking out ground as an alter ego for the Anointed One.
DRESS DOWN FOR SUCCESS
Offer to put that unwritten office dress code in writing once and for all. Draft it based on what you like to wear. If there isn't a Casual Day, create one. Now go buy those vintage Levi's.
GET MO' GIZMOS
Get the latest cool electronic stuff by persuading the boss it will make everyone more productive ("An opportunity your predecessor never thought to seize," you can tell her). Start with pagers and work your way up to phones with cameras. Think big: A car- navigation system could prevent late arrivals for appointments.
BECOME ETHICS CZAR
Get the new boss behind you in writing an ethics policy or reworking the old one. This gives you a certain hallowed status, while allowing you to tailor the freebies policy so you can legitimately hoard swag like booze and theater tickets.
