You want your boss to like you to respect you and most
importantly to take you seriously, but they won't, if you
say any of these seven things, there's a problem you
need to deal with.
Yes, there is because when you bring your boss
problems you become the problem.
Good leaders are effective at removing obstacles or at
least giving you advice on how you can deal with
problems on your own.
But not all managers are good managers and not all
bosses know the answers or they might be dealing with
bigger problems and the last
thing they need is another problem.
So how are you supposed to
get anything fixed around here ideally?
And whenever you have the ability, if you can solve the
problem, fix it yourself and let them know about it, this is
going to demonstrate to your boss that you're a proactive
problem solver, which is a leadership quality whether or
not they have it is another story.
This worked famously for me in my corporate days with
one instance in particular, I was in client training and a
lot of my clients were asking for coding training that our
company just didn't offer and after about the seventh
time that I was asked for it, I was like, well why do don't
just create it?
I didn't go to my boss to
complain about the fact that it didn't exist.
I didn't even go to my boss for permission to create it, I
just started developing it and when I needed additional
assistance, I went to them to tell them exactly what I was
doing, what the impact was going to be.
And my boss connected me with exactly what I needed
to launch the training successfully.
And that training solution ended up being a massive
reputation builder for me at the company and helped me
advance my career.
That said, you can't fix everything, you can't solve all of
the problems that are out there.
You're one person after all and maybe you're going to
your boss because you need their guidance or it's
something that they need to take control over.
In instances like that. What I suggest you do is bring
your boss a solution along with the problem at least
throw one idea out there.
Maybe your idea isn't going to solve the problem and it's
not the one that they're going to implement to try to solve
the problem, but it demonstrates that you're forward
looking and you're not just adding to the list of work they
have to do.
But what about the instances when you caused the
problem? I'm so sorry, that mistake was all my fault.
Not so fast. Career bestie successes, not solitary, but in
failure, you might find yourself friendless when you're
willing to take the blame when things go wrong, others
will be eager to add to it.
You thought you were being accountable, but instead
you made yourself nick scapegoat and he's going to
blame all of the problems on you owning up to your
mistakes might even make your boss aware of the fact
that you made the mistake in the first place.
This happened with Emily, Emily satch had strolling in
late every single day and it seemed to be no big deal.
One day she was running late and she texted her boss
to let them know and apologized for her tardiness.
She arrived and got in trouble from her boss because
what Emily didn't know is that chad wasn't getting away
with being late because the boss didn't care about it.
Chad was getting away with being late because the boss
didn't know about it.
So what could Emily have done differently? Well, she
could have just not said anything about it.
If no one's trying to place blame, why take it.
I know a lot of you are like me with high accountability, I
will willingly tell you about all the ways I've messed up,
but we need to
differentiate accountability from blame internally.
You can be accountable af in my opinion, this is
necessary for your personal and professional growth,
knowing what you did wrong and what you're going to do
differently in the future is how you evolve.
But externally ask what's the bigger picture because I
can assure you in your
failures, you're not actually friendless.
This isn't to say that you make excuses, but let's take a
look at the real issue.
For example, let's say there was a communication
mishap and you were given a project timeline that was
incorrect and gave it over to
a client and that caused big problem.
What you can do is shift the focus to the real problem of
the communication mishap and this
brings me to the third thing.
You should never tell your boss. I need to make more. I
got bills to pay. This is a mistake.
I see all the time, whether it's rent, debt or you're saving
up to buy a broken, citing your financial reasons or
motivations in a salary negotiation, pay raise, anything
like that is a big no, no, your boss is not making business
decisions based on your financial situation.
At best. This information is not
going to be relevant at worst.
Disclosing your financial issues is going to cause
damage to your professional reputation.
It can make them think that you're immature or
responsible and that that would somehow leak over into
work just like how it would with your co workers.
So what do you do when you need to make more to
cover your bills? Because that's a legit thing.
Instead of citing your student loans or your rent to why
you need to make more money, Do your market
research, know what a competitive salary is in your
market, figure out where you should lie in the range and
build a business case for it.
That means bring the receipts about all of the impact that
you've had, that has driven
revenue, decreased costs or ideally both.
And no matter what under no circumstance, do you say
this next thing to your boss have recruited return to me
and I'd make $20,000 more elsewhere.
This only works under one situation. You are recognized
as top talent that your boss cannot lose.
We're talking, they have a bonus and incentive structure
to keep you on staff.
If that's the case, you have the average to do this.
If not what you're telling your boss is, you have one ft out
the door, your boss will deem you as a flight risk with the
growing number of layoffs in a recession.
Do you want your boss to see you as the one who
doesn't even want this job?
Maybe if you're independently wealthy or you live in the
comfort of your parents basement, it's no big deal.
But for most people that paycheck is important.
That said, the leverage of being a flight risk can actually
be tremendously helpful in helping you get paid more
and have more career opportunities.
But you should never say it.
What you're going to do instead is build your reputation
to become the person that they cannot lose the person.
That is so good that they know without you ever saying
it, that recruiters are all up in your DMS.
So they have to pay you well, support your career growth
and keep you happy and if you don't know how to do
that, it's not as complicated as it sounds.
In fact, it's one of the things that we dive into in my book
career glow up.
This is a must have career success guide seriously, you
need it in your life.
Go to career glow up book dot com to fine where you
can get a copy.
Let's talk about the fifth thing that you should never tell
your boss, that's not my job.
This is a viral career advice that self anointed career
success coaches say all the time that makes me want to
scream because it is sabotaging your career.
The problem isn't with setting boundaries, for instance,
you should not have your plate full of tasks that are two
levels below you unless you're at a startup, in which
case all bets are off.
But increasingly, the way to get promoted is to be
operating at the next level.
This has been completely normalized in the tech industry
as a way to mitigate the peter principle.
We don't need people rise into the levels of their
incompetence, so they're getting promoted based on
their actual demonstrated competence.
Instead of saying no, this is in my job description, take a
look at the task that's been handed to you say yes to the
work that is above your pay grade, especially when it is
going to make a strategic and un ignore a ble impact.
These are tasks that are going to elevate your visibility to
leaders who have the ability to promote you and
establish your skills and competencies
at that next level too.
To build the business case for your promotion, this will
allow you to uplevel your job title and your paycheck at
your current company.
But if it goes on without those things being adjusted, you
can use the experience that you gain to market yourself
into that promotion at a new company.
Now, this next thing that you should never tell your boss
is a real doozy and if you only take me on one of them, it
is going to be this one you're wrong.
Let me ask you a question.
Have you ever been wrong and had it pointed out to you
by someone else? How did it feel?
Probably not very good. It's likely that you felt
embarrassed, defeated or even defensive.
More importantly, how do you feel about the person who
told you you were wrong?
You probably didn't like them very much.
Well, if you tell your boss that they're wrong about
something, they're not going to like you very much either.
So what do you do when you don't want to execute on a
bad idea that is going to waste your time, your team's
resources and your energy.
In cases like this? I suggest using an improv tactic of yes
and in improv, you're not allowed to say no to an idea, it's
going to make the whole thing fall upon.
You have to accept whatever is put out there by the
people that you're on stage with, but you can elaborate
and change the story.
So when your boss put down a ho hum idea, accepted,
that's a good idea and insert your suggestion that's going
to work better here whenever possible.
We want to help people save
face, especially if they're wrong publicly.
But also people are more excited about ideas and will
break more about ideas that they think are theirs, which
brings us to the seven thing that you should never tell
your boss Rachel has been causing a lot of drama.
Well now you're the one causing drama.
It would be great if you go to your boss and they could
help you navigate working with difficult coworkers and
any issues that you have or
if they could solve the problem.
The thing is, most managers don't really know how they
didn't get to their jobs because
they were so great at people management.
Most managers never learn how to effectively manage
people. And if you didn't
notice humans are pretty complicated.
When you bring an issue with a coworker to your boss,
you might be overwhelming them with something that
they don't have the capability to help with or that they
might not be able to to effectively solve what good is
your boss telling Rachel to stop being mean, going to do
you think she's going to listen instead of bringing
coworker drama to your boss, there's a couple of things
that you can do instead.
First of all don't bring your boss people problems, bring
them business problems.
We suggested solutions, which we talked about earlier in
this video, frame it as a concern versus a problem.
Ultimately, successful professionals learn how to deal
with difficult coworkers on their own and become
masters of workplace politics.
It's easier than you think it is. In fact, go watch this video
to get started.