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BUILDING GOOD RELATIONS WITH MANAGERS:Impressing your manager, Coping with a problem manager

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Human Relations­ MGMT611
VU
Lesson 21
BUILDING GOOD RELATIONS WITH MANAGERS
Skill building approach
This topic presents a variety of strategies and tactics aimed at building constructive relationships with
your manager. Developing effective relationships with work associates is regarded by many as having good
political skills, an interpersonal style that combines awareness of others with the ability to communicate
well.
Developing a good relationship with your manager or team leader
Getting along well with your manager is the most basic strategy for advancement. It must be kept in mind
that every organization has its culture. Employees have to adapt themselves according to the culture of the
organization. The approaches are grouped into two categories:
1. Creating a favorable impression on your manager or team leader
2. Coping with an intolerable manager
1. Impressing your manager
A.
Achieve Good Job Performance
B.
Display a Strong Work Ethic
C.
Demonstrate Good Emotional Intelligence
D.
Be Dependable and Honest
E.
Be a Good Organizational Citizen
F.
Create a Strong Presence
G.
Find out What Your Manager Expects of You
H.
Minimize Complaints
I.
Avoid Bypassing Your Manager
J.
Use Discretion in Socializing With Your Manager
K.
Engage in Favorable Interaction with Your Manager
A. Achieve Good Job Performance
Good job performance remains the most effective strategy for impressing your manager or team leader. An
advanced way of displaying good job performance is to assist your manager with a difficult problem he or
she faces. Employees should support their managers when they attempt to introduce the technological
change instead of showing resistance.
B. Display a Strong Work Ethic
A major factor contributing to good job performance is a strong work ethic, a firm belief in the dignity and
value of work. Having a strong work ethic is also important for favorably impressing a manager.
Six suggestions for demonstrating a strong work ethic are:
1.
Work hard and enjoy the task.
2.
Demonstrate competence even on minor tasks.
3.
Assume personal responsibility for problems.
4.
Assume responsibility for free-floating problems.
5.
Get your projects completed promptly.
6.
Accept undesirable assignments willingly.
C.
Demonstrate Good Emotional Intelligence
A worker who deals effectively with the emotional responses of co-workers and customers is impressive
because feelings and emotions are a big challenge on the job.
Demonstrating good emotional intelligence is also impressive because it contributes to performing well in
the difficult area of dealing with feelings.
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Human Relations­ MGMT611
VU
D.
Be Dependable and Honest
Dependability is a critical employee virtue. If an employee can be counted on to deliver as promised and to
be at work regularly, that employee has gone a long way toward impressing the boss.
E.
Be a Good Organizational Citizen
An especially meritorious approach to impressing key people is to demonstrate organizational citizenship
behaviour, the willingness to work for the good of the organization even without the promise of a specific
reward. The good organizational citizen goes "above and beyond the call of duty." An effective way of
being a good organization citizen is to step outside your job description. If people only do work included in
their job description, a mentality of "It's not my job" pervades.
An impressive way of stepping outside your job description is to anticipate problems even when the
manager had not planned to work on them. Anticipating problems reflects an entrepreneurial, take-charge
attitude.
F.
Create a Strong Presence
A comprehensive approach to impressing your manager or team leader and other key people is to create a
strong presence, or keep yourself in the forefront. Get involved in high visibility projects such as launching
a new product. Joining a team is effective as is getting involved in community activities of interest to top
management. Also, take on tasks your manager dislikes.
G.
Find out What Your Manager Expects of You
You have little chance of doing a good job and impressing your manager unless you know what you are
trying to accomplish. Work goals and performance standards represent the most direct way of learning your
manager's expectations. A performance standard is a statement of what constitutes acceptable
performance. These standards can sometimes be inferred from a job description.
H.
Minimize Complaints
It is unwise to continually complain about various aspects of the work environment. Aside from being
perceived as a pest, listening to complaints takes up considerable management time. A better tactic than
frequent complaining is to make constructive suggestions to improve substandard situations.
I.
Avoid Bypassing Your Manager
A good way to embarrass and sometimes infuriate your manager is to repeatedly go to his or her superior
with your problems, conflict, and complaints. The bypass suggests that you don't think your boss has
enough power to take care of the problem, and that you distrust his or her judgment. Bypassing your
manager is looked upon so negatively that most experienced managers will not listen to your problem unless
you have already discussed it with your immediate superior.
J.
Use Discretion in Socializing With Your Manager
Advocates of socializing with the boss contend that off-the-job friendships lead to more natural work
relationships. However, socializing with the boss can lead to role confusion, or being uncertain about what
role you are carrying out.
K.
Engage in Favorable Interaction with Your Manager
A study of interactions between bank employees and their supervisors showed that trying to create a
positive impression on the superior led to better performance ratings.
2.  Coping with a problem manager
A problem manager is the one who, gets angry easily, intimidate, ignore the requests or is overly committed.
Difficult people create obstacles to getting the job done. Employees experience unnecessary stress or are
limited
in
completing
tasks
because
of
a
problem
manager.
Dealing with Difficult People gives employees strategies and tactics for dealing with and even positively
confronting difficult people about their behaviours to make suggestions for working together better.
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Human Relations­ MGMT611
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A challenge to ambitious people is to cope with a difficult manager, yet remain well regarded by that person.
Suggestions follow:
A.
Reevaluate Your Manager
Some problem bosses are not really a problem. Instead, they have been misperceived by one or more group
members. You and your boss may simply have a difference in roles, goals, or values.
B.
Confront Your Manager about the Problem
A general-purpose way of dealing with a problem manager is to apply confrontation and problem solving
techniques. Use considerable tact and sensitivity because your manager or team leader has more formal
authority than you. Gently ask for an explanation of the problem. Confrontation can also be helpful in
dealing with the problem of micromanagement, the close monitoring of most aspects of group member
activities by the manager.
C.
Learn from Your Manager's Mistakes
Even a bad boss contributes to our development--he or she serves as a model of what not to do as a boss.
Also, should your manager be fired, analyze that situation to avoid the mistakes he or she made.
References
Dubrin, A.J. (2005). Human Relations: Career and Personal Success. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey,
07458.
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Table of Contents:
  1. HUMAN RELATIONS:Some Guidelines for Effective Human Relations, Communication has 3meanings
  2. CULTURE AND PERSONALITY:Definition of sub culture, Definition of Personality, Types of Persons
  3. PERSONALITY AND STRESS:Personality, PERSONAL TOOLS TO CONTROL STRESS
  4. PERCEPTION AND INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR:Three concepts of personality, Bias in Perception
  5. PERCEPTION AND GROUP BEHAVIOR:Characteristics of Groups, Individual and Group Behavior
  6. ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR:Types of Attitudes, Steps to turn attitude into action
  7. PERSONAL MOTIVATION AND ACHIEVEMENT:Needs and Motivation, Self-discipline and motivation
  8. SOLVING PROBLEMS SKILLFULLY:Problem solving and cognition, Ways to solve problems
  9. CREATIVITY IN PROBLEM SOLVING:Barriers to creativity, Tips to solve problems creatively
  10. HANDLING PERSONAL ISSUES:Self-Defeating Behaviour, Positive attitude to tackle personal problems
  11. CONFLICT RESOLUTION:WHY SO MUCH CONFLICT EXISTS, TECHNIQUES FOR RESOLVING CONFLICTS
  12. COMMUNICATION AND HUMAN RELATIONS:Process of communication, Improving gender barriers to communication
  13. ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION:To improve listening skills, Types of organizational communication
  14. UNDERSTANDING COMMUNICATION STYLES:Modeling communication style, Sociability continuum
  15. SELF-ESTEEM:Building process of self-esteem, Self-esteem and public image
  16. BUILDING SELF-CONFIDENCE:The importance of self-confidence and self-efficacy, Balanced Self-Confidence:
  17. BECOMING A LEADER-1:Assessing leadership role, Traits and Characteristics of Effective Leaders
  18. BECOMING A LEADER-II:Theories of leadership, Developing leadership potential
  19. GLOBALIZATION AND CROSS-CULTURAL DIFFERENCES:Religious Values and Bicultural Identities
  20. IMPROVING CROSS-CULTURAL COMPETENCE:Strategies to improve cross-cultural relations, More steps to improve Cultural Relations
  21. BUILDING GOOD RELATIONS WITH MANAGERS:Impressing your manager, Coping with a problem manager
  22. BUILDING GOOD RELATIONS WITH CO-WORKERS:Make Co-workers feel important, Maintain Honest and Open Relationships
  23. BUILDING GOOD RELATIONS WITH CUSTOMERS:Salesperson Represents the Business, Approaching the Customer, Excuses vs. Objections
  24. CHOOSING A CAREER-1:Ten Myths about Choosing a Career, Attitude toward and Perceptions about Myself
  25. CHOOSING A CAREER-II:Choosing a career and developing a portfolio Career, Suggestions for career Preparation
  26. FINDING A JOB:Targeting your job search, The Internet and Résumé Database Services, Extreme Job Hunting
  27. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESUME:Major types of resumes, Electronic Submission of the Résumé
  28. IMPROVING INTERVIEW SKILLS:Successful interview, Knowing the employer or Organization
  29. IMPROVING WORK HABITS-1:Reasons of procrastination, Techniques for Reducing Procrastination
  30. IMPROVING WORK HABITS-2:Developing the proper attitudes and values, Time-management techniques
  31. NEW MODEL OF CAREER ADVANCEMENT:Career portability, HUMAN RELATIONS SELF-ASSESSMENT
  32. TAKING CONTROL OF YOURSELF:Develop Outstanding Interpersonal Skills, Business etiquettes
  33. EXERTING CONTROL ON OUTSIDE ENVIRONMENT:Important communication tip, Exerting control over the outside world
  34. MANAGING PERSONAL FINANCES-1:Your personal financial plan, Steps in budget making
  35. MANAGING PERSONAL FINANCES-2:Basic investment principles, Tolerance for Investment Risks, Types of investments
  36. ACHIEVING HAPPINESS-1:Finding happiness and enhancing your personal life, The key to happiness
  37. ACHIEVING HAPPINESS-2:The Five Principles of Psychological Functioning, Your mind and Happiness
  38. ACHIEVING HAPPINESS-3:Need for intimacy, Working out issues with relationships
  39. APATHY AND ITS REMEDIES:Let us try to understand the various definitions of apathy, Coping strategies for apathy
  40. ENHANCING PERSONAL ETHICS-1:Influence of Culture, Common ethical problems
  41. ENHANCING PERSONAL ETHICS-2:Common ethical problems, Guidelines for Behaving Ethically
  42. HELPING OTHERS GROW:Being a Nurturing, Positive Person, A list of mentoring behaviour, Coaching skills and techniques
  43. REVIEW-I:What is a Human Relation?, Meanings of Communication, Two types of stress, Some personal problem, Communication style
  44. REVIEW-II:Steps to build self-confidence, Globalization, Building Good Relations with Co-workers, Good work habits
  45. REVIEW-III:New model of career advancement, Choosing your investment, Tactics for Dealing with Difficult People