I have a natural bent towards communicating what I’m doing and thinking about (up and down the org chart, and with peers). Yet in 1994 I was working on a significant project without my boss knowing even the broad strokes of what was going on. He found me in my office one afternoon, slammed my door shut behind him, and vented his substantial anger.
“I just told [Mr. VP] that you couldn’t possibly be working on X because I would surely know about something that committed my department to that big a change. He produced emails. I look like an idiot managing a moron with a Ph.D. degree!”
It took me 2 years to fully crawl out of that credibility crater.
Don’t ever let your boss be ignorant. Don’t make them plead ignorance when some issue surfaces. This supports Rule #2: Make your boss look good.
Adapt to your boss’ preferences about how to be informed. Some prefer verbal updates, some written. A tactic which has worked well for me, especially in situations where my boss is remote and has large responsibilities, is to send a deliverables update every 2 weeks or so. Takes me about 10-20 min to compile, and actually helps me think through what needs to happen next. The email is structured like this:
Delivered:
- Specific deliverable
- Specific deliverable
- Specific deliverable
- Specific deliverable
- Specific deliverable
- Specific deliverable
In flight / Upcoming:
- Planned actions and tasks (include date where you can)
- Planned actions and tasks (include date where you can)
- Planned actions and tasks (include date where you can)
- Planned actions and tasks (include date where you can)
- Planned actions and tasks (include date where you can)
Reminder about PTO or other significant travel
