It doesn’t matter where you sit in an organisation’s hierarchy. How well you communicate with your boss directly impacts perceptions of your performance and your level of success or otherwise.
Key reasons for you to foster regular, open and transparent, two-way communication with your boss include:
- You can’t lead your people if you don’t know where you are leading them to. Your boss will generally establish your direction for you.
- You can’t meet your boss’s performance expectations if you don’t know what they are.
- Everyone needs validation, including you. Your boss can provide you with feedback that you are doing the right things.
- You won’t always get the information you need if you don’t ask for it. Recognise that it’s up to you to ask your boss for clarification when required.
- You won’t know what assumptions your boss is making about what you need from them to do your job if you don’t discuss them.
- You won’t be able to highlight your effort and the effort of your team if you don’t talk to your boss about progress and performance.
What to Communicate and Why
As a two way street, communication with your boss is both about you getting what you need to keep your team moving forward and your boss getting what they need to give them confidence that you are doing the job you have been asked to do.
Consistency and timeliness of message is imperative if you are to get what you need from them, and for them to get what they need from you.
The first step is to establish with them what they need or want. Some bosses will want all the detail available, and more! Some will be at the other end of the spectrum and only want to know if there is something they should know about and leave the judgement on what to tell them and when to tell them to you. Neither approach is recommended so finding somewhere in the middle will work best.
Irrespective of frequency, format or method the key things to keep your boss informed about are:
1. Progress and Status
Keeping your boss advised on your progress enables them to respond to information requests from their stakeholders. Ask them how they would like you to keep them updated. They might be happy with a verbal update at their regular team meetings or welcome a weekly one-page summary in a specific format.
At minimum answer the following questions:
- Are you on track of off track in terms of meeting the outcomes you have been given? You might demonstrate this in a traffic light sense with red off track, green on track and yellow somewhere in the middle with manageable issues, or you might provide metrics and commentary if you are managed by performance against specific targets.
- Are you on track or off track with specific projects? This can be as simple as answering the high-level questions of whether it will be delivered on time on budget, and what the client expects.
- Are there any risks or issues you are managing, and are there any risks and issues you need their support to manage?
Many bosses will operate on the principle of “no surprises” so if something is a potential risk let them know early. No one will thank you for sitting on an issue that could have been easily resolved if addressed when it arose.
2. Changes
Being across any changes is critical for you to lead your team through changes that directly impact them. You can’t keep them informed if you are not informed yourself and it is preferable that they do not hear about changes on the ‘grapevine’ before they hear about them from you. You can ask:
- Are there any changes happening in the business unit that will affect you and your team? This could be personnel changes and the need to recruit or procedural changes that will affect how the team does part of its work that is in your direct control.
- Are there any changes happening organisationally that I need to know about that will directly impact on me or the team? This might be such things as a major IT change, organisational changes or funding cutbacks on the horizon but not formalised.
Your boss may ask you for your thoughts on strategy or tactical options for managing changes. Use every opportunity such as this to your advantage to demonstrate you can communicate at a strategic level as well as communicate with your team as a leader.
3. Feedback
Feedback, both good and bad is necessary for building confidence and enabling corrective adjustments if needed. Opportunities for feedback include:
- Asking your boss for feedback for you or the team.
- Providing your boss with feedback. Examples include letting your boss know that the team appreciated being called out for their performance in a recent newsletter or that the new printer they helped you secure funding for is working perfectly.
- Moving more personally, letting them know that about difficulties you are experiencing that they need to know about provides you with an opportunity to gain useful feedback.
If you wish to discuss your future career prospects, ask for a specific meeting and prepare for that separately.
Issues of Proximity
You may report to someone in another state or city so getting regular time with your boss might be problematic if they do not prioritise communicating with you. Make appointments and use the phone, videoconference and/or email rather than waiting for them to come to town to take them through matters of importance to you both. You will be better able to gauge what is or isn’t a matter of importance to your boss the more you communicate with them.
Having said that, working in the same building an on the same floor will not guarantee you access to your boss.
When you do work in the same location, learn and perfect the “20 second sound bite” approach for those times you meet in the corridor, lift or coffee shop. A quick thumbs up can set their mind at ease, or a couple of sentences telling them you have booked time in their diary to see them about an important issue or topic can get you on their radar.
If you have a one on one meeting and they are time poor, keep the meeting short by preparing and be very clear about the topic and what you need from them. Send a short summary of the topic by email beforehand but don’t assume they will have time to read it. Talk to the summary document at your meeting and leave it with them. It may be useful reference material for them if they need to in turn manage upwards to their boss.
One parting piece of advice is that, if it is important for them to know something urgently or you need their immediate support, don’t email. Make a phone call!
Rest assured, if your boss wants you or needs to know anything from you urgently, they will call.
If you like the photo I used for this blog article you’ll find more like it from Aleksandr Davydov on 123rf.com
