Do you feel like your leader just doesn’t understand what you’re saying?
One thing you might want to check is whether your messaging is simply convenient for you, or if you’ve taken on the responsibility and asked how your leader wants to be kept up to date.
Leaders often have different takes on how they want to receive information depending on the topic and urgency.
And it also depends on what action you need from leadership.
For example, one of Rhydl’s clients was trying to get her manager to sign off on a new project that would resolve some overlapping issues her team was facing. Instead of focusing her request in a specific email, she sent a convoluted email that had several different decisions, issues, and questions intertwined with her project idea.
When she later asked her manager about the project he didn’t know what she wanted from him. Her email lacked clarity.
She felt like he wasn’t paying attention to what was important and he felt like she was making a big deal about something that was never brought his attention.
When she told me this story I almost said, “Sounds like a typical marital scenario if ever there was one…” but of course we took a different plan of action.
First, we worked out the best way to bring this to the manager’s attention.
She wanted to just write an email specifically about her project.
But then she realized she also needed to ask for a one-on-one meeting to explain some of the trickier details that weren’t easy to get across in the email. So instead of an email requesting approval of the project, she ended up asking for a meeting to propose a solution to the team’s issue.
She gave enough details to make clear she had a well-thought-out solution, but that she wanted to explain in-depth before talking about it with the rest of the team.
The manager was thrilled with her solution!
Next, we prepped her Update Dashboard and schedule so she could keep her manager up to date on this and other projects she was working on.
The results were a huge change in her relationship with her manager. He saw her rising above, communicating effectively, and before our final meeting she said, “He feels more like a leader than a boss now.”
Mission Accomplished.
Be Courageous and learn how to get your leader’s attention when and how you need it. Don’t abuse that by overwhelming them. Help your manager be the leader you need and you will see that you are more satisfied and more productive as a result.