I was recently asked for some helpful advice when it comes to successfully navigating the often precarious and frustrating waters of working under multiple managers. Having more than one boss can make work, well...interesting sometimes.
People can be as different as night and day, at the office and in our personal lives. All managers don’t manage the same way. Different leaders have different leadership styles. This isn’t a bad thing. After all, different styles of leadership and management enrich the corporate culture.
Where things can get tricky, is when you receive conflicting or mixed messages from your leadership. For example, one manager may perceive a particular project, goal, or customer to be priority over another. This point of view however, may be a complete 180 from the direction you were given by another manager.
Receiving conflicting messages from multiple managers can have an adverse impact on you doing your job effectively. It’s kind of like what happens to a car when its wheels are out of alignment. Instead of traveling straight, the car may pull to the right side or the left.
So - what can you do to ensure that you’re able to do your job effectively when competing messages are being communicated by management?
Communicate the inconsistencies. There’s a good chance that one manager isn’t aware of specific information or guidance you may have received from another. This means that it’s up to you to let your managers know when you’ve been given conflicting information or inconsistent messages have been communicated. Be proactive about this; don’t wait until a problem arises to communicate your concerns.
When in doubt focus, on the objective. At the end of the day it’s about ensuring that objectives are reached, customers are satisfied, and you are successfully performing the job that you were hired to do
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