Whether you like your job or hate it, we all know that a better relationship with your boss could only make things better. But how do you achieve that? You see others try with sickening platitudes that would put even Dwight Schrute to shame. You don’t want to stoop to that level, and does it even work? The other way is to say nothing and just do your job, hoping that someone notices. But you find yourself constantly overlooked and passed over. Is there a way to gain influence with your boss and to somehow leverage it – not just for your good, but also the greater good?
What if you come up with a solution to a problem that had vexed everyone else? How will they find out?
What if you know of a way that your company could actually help create sustainable clean water for other countries just by redirecting a few pennies on every sale? Who do you tell? Odds are there are things you see that others don’t. Granted, not all ideas are gold, but some might be. As a leader of an organization with many staff members, volunteers and weekly participants, getting the right information in the right way is critical for our success. Here are a few things that help people leverage influence with me:
Your idea is not self-serving.
Many people speak out of their pain or their preferences when it comes to helpful suggestions for an organization. But how do I know that this idea will actually help us accomplish our mission? When people tell me the music is too loud, I realize that’s pretty subjective. Is it where they sit? Is it their age? Is it a family member who is putting them up to telling me? Or is our volume really detrimental to connecting people who are new to church? My research tells me that those who don’t go to church … like it loud, because if they sing, they don’t want to be heard. If someone has a suggestion for me, I need to know that it helps us accomplish our mission or at least helps more people than just themselves.
You respect my time.
If you schedule coffee with your boss just to “get to know them” they will often see this as “you didn’t have an agenda; you just wasted their time.” Sometimes when I’m in a hurry and racing through the office, well-intentioned staff members who are on a coffee break or at a good spot in their day will want to stop and talk. I am grateful for their interest, but just because you’re having a light day doesn’t mean your boss is. Set appointments. Send an agenda ahead of time. Leave early. When staff members do this with me, I always want to hear more from them.
You do your job.
John Maxwell once said, “Winning in business no longer requires you to be the fastest in the race, sometimes you just have to stay standing up.” I get it. It’s amazing how quickly all of us can let our day slip away to social media, running errands, coffee breaks and hallway conversations. When we do this we lower the amount of things we get done during the day. Before long you develop a reputation as unable to do many tasks. I want to hear from people who always want more to do so that when you come to me with a suggestion, you often follow it up with, “And I’d be happy to lead that if you’d like me to.”
You are the subject of great stories.
Every office has stories that become legendary. The guy who dropped everything to help someone loading stuff into the printer room. The girl who created a web page for another department on her own time. The kind notes of encouragement that someone always sends. The dedication to taking care of a phone call request. These stories always rise to the top. What bothers a boss is when they hear, “They weren’t much help” or, “I emailed them and they never got back to me.” I am always mindful of who the local heroes are on our staff. They tend to get more influence, more time and more opportunities. It’s the Biblical principle of, “To whom much is given, much is expected.”
Want to know more about making real life simple? Check out our series at Real Life Church “It’s Complicated”.
Those are my four big ideas for gaining influence with your boss … what do you suggest?