You may well have the feeling that your boss doesn’t quite trust you. Perhaps they:
- Insist all communications go through them rather than direct.
- Will not allow you to engage directly with her boss.
- Do not delegate decisions, however small, to you.
- Insist on constant updates from you – micro managing.
- Do not allow you to attend meetings on their behalf.
I have some tough news for you – I may have been coaching your boss. Sorry, but I may well have cautioned them about trusting you.
Well, in reality that is unlikely unless you work for one of my major clients, but this will be one of the things we would probably have discussed.
The problem, if it does apply to you, is that far too many subordinates have failed to step up to the plate and should not be trusted too much.
“What!?” I hear your cry. What happened to empowerment, encouraging responsibility, giving people a chance to learn from their mistakes – delegation??
Nothing, all very commendable leadership (or management) approaches, but not if it is unsafe to do that. Risk management needs to play a key part in deciding who to trust with what. Especially in highly politicised environments.
Bosses that I coach are challenged on their approach to specific subordinates/tasks with questions like:
- What exactly are do you want them to do?
- Are you sure they understand exactly what you need to happen?
- How confident are you that they understand enough about the politics?
- Will they be able to responds well to the unexpected?
- What are the consequences if it goes wrong?
- What can you do to minimise the risks and maximise the performance?
- What is your decision?
Now, I’ll accept that it is rare indeed that someone will have the time to run through these questions each time. Instead emotional intuition will kick in and there will be an (often unuttered) yes or no. Which can create no end of frustration on both sides of the relationship.
Yet, the questions stand: to be used by bosses who want to improve their performance and grow their teams AND by those who think their boss doesn’t trust them!