NewsChannel 5.com - Nashville, Tennessee - Refuse to be undermanaged

Refuse to be undermanaged

By Bruce Tulgan
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All across the workplace, at all levels of organizations in every industry, there is a shocking and profound epidemic of undermanagement: The vast majority of supervisory relationships between employees and their bosses lack the day-to-day engagement necessary to consistently maintain the very basics of management. In fact, most employees report that they feel rather disengaged from their immediate boss(es). That two-way communication is sorely deficient, and employees rarely get the daily guidance, resources, feedback and reward that they need. This condition is what I call "undermanagement," which is the opposite of micromanagement.

You may not be aware of undermanagement in your workplace. Look around! It's everywhere. I'll bet undermanagement is costing you every single day. It robs you of having more positive experiences in the workplace and prevents you from reaching greater success. Undermanagement gets in the way of your learning and development, makes it harder for you to optimize relationships, and diminishes your opportunities for new tasks, responsibilities and projects. Undermanagement very likely causes you to earn less than you should and prevents you from gaining more flexibility in your schedule and other work conditions.

Well, exactly who is responsible for this undermanagement epidemic?

After all, isn't it the manager's job to manage? Shouldn't the bosses be taking charge?

I believe the answer is yes!

But too many leaders, managers, and supervisors are failing to lead, manage, and supervise. They simply do not take charge on a day-to-day basis. They fail to spell out expectations every step of the way, ensure necessary resources are in place, track performance constantly, correct failure and reward success. They are afraid, they don't want to, or they just don't know how.

So what are you going to do about it?

Be the employee who says to every boss:

"Great news, I'm going to take responsibility for my part of this management relationship! I'm going to take responsibility for my role and my conduct in this relationship. I know you are busy. I know you are under a lot of pressure. I'm going to help you by getting a bunch of work done very well, very fast, all day long. I'm going to work with you to make sure I understand in vivid detail exactly what you expect of me every step of the way. On every task/responsibility/project on which I answer to you, I'm going to work with you to make sure I understand clearly the plan and all the goals, guidelines, and specifications.

"I'm going to break big deadlines into smaller time frames with concrete performance benchmarks. I'm going to learn standard operating procedures and use checklists. I'm going to keep track of everything I'm doing and exactly how I'm doing it every step of the way. I'm going to help you monitor and measure and document my performance every step of the way. I'm going to try to solve problems as soon as they occur and, if I come to you for your help, you'll know I really need you. I'm going to use only the approved shortcuts, I'm going to avoid unnecessary problems, and I'm going to learn and grow and be able to take on more and more responsibility. Count on me. With your help, I'm going to be really valuable to you!"

It's okay to manage your boss(es). You just need to become really skilled at it!

Bruce Tulgan is the author or coauthor of numerous books including his most recent, Not Everyone Gets a Trophy, the best-seller It's Okay to Be the Boss, and the classic Managing Generation X. Since founding the management training firm RainmakerThinking in 1993, he has been a sought-after keynote speaker and seminar leader. Tulgan's weekly video newsletter is available for free at rainmakerthinking.com.

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