I once had a manager who would leap into action whenever I told him anything. Much of the time I wanted his advice or just wanted him to know what was going on, but it seemed that our every conversation resulted in marching off to another part of the company and shaking someone down for information, often prematurely. I wasn’t signaling what I wanted from the conversation, so he was falling back on his usual (and admirable) “go and do” attitude..
A simple adjustment made all of the difference. I began to preface my comments with one of three phrases:.
- ” You need to know… ” I’m letting you know of a future situation that might come up, or the status of a project, or something else that you need to know about but doesn’t require intervention.
- ” I need your advice. ” Please help me think about this problem so I may handle it well on my own.
- ” I need your help. ” There’s a conflict, blockage, or other difficulty that requires the services of a manager, please help.
This sort of thing is supposed to be common sense, but isn’t all that common.
Naturally, I made a poster: Managerial Phrenology (pdf) .
