Yael’s Presentation on How to Manage Your Manager
I recently presented a workshop on how to manage your manager at the International Association of Accountants and Financial Professionals in Business (IMA) at their annual conference in New Orleans based on my book, TOPS Managing Up. It was an exciting forty-eight hour journey. My session opened the conference Sunday morning, June 23rd, 2013 with a packed room, full of professionals and staff, including those standing in the back.
My book, TOPS Managing Up, is gaining momentum again. It actually started as a workshop that I used to run across my Financial Services and Pharmaceutical clients back in the 1990s and 2000s. Then in 2008 a client asked me to get all the materials for free. I declined but offered to turn the workshop into a short guide that can be easily become a ‘self study’ template.
Now gaining popularity again, TOPS Managing Up is on top of people’s minds.
Why?
My theory on this is that throughout your professional life, a good working relationship with your manager is invaluable in promoting a productive work environment and in advancing your career. But how do you build a better working relationship with someone with whom you do not share a common understanding, due to differences in work styles, preferences and perceptions? Add to this, you may not even see your manager on a regular basis, especially if you work on a dispersed (or virtual) team. You are not alone in experiencing these challenges!
Management has changed. It is no longer the boss of the 1920s who was ‘managing’. Today’s manager can be anyone, located anywhere, doing anything, and collaborating with everyone.
Managing in a new era of modern business is about creating team collaboration, building global relationships and influencing the contemporary boss – virtual or not!
My interactive session, Break Out of Your Manager’s Box: Manage Your Manager at the IMA Conference focused on how to manage your manager by exploring the 4 styles of managers: Trendsetter, Outgoing, Perfectionist and Stable. We explored strategies to create and improve your working relationship with your TOPS manager, and engaged in a lively dialogue about taking stock of your partnership.
Even if you ‘hate’ your manager, you need to break out of traditional thinking and manage up – because it is a RELATIONSHIP, the most critical one to your future career.
Check back here next week for more tips and secrets on how to manage your manager.
Yael Zofi
