Being successful in your job doesn’t only involve doing your job properly and timely, and managing the members in your team properly, in case you are a team manager or supervisor. It also means being able to manage your boss accurately. This will definitely help on overall company success.

But what do we mean by “managing our boss”? Of course it doesn’t mean making your boss do the things the way you want, but doing the things in the most compatible way with your boss, in order to achieve efficiency excellence.

Leaders and CEOs usually offer their best (and therefore, achieve the best results) when their subordinates know how to deal both with them and their subordinates. When subordinates of these top leaders are only focused on managing their subordinates, things are not as efficient and productive.

So, managing your boss properly is more about adapting yourself to his/her management manner, and work to get the best of it. Is helping them delegate properly, as leaders are the most successful when they learn how to delegate.

These are some simple tips to help your manager(s) get the best of you, so he can give the best of himself and, finally, achieving company success:

Learn as much as you can about their management style. Analyze how they treat their coworkers, both those below and those above. Learn what their personal values are, and how they apply them to the company. Study what the company goals should be in their opinion and which are the ones they have more urgency in accomplishing. This way you will be able to think about how you can help them achieve those goals. Maybe some of this things are not easy to catch just by observing, so you have any questions about this, ask your manager(s). We are sure they will be more than happy to guide you.
Know and understand perfectly what they expect from you. The reasons for hiring you among all the other candidates. Know the goals they are expecting you to accomplish and the period of time in which they expect you to accomplish them. Understanding these things will help you adapt your working style to your managers’ style and will help you focus on what is most important for them. And this is the best way to support them: rowing in the same direction.
As in any other relationship that you want to succeed, work on an effective and accurate communication. It is important to be accurate, getting directly to the point and making sure and confirming that you totally understand what they are telling you or what they expect from you.
And again, just make sure as many times as necessary that you understood what you are supposed to do. It is the best way to be effective and productive, without wasting your time and efforts and without exhausting others patience because you are not doing what they expect from you.
Communicate with your boss in the way and with the frequency he/she may prefer. Some like to communicate daily, others weekly. Some may prefer face to face meetings, others may prefer emails, other phone calls. Define your manager’s favorite way and make sure there is a fluent communication and that you don’t have any doubts. If so, ask and make sure everything is completely clear.
Usually a manager’s goals are the same as the company’s goals. It is the way they work on achieving those goals what could differ. But feel free to make any suggestions if you think something could be improved in order to achieve those goals.