After managing a company for over 20 years, in which my responsibility has increased from working with a handful to now a few hundred people, what can I say to the person who wants to advance in the corporation?

That you can advance by working closely with your boss, not against him.

And how do you work with your boss?  I know bosses are not the most brilliant people in the world, but that’s the point — bosses are human too, and it is important that you understand the human element in your dealings.  Believe me, fiction abounds with stories about how a brilliant beginner was able to ace his stupid boss, but in reality, it is always safer and better to succeed by riding the wagon together with your boss.

Get the boss to be pushing behind for you, rather than try to overtake him.

Don’t gain your confidence by putting down the boss.  Try to gain it by having the boss pull you up.

It starts with you being able to know what management says is the Planning, organizing, leading and control functions of management.  As you grow with the company, you will slowly be given tasks in management.  The question is which tasks should you always subordinate with your boss, and which task should you progressively do by yourself ( to help your boss and your company)?

To wit, let us review.  First you plan together, and then you hire/organize according to these objectives, then you manage or direct, and then the control part comes in monitoring the progress and redefining issues and priorities.  and then go back to planning again.

In my opinion, the aspiring manager wants to start to be the one to plan and organize.  That is the last thing you should do.   In fact, your trying to do that will antagonize your boss.  I will tell you what happens in the corporation that increasingly irritates me, and I do know a lot of other managers have the same thought.

Their subordinates will try to take over the planning, and the decision making of the project…. since the boss is busy, they will make their own decisions, even sometimes contradicting what the boss will say.  In short, they take control.  Of course, ocassionally this is successful, and with that, the person tries to take credit together with his boss.  But the person may be trying to flex his wings too early — what if there are problems?  then the person will try to approach the boss for help.

Now consider what it is to be the boss — his subordinates make the decisions, and in the course, sometimes even overturn the boss’s decisions, and if they are succcessful, they are the hero.  And if they are not, they go to the boss to solve the problems. 

Admittedly, no manager likes to solve other people’s problems, especially if they have been bypassed, and they don’t get credit if you are successful, yet they have to clean up if you produce a mess.

The boss is the boss, and while it is his function to help, don’t make it a habit only to go to him only to help!  He will only help, if in the first place, you respect him and treat him like who he should be — your boss!

Remember, you work for the boss, not the other way around.

I am writing this, because somehow I am empowering people too much  ( maybe I got the disease of management 101 in the 21st century) , that they make all the decisions now, and they only come to me for problems!  And believe me, it is not fun to be at the office all day simply solving problems other people created for you, especially if many happened in the first place because they did not listen to you!

So, you have to take this empowerment thing carefully….  These concepts can fire, and they can backfire as well.

If you want to help the boss ( and yourself), do it the inverse way of the management process.

First, is focus on the thing your boss needs most — and that is control.  Control means you work with your boss to see that the things that are planned have performance standards and the progress is properly evaluated.  If there are problems, then preventive and corrective actions be put into place.  Make sure you are giving him the right updates and reports.

Second, direct or manage.  That means control and supervise the plan and assist everybody in achieving the company’s goals.  Be motivational, and help your group achieve.

Third, and only if you do the first two well, should you try to do the planning and organizing.  Your boss will probably need less help in these 2, and more on the last 2, and the last thing he wants is for you to be contesting with him to do the planning and organizing, while nobody is doing the directing and control.

Be conscious of the company’s mission, and principles of doing business, and the strategic direction of the company, and make sure that it is taken into consideration in the planning and organizing part, which you should always do together with your boss, or if he should ask you to do it, make sure it is approved with his blessings.

Remember, the boss will be a lot more supportive and helpful if you are trying to achieve the group’s plans, not yours!  And he will be more forgiving if you fail if you were implementing his decisions, not yours!