The Adaptive Career Plan

Adaptation Plan:

· Key aspects of audience: The listeners are business students so they have a sense of management.

· Establishing and maintaining common ground: I’ll be using general pronoun like “one” and “they”. I’ll be using examples used by the authors and statistics and quotes from internet relevant to it.

· Building and maintaining interest: I’ll be using listener relevance link and point out that it can help them in their career.

· Building Credibility: I will tell them that I’ve worked on it for days.

· Audience attitudes: It will be related to their field so they might be open to this idea.

· Use presentational aids: I will use presentation slides and quotes and statistics to help them understand the article. I’ll use the examples used by the authors of the articles for better understanding.

General Goal: I want to inform my audience

Specific Goal: I want my audience to realize that managing boss is important for manager, boss and company.

Attention Getter: You can lessen the chance that your boss will make bad decisions that adversely affect you and your career by managing your relationship with the boss. Keep the boss informed about what's going on at work and never forget the pressure your boss is under. Honesty and reliability will win the hearts of most bosses. (JANE BOUCHER)

Listener Relevance: We are business students and we will someday get employed at workforce. So we need to know the importance of managing boss and ways to manage boss.

Speaker Credibility: I’ve been working on it for days.

Overview:

· Title of the work: Managing your Boss

· Date of Publication: Published in May 1993 and January 2005

· Author’s Name: John J.Gabarro and John P.Kotter

Thesis Statement: The relationship with boss should be managed due to its great significance, its need and it can be achieved through many ways (given below).

My Thesis Statement: Managing Boss is very important for success at work which can be achieved by understanding boss, assessing yourself and manipulating your working habits that fits for both manager and boss.

Summary:

Managing boss is very important for company, manager and boss. Some managers work hard to manage their relationship with boss while some managers who manage efficiently and effectively their subordinates, technologies, markets and products, presume to act as directed by bosses. Such managers harmfully impacts the company outputs and productivity.

Personality is sometimes a conflict between bosses and managers but is not always a big part. The relationship between the managers involves mutual dependence, without it output of company is impacted. Some managers do not realize that boss is dependent upon their actions, and is in need of cooperation, honesty and dependability. While some others don’t realize their dependence on bosses for communication with rest of organization, information and resources. The managers should inform their bosses about their need.

To manage relationship with boss one has to first understand boss. One should know boss’s goals, strengths, weaknesses, competition and pressures. This can be utilized to avoid conflicts and misunderstanding. The manager should understand carefully the nature of goal and objectives of boss and should not made assumption at a subject where he lacks information. One should also analyze that whether boss’s goal are aligned with company’s goal or not. The effective managers also keep an eye on the working style and priorities of goals. The managers should then adapt to the working style of boss to get the best results.

Secondly, in order to manage relationship with boss one should analyze oneself. One should asses one’s own strengths, weaknesses and working style. So when they feel that their style needs to be changed they can work on it effectively. In this way they can also effectively manage difficult bosses by first predicting your own action and then altering if the conflicts are likely to arise. Some managers see their bosses as their enemy while some see them as an all wise person. Both can adversely impact the company.

Thirdly, in order to manage boss different habits and working style can be adopted that fits for both the manager and boss. Mangers should set clear and realistic expectations. Subordinates can change their working styles to get aligned with bosses that fits for both of them. Like one having digressing style to direct style if boss gets inattentive. As according to Drucker some prefer detailed reports (Readers) while some prefer brief reports and outlines (Listeners). Some bosses are highly involved during decision making process while some are less involved during this process they only want to get acknowledged about important changes and decisions. Effective managers after assessing the strengths and weaknesses of boss get support from their strengths and provide bosses support at their weaknesses. Expectations always change. The managers should always know their boss’s expectations from them. Some tell them clearly while for others managers can expectations can be communicated indirectly, informal discussions and detailed drafts. Though many corporations set their clear expectations but it does not always not work. The manager should also communicate realistic expectations and persuade to accept it. For an overachiever boss they should be brought to reality. Managers should know what their bosses know and what their bosses should know. The information should be then communicated in a style that fits for boss. They should be informed about both good and bad news directly or indirectly. Boss wants trustworthy subordinates and they want subordinates that make promises they can keep. Though giving positive dates of delivery can please them for a short while but if they not fulfilled can displease them. They should not hide truth and should not give little importance to issues. Managers should not waste time of their bosses on unimportant issues. They should utilize both time and resources of their bosses on important goals. The mangers need to establish and manage relationship with their bosses.

Analysis:

This article of John J.Gabarro and John P.Kotter maintain that manager should build good relationships with their bosses as it is profitable for company, boss and manager. Both authors’ main concerns include Leadership and organizational change. The authors used formal diction to address their audience. The authors used persuasive language and each of their point is well supported. It seems to be a well-researched article. In this article authors have discussed significance of managing boss and ways to manage boss.

According to them managing boss basically means managing relationship with boss. Some people misinterpret it as some diplomatic act or flattering but it is the need of the manager and is key to success. If a manager or subordinate do not manages the relationship with boss then it affects the outcomes of the work. The authors to illustrate its significance gave the example of Frank Gibbons (Vice President) and Bonnevie (At a position to report to Gibbons) who had weak bonds with each other. Gibbons was not good at managing people. Bonneieve always had good bosses so he never felt the need of managing boss. Both of them had misunderstanding and conflicts which led to net loss which was reported after 7 years in the company. They were unable to produce the desired product in desired volume at desired price. In my opinion, this example very well supported their argument. The authors are trying to persuade that having weak relationship with boss and inadequate communication can lead to serious losses. The authors are moreover trying to convince that both boss and manager are dependent on each other. This point is quite convincing. The point they are trying to make is quite convincing that personality can be only a part of conflict which can be reduced by realizing the importance of their relationship. The relationship with boss according to the authors can be managed by following three ways:

The author are trying to emphasize that firstly manager or subordinate should identify the goals, objectives, strengths and weaknesses of boss. In my opinion, this point has much more significance at work as managers can then work on these objectives and goals. Also according to one statistics 50% percent of people quit their job due to their bosses. The manger or subordinate should first assess whether the goals are long term or short term and to what extent it is aligned with company’s objectives. The authors supported it well with an example in which a marketing manager was hired to increase sales and marketing of the company. He took some actions that improved the shares of the company but the margins declined and financial situation remained the same. The boss then took some actions as his reputation was at risk but the situation did not changed. Both were fired later on. As the manager only took the apparent information and assumed having no information in that area. He did not tried to get information about company’s objectives need and priorities as he was all the time trying to achieve boss’s goals. According to authors, the working style of author is also very important as they made it evident through the example of intuitive boss being replaced by a formal one. One manger understood new boss working style and adapted to it while other failed to understand which led to resignation. In my perspective, this example is quite true for those who work efficiently and effectively but fail to understand the working style of their boss which leads to their failure. The authors then tried to persuade that determining strengths and weaknesses is very important. They’re trying to convince that through this information they can support their bosses at their weaknesses and can get help from their strengths.

The authors then state that not only understanding boss is important but also understanding your strengths, weaknesses and objectives are important. The authors said that in this way they can adapt to boss’s behavior and working style easily. Also according to Aristotle, wisdom begins with knowing one’s own self. The authors justified it through the example of a manager working under a boss who used to overstate his position while making an argument with manager. The manager then started avoiding topics which led to conflicts but he later realized that this was making meetings ineffective. So he decided that whenever they reach the end of conflict they’ll separate and think upon it. While the authors also discussed other kind of manger who work just according to their bosses even if they know that their boss’s decision is wrong. In my opinion, authors were clear at that point.

In addition to understanding boss and yourself, authors emphasized on developing habit and working habits that works for both of them. In my opinion, this point of authors has most significance as this can lead to most efficient and effective work. According to the authors the manager and boss should set explicit and realistic expectations. They also tried to inform the audience about different types of bosses and ways to deal with each of them. Like the authors gave the working styles of boss as given by Peter Drucker that some bosses prefer written detailed reports (Readers) while others prefer brief reports who only want information about main changes and decisions. They supported it with the example of manager who changed digressing communication style with direct communication as he felt his boss usually got inattentive during his meetings. This example, in my opinion, quite well justified the point of authors. The authors also emphasized that bosses need to have all the news be it good or bad. The authors also gave the ways to deal with good-news-only bosses which according to them are the ones who only want to hear good news (Detailed memos, informal discussions, indirectly). In my perspective, their ways for dealing such bosses are realistic and applicable. The authors then wrote about honesty and dependability of managers. They emphasized on this point by calling dishonesty as the most troubled trait one can have at work. They justified it with the example of President who said that he would prefer consistent subordinate over the one who give good dates for delivery, as he could rely on him. The authors then focused on times and resources which according to them should be allocated wisely. They illustrated it through the example in which vice president wasted a lot of time of boss on firing head of another department leaving less time for their own problems. This point is very convincing and should be applied at work by managers and subordinates.

Conclusion: Managing boss is very important for success at work which can be achieved by understanding boss, assessing yourself and manipulating your working habits that fits for both manager and boss. Firstly, manager should understand boss’s strengths, weaknesses and objectives. In this way he could work upon those objectives and goals. Secondly, manager should assess himself. According to this point, the manager should also analyze his own strengths, weaknesses, needs and priorities as he has direct control over his own self. Thirdly, manager should adapt habits that fits both boss and himself. According to it, manager should adapt to boss’s working habit so that he can make work more productive and efficient. This article is very useful for a manager or a subordinate because it provides with essential point that managing their relation with boss has great importance and they should spend time and effort to manage this relationship.

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