Bouncing Back

As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I've had a couple of truly phenomenal bosses in my time. In one case, it was downright pitiful that I lost one of these great leaders due to his promotion, and then had him replaced by a nasty and political sleazeball. Yuck! How do you cope with going from a wonderful, fulfilling, and successful work environment to living in a dysfunctional and disillusioning one?



In my case, an interesting thing happened while I was dealing with these dramatic changes. Several months after the change in management occurred, I had the opportunity to meet with my previous good boss to discuss my career progress and to ask any questions that I was interested in discussing. Being the politically correct person that I was, I delicately asked how I should modify my work style and habits as new and "different" bosses were moved into the organization. Well, he knew immediately what I was talking about, and what he said next was nothing short of eye-opening! He said:

Think of difficult people in the organization as your opportunity to build new interpersonal skills and to learn something that will serve you well over time. When you learn how to be most effective with every person's individual style, and especially with difficult personalities, you'll end up with a wide repertoire of people skills to help you to excel in any environment.

What a thought! Our usual reaction to a new and difficult boss (or any other influential and problematic person) is to tell ourselves how "wrong" that bad person is and how "right" we are in the situation. In fact, it may be true that the new person is actually bad and has poor ulterior motives. However, that person also has the power to do us harm. If we become ineffective in our position, whether in reality or merely in the perception of the new boss, then we are at risk of demotion, of losing meaningful responsibility, or of losing our job altogether. So we need to be smarter and more subtle in how we react to negative organizational changes and in dealing with difficult people of authority.

Following the advice of my good boss, we need to evaluate who the new person is, what he or she reacts negatively to, what his or her goals are, and where we might fit into that person's picture. Maybe we need to communicate more information or less often, or provide updates by email, written memo or in person; perhaps we should choose to collaborate with people the new boss trusts before taking decisive actions; possibly we need to shift and redefine responsibilities to align with the perception of roles held by the new boss. In each case, we are probing for an interaction style that will assure we handle our responsibilities successfully without hitting roadblocks caused merely by differences in the management "style" of our new boss.

Please note that I am NOT advocating you compromise your values or your work ethic to become a chameleon and jump through hoops solely to please the new boss. Frankly, I'm way too independent-minded to have ever done that, and I couldn't in good conscience recommend such actions to anyone! But I do see the fundamental brilliance behind the insight offered up by my good boss. Learn to work smarter with every personality type, especially the difficult ones, and you will be in control of your future, regardless of organizational changes or corporate politics.