How do you manage your leader or manager when there is a lack of directions and expectation are high.
There are different type of managers, manager that know what they want and can visualise it and explain to their subordinates, and managers that need a start point and a visual to be able to feedback properly.
How do you make sure you can get the information you need in an efficient way when you are in the latter situation. You probably had a quick 5 minute chat with your manager and he/she is expecting you to have understood what is needed.
You start on one direction from the little information you have given and meet up again with the manager. Possibly the manager is going to say something like “this is not what I was thinking” with no other feedback.
Firstly do not get frustrated . Do not try to push your manager for answers. Most of the time pushing for clear direction won’t help with this type of manager, the answers are usually vague. Being pushed to clarify an ask that in his/her mind it’s clear and you should already know it may irritate your manager more.
Trying to mind reading your manager unfortunately is not yet possible so we have to try something else.
You have to be prepared, you need to have options to how you can do the job or present it in a different way. Present alternatives and ask for opinion feedback, listen. Compare options and try to get a clearer picture of what is the ask.
Giving options and getting your manager to buy in some of alternatives will help to shape your brief and therefore the right response. You may need few meetings to get to the right response, but it will be worth it and will give you an understanding of how your manager think.
The process can be tedious, but this is probably the best way to achieve the ideal outcome your manager was expecting. The experience should help when you will have additional requests. managing up is an everyday task for some managers and can be difficult. I hope this little insight will help you in real life situations on how to manage your manager.
I am a problem solver, a communicator and a digital entrepreneur. I have more than 20 years experience in digital and advertising, I went through all the digital revolution / evolution, starting my career as a developer and ending up on the dark side as a Manager.
