It takes two to tango!

It takes two to tango. But if this is true and so is the other adage birds of the same feather flock together, then is it not wrong if your co-workers think you are reflection of your boss? Is this then good or bad? I tossed this question around while on a Sunday brunch with friends and well not everyone was ready to speak the truth. Most of us are in our mid career phase (which basically means we are over the slogga-thon phase and are ready to be managers, to delegate responsibilities and to lead teams and reporting to the heads of companies that we work for). Given this scenario, how would we have answered this question?

I conducted an experiment, took a random sample of ten people (well it is <30, but at the cost of the results that could be biased, I present to you the results of my experiment). More than half, seven in this case, said that were as different as chalk and cheese from their respective bosses, while only three admitted that were ‘’kind of’’ similar to their bosses.

For those seven who were chalks while their bosses were cheese, I had a question. How did they manage to work so closely with the boss considering their differences? Did they face any problems if and when they differed in opinion with their boss? Were they given a fair share to explain their PoV and was it given due consideration? Did they feel valued and thus more engaged with their work therefore?

I started focusing more on their engagement levels at work and what were those engaging factors. Two of the seven pointed out that their boss gives them valuable inputs and suggestions and was open to consider their opinions as well. Only one pointed out that his boss actually acted on a plan suggested by him, making him feel more valued and appreciated as an employee. The remaining four agreed on the point that even though their boss would listen (only sometimes) to their PoV, not always were they counted in the same league as his/her (the boss in this case). So credit was of course taken by the boss while these employees felt they weren’t rewarded enough.

These four were now curious to understand how the earlier 3 got their work done from their boss. (haha, hit a home run, I thought). The 3 stooges explained that they had understood their boss better than the remaining quartet. In understanding their boos, they knew

• How and when to time their suggestions – depending on the boss’s mood
• How to present the suggestions – making it sound intellectual and as if your boss was the inspiration behind this thought
• How to implement the suggestion – send emails through your boss on the PoA, team involved and roles and responsibilities

We all had questions, lots of them, but they only had one answer, you cannot standardise this solution. You have to understand your boss better first and only then go about with this attitude. Gaining your boss’s trust is very important and so is working hard towards it. Spend time in the system, understand people and processes and draw your battle plan. After all work place is a battle field and majority of us are surviving every day.