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I
work in a department that is very top-down oriented both in directives and in
information flow, and where directors need to fight for resources and
recognition. My boss is a director who is very shy and is non-assertive. In
meetings where it would benefit her to speak up, she tends to be quiet instead.
As a result, our unit has not gotten the recognition or the resources we need to
work effectively in this cut throat environment. (Indeed, higher ups have even
asked, "Just what do you guys do in your unit?") Our unit is often
left out of important meetings and is skipped over at budget time. My boss is
also not especially liked or respected by her boss or the other higher ups in
the organization, and they tend to gang up on her in meetings, etc.
In addition, my boss also has a tendency to hold on to information and not delegate work. In the past she and I have clashed over responsibility - I tended to take over when I felt it was needed and she acted threatened by my assertiveness. To save my working relationship with her, I stopped being assertive and have witnessed the growing ineffectiveness of the unit.
Now it looks like my boss may quit soon and I'm worried that my colleagues and I who report to her will be hung out to dry once she's gone. I want to be recognized for the job that I and my colleague have done and have the potential to do, but I don't know how to do that without breaking the chain of command or upsetting my boss. Do you have any advice?
Hung Out
Dear
Hung Out:
You have backed off in assertiveness in order to mend the relationship with your shy, non-assertive boss. Competitors for scarce resources have gotten by others and your unit has been left out. So what?
You now must reassert your self. Before your current boss gets moved along enlist her in a collaborative unit-wide departmental analysis of its needs. Whether shy or not, such a committee of the whole should make its needs known. Prepare a report. Ask your boss' boss to help your department. Remember the squeaky wheel and the shoe pinches maxims. Think of this time as an opportunity rather than as nobody knows the trouble we're in.
How does this strike you? Just pretend that you and your co-workers are creative and dynamic. Doing so can make a difference.
WEGO profits from a positive mindset.
Bill Gorden