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Category Archives: Leadership

Why can’t the software industry survive without project managers’ help?

22 Jan

SoftwareWhat do project managers do? What are they good for, anyways? I am sure, if you have worked in the software industry, then you must have asked this question multiple times to yourselves. I don’t blame you either, since most of the time project managers are not that technical, and sometimes they don’t understand very specific details of an engineering problem. But that doesn’t mean that they are not important at all. Project managers often bring lot of skill-sets, which an engineer or engineering manager might not have. Thus, in this blog post I am going to educate all of you engineers on the specifics of what exactly project managers do, and why they are an irreplaceable part of the software development life cycle.

Provides the focus: Software development is a creative work, and hence, sometimes engineers can’t constrain themselves to focus on the priorities (or project scope). For example: If you don’t know how big is the space in your kitchen, how can you buy a refrigerator that can fix in your house? Even if you find an ideal refrigerator, which satisfies all of your needs, but if it is slightly bigger than the space in the kitchen, then it won’t work out for your house. Project managers resolve these kind of issues by project planning, project monitoring, and helping the team to deliver what the customer wants. For an engineer, it’s easy to get sidetracked during a project, since they might come up with better solutions or additional problems to solve, which usually cost more, take longer, and can potentially kill the project with overruns. Re-arranging your pantry while preparing food for a dinner party could result in hungry guests. A project manager will avoid these kind of disastrous situations by looking at the big picture, and prioritizing all the tasks.

Provides planning: Some software projects grow up too quickly, and become too complex within a short period of time. Due to this changing scope, without a clear-cut plan, engineers can’t concentrate on one thing at a time, and they can get pulled in every direction. When you look at the big picture, you will realize that the needs of a marketing department is different from the needs of the sales team, while these needs might not even connect to the reality in any form or shape. Sales team can sell a dream software, which might be unbuildable, or it might require constant changes to the existing product to deliver that dream software. Project managers make these tasks easier by scheduling, planning, budgeting and controlling all the tasks associated with the product. They also uncover most of the needs and issues up front, and if changes do occur during the software development life cycle, they change the project plan to  make it easier to adjust the course of the project.

Though it is desirable to hire a technical savvy project manager, it is not practical to do so every time. Finding a project manager with management and software development skills is hard to get. And hence, sometimes your project manager might not understand the specifics of your software development issue, but that doesn’t mean that they are good for nothing. Project managers are, and always will, be the critical part of the software development life cycle.

So, next time when you think that your project managers don’t understand your engineering issues, then try to educate them, instead of blaming them to be dumb and stupid.

Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on January 22, 2014 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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Where to find new content for my blog?

24 Dec

Blogging IdeasEven though you are super excited about the subjects that you are blogging on, you will find yourself out of ideas after certain point. I guess, that’s what happened to some of my colleagues, who started blogging with me as a part of one of our MBA class, and quit blogging after few months. Though I have continued blogging from past 3 years, the path was not that easy. On various occasions, I found myself without any major ideas to blog about, and thought of stopping to blog altogether. The issue I was having was ….. I was unable to come up with new content every time. My life is not that boring, but I work a full time job and normally interact with the same people for the same kind of work. Thus, it became challenging to find out different content for my blog. And hence, through this blog I am going to provide you with  my experience on how I overcame that situation, and how I was able to find out different content for my blog.

Keep learning: The most simplest way to keep learning is through reading. By reading different experiences and mistakes of other people, you can avoid doing the same mistakes that they have done in the past. Let’s assume, if you read an article and don’t find anything interesting to blog about, then don’t be discouraged. Now, this is the extra knowledge that you have, which you can use it anywhere. Opportunities are endless. But yeah! If you are seriously looking to expand your blog, then you might want to read the blog related materials. For example: If I were to have a photography blog, I would subscribe to different photography magazines, blogs, books, etc., and I might read photography related materials online as well. Let’s say, you are not that of a big reader, then its ok too. In this world of multimedia, you can find interesting stuff related to your blog on YouTube, Vimeo, TED Talks, etc. Yeah! You might need to develop a habit to watch these videos regularly to come up with new content, but you don’t have anything to loose here. The only thing to gain is the knowledge. 

Observe yourself: Though this is a very simplistic approach, it’s very difficult to understand. Let me explain. Few years back, I also thought that my life was boring. I was meeting the same people, and doing the same work. I had a 8-5 job, and I was happy. But it didn’t give me much content to write about. Thus, I had to depend highly on my readings, which took me a long time, since English is not my first language. But few years back, I started looking myself from an outsider’s perspective. I go home every day, and analyze my recent achievements, and how did I achieve them. Boom! With this idea in mind, I always found myself new content. From interacting with people to leading my team, I was full of content without realizing it. This approach didn’t just gave me new ideas on how I can increase my number of blogs, but it also gave me a different perspective on my work, and how I can improve what I was doing. Sometimes, it takes us self-analysis before we can look at the same problem with a different angle. 

Provide advice: As my blog became popular, and I got some reader base, lot of people started instant messaging me for advice. If you already have a blog, then you know what I mean. People asked me all sort of things from how I would resolve their situation to how they disagree with my opinion on a given blog post. Though I liked having that discussion with them, I was not utilizing those discussions to the fullest. And I quickly realized that…..if I turn these communications in to a blog post, then I will not only answer my reader’s questions, but it will be out there for everyone to read instead of just few people whom I was communicating personally. And within few weeks, it became a big success. I got few guest posts on my blog, and I was able to share some of the ideas, which I gathered from my discussions with these people. By providing advice to people through your blogs, you will not only answer their questions, but you will also get a reader base, which is interested in your specific subject.

So, next time when you think about giving up blogging, please go through these ideas. I hope, you learn from this blog, and don’t stop sharing your knowledge. By the way, do you have any other ideas through which you have found new content for your blogs? If so, please share it with me here.

Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on December 24, 2013 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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Can you lie yourself out of a problem like the President Barak Obama?

08 Nov

These days it’s not a secret that the President Obama misled the American people on his signature legislation – Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Either the President doesn’t understand the English meaning of “Period”, or he was intentionally misleading American people to get his way. For people who don’t know the background of this lie, this is what the President claimed on multiple occasion (it was not just a one-time slip of tongue) – “If you like your plan, you can keep it. Period”. Don’t jump your guns though. Executives who might be thinking that they have found a holy grail to solve all of their issues by lying, please consider it twice before taking your chances. Odds are…..lying won’t work well for you as it has worked for the President Obama. Following are few reasons behind it.

Accountability: Unlike the Government, public companies have to be accountable for each and every action they take. If Surface Tablet doesn’t perform well, Microsoft stock price will plummet in no time. But hardly anyone holds the government accountable for the healthcare site which is developed for millions of dollars, and still it doesn’t work. Since the government doesn’t have the profit motive, some of the government programs can’t be run efficiently by definition. On top of this, government doesn’t hold anyone accountable for their mistakes. If this kind of a fiasco would have happened in the private company, someone would have been fired. Period. As we have seen in this administration, people who lie are not just given a pass, but on few occasions they also get promoted. Unfortunately, this kind of behavior won’t work for you, if you own/run a private company.

Blame game: During the hearing of the Healthcare website, it was clear that every contractor was blaming the government for this lousy rollout. And the government was blaming the consumer demand. Really? Have you ever heard a big website like eBay or Amazon blaming their consumers for the malfunction of their website on the Black Friday? That would be a complete disaster, and no one will buy this lie. Unfortunately, since the government has so many departments, and it is so huge, people can play the blame game for a long time, and kick the can down the road. Also, the government of the United States is becoming bigger and complicated as the government expansion takes on. And due to this reason, people can easily be confused. In the real world though, a CEO of a company can’t play the blame game for a long time. Stockholders will be asking tough questions, since they are financially invested in your company.

Lying doesn’t matter: In today’s political world, people believe that almost all the political leader lie. And due to this reason and this reason only, we expect very little from our political appointees as compared to other people. Also, if the President of the United States lies to you, you can’t just fire him, he has 4 more years under his belt. On the contrary, if you find out that the CEO of Yahoo lied to you about his credentials, you can create an external environment of pressure through your stock holdings to fire him. If a company lied about its products and created a false marketing campaign, you can technically take that company to the court for false advertising, while you can’t take Obama to the court for lying. He can just get out of his past claims by just apologizing to its consumer.

So, next time when you are thinking of lying to get your way, think twice. Do you think this path of lying is sustainable for the government? Or are we living in a world where government employees are held up to a lower standards as compared to other folks?

Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on November 8, 2013 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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Why shouldn’t you fire stability seeking employees from your company?

30 Oct

Introvert BossRecently, one of my friend asked me for a suggestion on how to fire her one of the experienced employee (let’s call him Bob). Since the question was really interesting, I wanted to get more information about this issue. After some discussion with her, I figured out that her issue was completely different than how to fire someone. Actually, she was unable to use Bob’s strength to strengthen her team, and hence, she was considering Bob’s output negligent. Bob was with the company for several years, and she felt that his growth was getting stagnant because he is always looking for stability, and wouldn’t grab the next opportunity of growth. Thus, in this blog post I am going to provide you with some insight on how to use employees like Bob to strengthen your team, instead of firing them.

Improve loyalty of your team: In today’s world, where the world is changing every day, we should still value loyalty as an employer. Every company needs a loyal workforce, who are committed to their mission, their customers, and their work. And this is what you will get with your stability seeking employees. They are always loyal with the company, which they work for, since they connect their job stability with the company’s continuous performance. If used correctly, these employees can become the story tellers of your company and its culture to your new employees. Thus, as a manager you can use these employees to mentor your newer workforce to be loyal, and hence, reducing your turnover rate. And why not? Using these employees, you can build the strength of your group by deepening their knowledge of the company, its goals, history, and performance. This approach can create a butterfly effect, and maybe, you can create an entire workforce of loyal employees.

Develop stronger strategic vision: Security seeking employees want the organization to succeed in whatever it does. By doing this, they are increasing their job security. As a manager, you should be seeing this approach as their strengths, and involve these employees in strategic decision making. Because these employees value the organization, they are likely to provide you with some inputs, which has the organization’s interests at its heart. Since these employees are seeking stability with the company, they are most likely to be far-sighted, and they will try to see beyond the short-sighted turf battles. Use this to your advantage, and consistently ask them “What is the best thing to do for the company in the long run?”.

Improve your team’s efficiency: Stability seeking employees are probably not likely to reinvent many wheels. If they have worked for the company for some amount of time, then they might know how the process works, and how to follow it. This approach can make them highly effective workers, since they spend less time in questioning the current system, and spend more time in performing the task. Obviously, not all the time you want a “Yes man” in your team; but for some of the repetitive tasks, you might want to use these employees to quickly finish these tasks. Just make sure that you don’t keep on giving the same tasks to the same employee, because no one knows how to do it. In this way, you will be not only increasing the dependency on one employee, but you will stop that employee from growing. If used correctly, stability seeking employees can reduce any distractions, and improve your team’s efficiency.

Do you have any other ideas through which you can use the strengths of your stability seeking employees?

Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on October 30, 2013 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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How should you provide personalized feedback to your employees?

19 Sep

Customized feedback

Everyone needs feedback in order to do their job effectively. What kind of feedback, and how often, that varies from person to person. Some managers think, if they keep on piling more feedback on their employees, then they would be successful at some point in time. But that is the wrong assumption. By following that approach, you might be unknowingly suffocating your folks, or giving them the impression that you are micro managing them.

As a manager, we need to tune in to the unique frequencies of each of the employee. Be observant, listen and remain alert for opportunities to give feedback, when they want/need it. One size doesn’t fit all. Base the frequency of your feedback on their tasks and responsibilities, their efficiency, their curiosity, and their working style.

Obviously, nothing will work out well in the first try. So, make sure to refine your approach regularly. Ask them for their feedback on your new process, and how it is working out for them. Make sure to ask very specific questions such as ….. Do you like to meet every week for our one-on-one session? Do we need to make this meeting shorter or longer? What kind of things would you like to discuss during this session? etc.

You should also make a note that every employee is different on how he/she consumes information. Thus, it would be a good idea to ask them about their preferred way of communication. Obviously, if your work is not getting done, then you can go to them directly to find your answers, after all you are their Boss. But if the work is getting done according your expectations, then you might want to give them some leeway on how you can provide them feedback. Some of the preferred methods would be …. e-mail, face-to-face conversation, a memo, or a telephone call.

No matter what kind of feedback mechanism you use, always make sure to note down your positive/negative feedback in a separate diary (or in OneNote/EverNote for you tech geeks out there). This approach will ensure that you can judge everyone fairly during your year-end review, and you don’t need to depend on only 2-3 month’s performance of your employees.

Do you have any other ideas through which you can provide personalized feedback to your employees?

Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on September 19, 2013 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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5 practical ways to show your employees that you care

13 Aug

Recently, one of my friend arranged her 360-degree feedback. And to her surprise, some of the negative feedback that she got from her employees was that she doesn’t seem to care for her employees that much. Thus, she turned to me for some advice. And hence, through this blog post I am going to share some practical advice on how to show your employees that you care.

  1. Write a thank-you note to your hard working employee by saying how much you appreciate the time that they have put in the project. Trust me, in the world of electronic communication, sometimes a personalized sticky note on their desk can make a difference.
  2. Put together a slideshow of your staff’s accomplishments or your client’s feedback, and then keep it on display in a shared conf. room or during your team meeting. If you don’t have those high tech displays, then you can just print these slides on one page in a collage format, and distribute it over your regular team meetings.
  3. Depending on your schedule, make sure to check in on your employees everyday. If your schedule gets overbooked often, please reserve half an hour in your calendar beforehand, so that no one can double book that time. And you get at least 5 min to talk to each of your employees. Try to be personal with your employees during this time by asking about their day, their weekend, or any other issues. Once they know that you care, they will definitely respond the favor.
  4. Track the dollar value of your employee’s service and present them with a “mock” check at your annual recognition event. It might be a good idea to host the annual recognition event somewhere outside, where you can invite your employee’s friends/family, and recognize their achievements in front of them. This approach will not only display your employees that you care, but it can also help you to attract best talents. After all, great minds know other great minds.
  5. Recognize your hard working employees (who put in lot of overtime) with unexpected perks such as treats in the break room, extra paid time off, or a visit and a handshake from your VP or CEO. Though these kind of small appreciation techniques sound silly, they make a big difference. Just try to look at the expression on your employee’s face, when they meet the VP or CEO of your company. 

Do you have any other ideas through which you can show your employees that you care? Please do share your ideas through your comments. I would love to hear them.

Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on August 13, 2013 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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Is Barack Hussein Obama the most disconnected President ever? Learn from his mistakes, be a better leader

05 Aug

In Obama’s government, though employees are responsible for performing their duties, no one is accountable for their actions. From IRS to Benghazi, so called phony scandals, no one is brought to justice. It feels like, the first world country has now fallen in to some kind of an inefficient or secretive government. Where are the basics of Obama’s ideology? Where is the transparent government, which he once promised? Though I understand that Government has its own secrets, which keeps its citizens safe; I don’t agree with the Obama’s current narrative of – all talks but no action. I am not a politician, so I am not going to comment on this issue from either a republican or a democrat perspective, but I would rather provide my perspective on the leadership failures of this administration.

Inconsistent operations: This administration definitely misses the mark on consistency. It seems like, they don’t have any predefined rules/regulations to carry out their day-to-day activities. They pick and choose on what to respond, and what not to. It is commendable that Obama’s administration is looking into re-opening one single case of Trayvon Martin after its judgment, but at the same time this administration remains silent, even after a year, when someone asks for justice regarding Benghazi victims. And this kind of irregular behavior is consistent across this administration. Take Obama Care (Affordable Care Act) for an example, the implementation of this law is also faulty. Though people and businesses are considered as an entity in strictly IRS terms, those two entities will be treated differently, when it will come to file the taxes for FY2014. While employers won’t be mandated to pay penalty in the next fiscal year, employees (normal people) are still mandated to abide by this law.

All talks but no action: I haven’t been in the US for long. So, I am not sure how other administration dealt with these kind of a situation. But I can assure you, the way Obama administration is handling the foreign policy, it is going to lead us to a disaster. Take Benghazi incident for an example. When this incident happened, Obama’s government promised to its people (stakeholders) that it will bring all the culprits to justice. Forget about the justice, they were unable to even find out the exact reason behind this attack. Was it an anti-Muslim video or a targeted attack? Obviously, going after terrorist takes a lot of time due to the complexity of the job, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t established certain milestones, and publicize them, when they are achieved. Take Iran for another example. The administration is telling Iran that it needs to stop its Nuclear initiative, otherwise it will have various consequences. But when the time comes to deliver on the promise, this administration doesn’t hold Iran accountable for its action. This is not called leading from behind, this is called a leadership failure. Period.

The blame game: Let’s assume that you own a business, and one of its department is involved in a fraud. Let’s also assume that you don’t know anything about this issue, and suddenly everything breaks in the news with some documented proof. What will you do in that situation? Will you take any action? Obviously. If your company is publicly owned by your shareholders, you have to take some action on that. As a CEO, you might call a meeting with your key personnel to find out more information on this issue, and maybe, work on getting this issue resolved. Right? While you look at the same issue in the Obama’s administration, they look so disconnected that it’s hard to believe. Take IRS targeting issue for an example. Even after this issue out in public for a week or so, Obama didn’t have any clue on what happened. This behavior not only shows that he is an incompetent leader, but it also portrays the inefficiency in the government, where no one knows who is accountable for what. If you are an effective leader, instead of blaming the issue on your own department (or employees), you should take the complete ownership of the problem, and present a public plan to resolve the issue, so that you can gain back the trust of your shareholders.

There are various other areas, where Obama has failed to be a leader, but in this blog I am only sharing some of the major issues from my perspective. If you want to be a better leader, you need to take responsibilities of all the actions in your team (or organization), you can’t pick and choose on what you would take responsibility of, and what you won’t.

Do you see any other leadership failures in the current administration? Are there any lessons, which you want to share with my readers here?

Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on August 5, 2013 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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Make your Mom-and-Pop business globally accessible in this mobile era

29 Jul

SmallBusinessToday’s buyers are finding new ways to shop and make purchases. With help of the Internet and various mobile devices, today’s consumers can shop wherever they want.They are surfing with small screens, using mobile apps, and taking charge of the e-commerce experience more than ever before. Thus, in this blog post I am going to provide you with few simple tips on how to make your business more accessible in this mobile era.

List your business online: In order to make your business searchable in this Google era, you need to list your business where mobile shoppers hang out. Even if you have a small website for your business, make sure you’re on the local directory of Google Places, Bing Business, and Yahoo Local Business. You should also make sure that your business is listed on the review site such as Yelp. List your products on venues like eBay Local Shopping. People love to look up reviews on their mobile devices, so make sure you’re there.

Make your site mobile accessible: In order to attract today’s mobile generation, you need to make sure that your website or online store is compatible with the mobile devices. If you are not one of those big companies, who can afford to have their own IT staff to make/update their mobile site, then you can get your own mobile site by signing up with a third party hosting services, such as Mobify. While selecting this third party service providers, make sure to check for its performance and ease of use. It should be easy for your shoppers to tap the the “Buy Now” button, and buy your product quickly.

Make your business social: If you are one of those Mom-and-Pop store, who can’t afford to have multiple employees working on your social media strategy, then its ok. You can still create a Facebook fan page for your business, and have a Twitter and a LinkedIn page for your business. Being a small business, you might not have dedicated time to publicize these social media profiles everywhere. Thus, you should take the advantage of your existing clientele by providing them incentives to like your Facebook page or follow your profile on Twitter. This approach will definitely make your business more searchable in the social media search on these new mobile devices.

Do you have any other ideas through which you can make your local business more searchable in this mobile era? I would love to hear your ideas (if any).

Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on July 29, 2013 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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Leadership lessons from George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin’s trial

20 Jul

George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin

I am sure, if you live in the US or if you are connected to social media, you must have heard the buzz about George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin’s trial. There may be various reasons why you might have heard-of (or followed) this trial. This case has opened up various discussions like stand your ground law, racism against African Americans, and the gun ownership in the United States of America. Though no one will exactly know about what happened that night, other than Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman, we can get some leadership lessons from this trial. Thus, in this blog post, I am going to share my observations on this trial from the leadership perspective, and what we can learn from it.

Truth will eventually come out: As you might have seen in the George Zimmerman trial, the truth about profiling Trayvon Martin as a black person came out eventually. No matter how hard the media and Trayvon Martin’s prosecutors tried to portray the story that George profiled him as a black person, the transcript of George’s conversation with the 911 operator says the complete story. From that transcript, it is obvious that George’s action of profiling Trayvon as a black man was the response of the question asked by the 911 operator, and not any kind of a racist act. This example clearly displays that …. No matter how hard you try to hide/modify the truth, it will come out eventually. Thus, try to be truthful to yourself and the world. If you are always truthful, you won’t need to live under the fear of getting exposed. I understand; some truths are really hard to handle. But don’t make them your weaknesses by hiding them, try to be upfront about them, and learn from them. By speaking the truth, accepting your failures, and implementing appropriate strategies to address the crisis, you can come out as a true winner like Johnson & Johnson after Tylenol crisis. There is no benefit in hiding the truth.

You can’t make everyone happy: Even though George Zimmerman’s verdict is out, and he was found not guilty, people are still protesting on the street for justice. After seeing all the facts, some people are still using this tragedy for their personal/political benefits. Let’s be clear, this case was never about racism. There were no factual evidence found, which proved this allegation. It was not about Blacks vs. Whites, since George Zimmerman was of mixed race. But yeah! This case definitely makes us rethink about the self-defense (or the stand your ground) law. The only thing, we can learn as a leader from this example is …. No matter what decision you take as a leader, there will always be people who won’t agree with your decisions, or who will use your decisions against you for their personal/political benefits. Thus, believe in your instincts and take your decisions to make the majority of your stakeholders happy. Though you should thrive to make all of your customers happy, don’t worry about it too much if you can’t improve your customer satisfaction rating from 98% to 100%.

Base your decisions on facts: After following this case for a while in the media, I have realized that some of the people are making their opinions on the basis of what they have heard/read in the news or in the social media. Some of the people seem to be disconnected from the facts, and still blame this case on racism. As a leader, you might find yourself doing the same thing sometimes. For example: You might want to keep on investing money into a failed project, if you are emotionally attached to that project in some way. Thus, while taking those kind of tough decisions, you should always base your decisions on the facts, instead of your emotions. Take Marisa Mayer for an example. When she took the most unpopular decision of 2013 by stopping the work-from-home policy at Yahoo, Inc., she was highly scrutinized by her peers and numerous internet bloggers. Though her decision was controversial, it was based on actual facts, and it did help Yahoo in improving its work efficiency and building its team morale.

Do you have any other lessons from this trial, which you would like to share here? Are there any other examples from this trial, through which we can learn something, and be a better leader?

I will be waiting for your feedback. Thanks. – Bhavin Gandhi.

Note: I give full credit to all the authors/photographers whose content I have used in my blog. If you want to find out more information about them, then please click on the links/photographs to go on their website, and find out more information.

 
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Posted by on July 20, 2013 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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How to effectively deal with your Perfectionist Boss?

16 Jul

PerfectionistsHave you ever worked under a Perfectionist Manager? By perfectionist, I mean to say … Type-A personality. I am sure, if you have ever worked for a perfectionist boss, then one thing is for sure…..you must have noticed that they hold everyone to the higher standards, and they never get satisfied, no matter how much hard work you put in. Though this perception of Type-A personality boss is true, there are some ways through which you can make them happy. And hence, like my last blog post, I am going to provide you with some pointers through which you can make it easier to work with your perfection obsessed boss.

Respect their decisions: Actually, Type-A personality bosses are often right when they say their ideas are better. They are usually experienced and very knowledgeable on the topic (that’s my general observation). But when people are not allowed to give feedback, to try things their way, or to make mistakes, they can’t develop their potential. Therefore, even though Type-A bosses are good trainers, they don’t allow their employees the freedom to develop to the point where they can take over for the boss. And hence, you should take their criticism well and expect to learn from them. Have an open mind, when you present your ideas to them. Expect multiple revisions to your proposals by your boss. In this way, you can benefit from your manager’s experience while doing things your way.

Uncover all the assumptions: Perfectionist managers don’t ask for feedback from others because they don’t feel they need it; they already know what’s best (according to their perception of themselves). They tend to express their opinions freely on how things should be done, and what others are doing wrong, even when their advice may not be wanted. Thus, you should always ask questions to see what information the boss has assumed that you already know, and then determine whether the boss already has a “correct” solution in mind. While finding more information, use these questions that will appeal to your boss’s self-confidence and provide you more information… “We need your help.” “You’ve had a lot of experience in this, what do you think?” Let them feel in control, but get all the information that you need.

Earn their respect: It is very difficult for a perfectionist manager to delegate responsibilities. They want employees to do the work in a way that they themselves would do that work. Thus, it is critical to earn their respect in order to get your work done right. To earn their respect for your work, you should always respect Type-A personality traits. Try to be at work on time each day (consistently). Finish your projects on time. If you can’t finish your work on time, then involve your manager in the decision making process from the time when you encounter a big issue. In this way, your manager can be informed about the complexities of the issues that you might be encountering, and maybe, lower his/her expectations. Another thing you might want to do is to make your work look neat, well supported, and accurate. Review each stage of an assigned project face to face with the boss, so that his/her confidence level in your work increases over time.

I hope, this blog helps you in dealing with your perfectionist boss. Have you ever worked for a Perfectionist Boss before? If so, how did you deal with that situation? What other ideas can you give to my readers?

I will be waiting for your interactive comments. Thanks. – Bhavin Gandhi.

 
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Posted by on July 16, 2013 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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