Page 96 - Just Promoted A 12 Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role

Entering Your Boss’s World 81

List the 2 to 3 Most Important
Goals That You Must Achieve in
1 Year, Including the Criteria by Expected Progress Expected Progress Expected Progress
Which Each Will Be Measured within 3 Months within 6 Months within 9 Months

1.

2.

3.

HELPING YOUR BOSS BEA STAR: A SMART AND
POLITICALLY SAVVY STRATEGY
To discuss why you were hired is to discuss how to help your boss be a star.
There is little difference between the two. One of the primary goals of your
promotion or appointment is to make sure your boss looks good. Forget or
disregard this principle at your own peril. When William, head of the transit
authority, inadvertently made his boss look bad, he diminished his own, his
boss’s, and ultimately his agency’s real and perceived effectiveness. The result
was that it cost him his job.
Lu, on the other hand, was much more careful. She carefully negotiated
with Marsha (her boss) the scope of her authority and the scope of decision
making she would have. Even though she had negotiated the power to make
key decisions, she discussed each decision with Marsha before it was imple-
mented. When Marsha seemed ambivalent, Lu backed off making the deci-
sion until they had discussed it more and Marsha seemed more positive. They
began to work as a team: Lu would discuss organizational problems and
needed changes with Marsha, and Marsha would delegate to Lu many of the
decisions agreed on. Thus, the first rule Lu followed was to discuss organiza-
tional issues with her boss and to agree on the decisions. The second was to