So, You’ve Got a New Boss

By Vic Downing

© Vic Downing March 2007

You may be the reason your former boss got the promotion. You may be the reason your former boss is “no longer with us.” The fact that you have a new boss may have nothing to do with you… except that it is going to change your life.

In many ways your past performance is irrelevant. It’s a new day with a new set of rules and new standards for becoming a hero or a troublemaker in the new world of the new boss.

Here’s what’s most important:

1. Get Your Hands on the Yardstick

There will be a year-end, a quarter-end, a project-end. What must you produce that will cause your boss to easily identify you as an indispensable, value-add?

2. Get What You Need to Succeed

It’s one thing to have the yardstick, it is another thing to measure-up. Before you agree to the measures, make sure you have the means to make it happen.

3. Get Results

There is no substitute for actually producing the results. Get the work done.

4. Close the Values Gap

Find out early if you and your new boss are going to get-along. If not, close those values gaps fast or move on without hesitation.

5. Re-pack Your Parachute

Getting a new boss changes everything, or at least it has the potential to change everything. What is your plan for ensuring that this period of uncertainty works in your favor?

1. Get Your Hands on the Yardstick

At the end of the day (or the quarter or the year), the critical issue is: Am I in better shape with this boss? The only way to answer that question is to know—for certain—how this boss measures things.

You may have a boss whose words match reality. If you have such a boss, you are very fortunate and very unusual… and if you have such a boss, have no illusions: at the end of the year the measurement will be exacting and unforgiving.

Don’t bet on having a boss that puts the yardstick in your hands. It’s not (necessarily) that your boss is dishonest or tricky or incompetent. Usually, when your boss’ words don’t line up with reality, it’s because s/he has other ways of “telling” you the way things are.

Here are some tips for getting your hands on the yardstick:

Ask your boss:

• “At the end of the year (or quarter or month), how will you know that we are successful?”

Ask follow-up questions:

• “What evidence will we point to?”
• “What would make our performance truly extraordinary?”
• “What problems will we have solved?”
• “What opportunities will we have captured?”

Getting a new boss changes everything. What’s your plan?

As soon as you get back to your PC, type out what you heard and send an e-mail to your boss confirming the yardstick: “Thanks for the time yesterday. It sounds like ____, ____, ____, and ____ are the yardsticks by which we’re going to be measuring our success this year. Am I reading you right?”

Don’t be surprised if you boss has some “invisible yardsticks.” In addition to the visible and measurable yardsticks (see above), your boss may measure things in fuzzy ways, for example:

• The absence of crises, heroics, fire-fighting.
• The positive “buzz” s/he hears from peers about your operation.
• The absence of late-breaking bad news or the fact that s/he hears about potential problems and bad news at the earliest possible moment.
• High morale… especially among high-performance members of your team.
• Showing up to meetings on time.
• Direct, crisp answers to questions.
• Making stated and unstated deadlines.
• Being conversant on your customer’s most pressing issues.
• Supporting opinions with data.
• Staying out of blame-games and refusing to whine when the wheels come off the wagon.
• Pouring oil on the water when members of the team are at each other’s throats.

Here are some tips for getting your hands on the invisible yardsticks:

• Talk to people who worked for your boss before s/he took this assignment.
• Talk to the person who mentored your boss.
• Talk to your boss’ boss.
• Take a hard look at the people who have done well working for your boss. From this you can deduce what your boss wants in members of the team.
• Think about the people who have got themselves sideways to your boss in the past. From this you can deduce what your boss doesn’t want to be part of the team.
• Ask your boss, “Who do you admire as a leader?” Ask follow-up questions, “What makes that person a great leader?”
• Ask your boss, “What teams do you admire most?” Ask follow-up questions, “What made them a great team?”
• Ask your boss, “What are some of the most damaging mistakes you have seen teams make?”

Finally, be certain to ask your boss, “So how am I measuring up against your expectations?”

• Don’t wait for year-end or quarter-end reviews.
• Don’t wait for your boss to come to you.
• Go to your boss.
• Ask when there is a lull in your private conversation with your boss… don’t wait for an “official meeting.”
• Be prepared to answer the question, “How do you think you are doing?” Have specifics at-the-ready.

Your boss is your most influential customer. Like any businessperson, the success of your business (in this case, your career) depends on the extent to which your customer is delighted with your products and your services and with your ways of delivering those products and services. If you don’t know how your customer (i.e., your boss) truly views those products and services and ways of working, then you are playing Russian Roulette with your career.

2. Get What You Need to Succeed

It’s one thing to know how things are measured and it is an entirely different thing to know that you have what you need to measure up.

You need seven things:

1. Altitude: You need to know how your boss’ organization adds value, who is served by his/her organization, against whom your boss is competing, and upon whom your boss relies.

   You should be able to recite these on-the-fly and with no notes. You should stay current with issues in these areas. This makes sense: this is what is most important to your boss (who is your customer), therefore these are most important to you.

2. Accountability: Given #1 (Altitude), what are you personally accountable to deliver to your boss?

   The “Yardstick” section of this article should help you do this easily. If you don’t have a good grip on this issue, then you are trying to drive a car without a steering wheel!

3. Authority: Do you have enough authority to make decisions fast enough to achieve your accountabilities?

   Your boss is your most influential customer. Don’t wait for him/her to come to you.

   Achieving your accountabilities depends largely on your ability to get decisions made rapidly. Be prepared to give your boss specifics when asking for more authority: Are you asking for the authority to make unilateral decisions, to make decisions and then inform others, to consult with others and then make decisions, or to involve others in making group decisions?

4. Ability: Do you and/or your team have enough skill, knowledge experience, equipment, and space to achieve your accountabilities?

   This issue is not do you have enough ability to make your job pleasant. The issue is do you have the tools you require to get the job done? Be prepared with a specific answer to the questions: “What is the return on investment?” and, “What are the specific, consequences of not giving you this ability?”

5. Access: Do you have sufficiently easy access to the people with information and to the databases you will require to achieve your accountabilities?

   This can be tricky. Access often means finding out if it is OK to “go around” your boss or “go over boss’ head.” Also getting your hands on data is different than the data being available: there may be a database… the question is what is it going to take to get the data out?

6. Applause: Are you persuaded that the money and benefits and opportunities and appreciation of your boss are sufficient to warrant you giving this work your best effort?

   You know what your best effort is worth. You know when “it isn’t worth it.” You need to be in a situation where your best effort is rewarded in ways you determine is equitable. That’s your responsibility. Negotiate this sooner rather than later.

7. Adjustment: Do you trust that your boss will tell you about changes early enough that you can adjust and still achieve your accountabilities or do you trust that s/he will be fair in re-evaluating your performance if the changes make it impossible to achieve the original accountabilities?

   The best way to predict this is your boss’ past behavior. Research how s/he has operated in the past.

3. Get Results

Trying hard, working late, caring, and always saying “yes” don’t count.

Results count.

Furthermore, results are not enough. You must prove that you have achieved the results and that you have done so in ways that do not contradict your boss’ values (see below for how to close the values gap).

Since you know how your boss will measure success (see above), do the following:

• Make certain you achieve those things.
• Make certain you have hard data that prove you have achieved those results.
• Be certain to verify your success as you move through the year… don’t wait to the end of the year to show your boss that you are successful. Check in at least quarterly with a pointed, data-supported discussion of your progress on your accountabilities.
• Never wait for you boss to call for a progress report. Take the initiative to personally set this meeting.

4. Close the Values Gap

Bosses are people before they are bosses.

People—including your boss—have values. Values are preferred ways of doing things. Values rarely change, are emotionally defended, and are landmines when stepped on.

Sometimes you will get a boss who clearly states his/her values and the stated values are actually the values your boss prizes. If that is your case, you are fortunate indeed. Be very careful to quickly close any values gaps because this boss is not going to flex when it comes to values.

Most often your boss will not describe his/her values, or s/he will not do so clearly or completely. Usually a boss like this has never taken the time to convert strongly held values to words that others can easily understand.

Whatever the values your boss holds, it is nearly 100% certain that those values will not change… in fact, they won’t even flex. Since you also have inflexible values, it is critically important that you identify any gaps or conflicts between your values and your boss’ values and then close those gaps.

Trying hard, working late, caring, and always saying “yes” don’t count. Results count.

There are two tasks here: discovering your boss’ values and closing the gaps. Let’s deal with closing the gaps first. Your options are: (1) live with the tension the values difference creates for you, (2) get yourself into a different work situation that accommodates your values, or (3), change your values. It is unrealistic and unproductive to assume your boss will alter his/her values.

It is said that if you want to know what a person values, look at his or her checkbook and his date book. Likewise, the best indicator of your boss’ values is your boss’ behavior, not his/her words. (It is not that your boss is dishonest. More likely it is that your boss has not taken the time to translate his/her values into words.) It’s fortunate that behaviors “declare” values: you can discover your boss’ values by observing what s/he has done in the past, what former colleagues say about him/her, and what you see him/her doing today.

Because there are a nearly unlimited number of values, it is not possible for this little article to describe all of them. Here are a couple of categories worth the time it will take you to investigate:

Time:

• How does your boss define “late?”
• How does your boss define “on time?”
• What is a “normal work day” for you boss?
• What constitutes “leaving early” for your boss?
• What is the “right” balance between at-work time and at-home time for your boss?
• What is your boss’ view of “taking work home?”
• What is your boss’ view of “working from home” in terms of taking work-calls at home, doing e-mail from home, et cetera?
• Is it more important that you do excellent work or that you “be at your desk?”

Truth:

• What decides the issue for your boss? Data? Discontent among the troops? Discontent with your boss’ boss?
• Is your boss most concerned with the letter of the law or the spirit of the law?
• Is your boss more concerned that problems be explicitly identified and discussed or is s/he more interested in problems being solved whether or not everyone has faced-up to the hard realities of the problem?
• How does your boss view “owning a problem?” For example, when you have dropped the ball, does your boss prefer that you own-up to your failure as a first step in solving the problem, or is it more important that you fix things and move on even if you don’t personally own-up to having caused the problem?
• What about your boss’ shortcomings? Does s/he prefer that you (respectfully but directly) point that out, or does s/he prefer that you keep that to yourself (at least until you’ve been asked)?

People versus Business:

• In the final analysis, is it more important to your boss to “make the numbers” or is it more important to treat people well (so that they make the numbers)?
• Is your boss willing to fire people who don’t carry their weight, or is s/he more likely to keep the poor performer on and expect the others to carry that weight?
• Does your boss hire and promote according to what is most likely to move the business ahead, or is s/he more likely to hire and promote according to what is politically correct or politically expedient?

5. Re-pack Your Parachute

Getting a new boss is like getting a new job: everything changes because the person who has the second greatest influence on your work-world has changed. Consequently, getting a new boss represents a huge opportunity and/or a huge threat to your career. It is because of this that the steps mentioned above are recommended.

There is one more action you can take to take care of yourself: make certain you are ready for your next job (i.e., re-pack your parachute).

No doubt you had a career plan before the new boss showed up. You knew where you next wanted to go in your career and you had a plan for making that happen: relationships you needed to build, skills you needed to acquire, accomplishments you needed to add to your portfolio, et cetera.

Now is the best time to re-examine and (possibly) re-write that plan. On the following page you will find a simple tool for doing that.

Career Plan Evaluation

My Career Plan Before The New Boss Showed Up	How The New Boss Threatens My Plan	How The New Boss Creates New Opportunities	Actions I Will Take (including dates)
The next step I expected to take in my career:
Training I expected to accomplish:
Education I expected to get:
Teams I expected to join:
Teams I expected to lead:
Conferences I expected to attend:
Relationships I expected to build or to strengthen:
Accountabilities I expected would be mine:
Authority I expected would be mine:
Presentations I expected to make:
Advocates I expected to speak in my behalf:

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