13 Ways to Make Your Boss Love You!
Doyle Slayton | Aug 12, 2009 | Comments 30
The best relationship you can build at work is with your boss. Most people come to work and focus their attention on building relationships with their co-workers and with their clients, but they don’t even think about building a strong working relationship with their manager. The irony is… interactions with your boss can make or break the emotional outcome of your entire day.
You can walk into just about any office and in a very short time; you can tell… that’s the “golden child”. Everybody wants to be a part of that club. Here are 13 ways to earn your way into “the circle”…
Come to Work – It’s amazing to me how often some people miss work these days. They come in late… they leave early… it’s always something. Make sure your boss doesn’t have to worry about whether or not you’re coming to work.
Be Respectful – Show respect for those who have been assigned as authority figures in your life.
Follow Directives – When your boss gives you a task or a project. Make it a top priority. No matter how “stupid” you think it is, what’s important to your manager must be important to you.
Drive Initiatives – When new initiatives are rolled out, a lot of people like to sit back with a “wait and see” attitude. You need to be the person who is bought in… right from the start. Lead the way and get things moving at full speed!
Communicate Updates – Always keep your boss in the loop. Let them know when new information is available, and always be prepared to answer questions accurately and effectively.
Positive Influence – Be the teammate that brings everyone up to a higher level of excellence. For example, let’s say someone is complaining during a team meeting. Share an idea or solution that would help overcome that challenge.
Know Your Stuff – Put yourself on a development fast track. You will always have questions and should always be learning, but the questions you ask should match your time on the job. In other words, you don’t want to have too many instances where your boss, or your teammate, is thinking, “they should know that by now.”
Provide Insight – Every team has its challenges. Work on accurately pinpointing the things that need improvement and provide effective solutions that will fix problems quickly and efficiently.
Be Loyal – You gain a lot of points when you work in the best interest of your company, your boss, and your team. Be committed, do the right thing, and when necessary… you don’t want to be a tattle tale, but sometimes it is important to notify your boss of unsettling information or disruptive behavior on the team.
Joint Activities – Invite your boss to spend the day with you. Have them ride along for appointments and welcome them when they want to listen in on your phone calls. Use it as a time to have fun, spend a lot of time laughing, get to know each other, and make big things happen!
Babysitting Not Required – Whether or not your boss is watching. Do your job… it’s that simple.
Crank It! – Work the phones harder than anyone. I have a challenge for you. Come into work around 7:45 AM and get all your stuff up and running. The minute the clock strikes 8:00 AM… start hammering the phones for about two or three hours straight. See if you can make about 30 to 40 calls in that time. By noon, everyone in the office will be talking about you… and your boss will love you! LOL
Promise and Deliver – Make a commitment to meet or exceed your goals. Set the standard for consistently being a top producer who is dependable month after month.
What other employee / boss relationship building tips would you add to this list?
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Filed Under: Blog • Featured • Leadership • Sales • SalesTaxi
This article is right on. The number one relationship is the boss-employee relationship. Any employee who followed this advice would be a STAR and would also be a good entrepreneur later on.
Excellent; Sounds like workable hints to follow
Yeah this one is right !!! I know this stuff works, it works for me !!!
I agree, maybe I would also consider being a good team mate… if not all of the above can turn against you
14. Be personable.
Don’t try and be your bosses best mate, but try to ‘connect’ with them. Being liked is more than just doing a good job.
15. Two rules:
1.Boss is always right.
2.If the boss wrong see rule no.1.
No? Check again 13 ways to Make Your Boss Love You by Doyle Slayton and yes be personable too.
Giving honest feedback can help you go from getting your boss to “like” you to getting your boss to respect and value your opinion. You are then a valuable ally by pointing out even controversial or painful things. Of course, this works only after you’ve done everything you stated above and you have lots of strong credibility with your boss…. otherwise you will just be considered unruly or combatant.
Years of study have definitely connected an employees job satisfaction to the relationship with their manager. The key factors have always been trust, respect, fairness, and the understanding a manager is dealing with poor performers on the team. Follow this list and it will help you avoid being a poor performer too.
All great ideas! I have found that if you push yourself to work harder, have a great positive attitude and keep your boss updated on all of the things you are working hard on, they will see it and be your biggest fan.
A great lineup of what to do, and the underlying reasons are right on! My only suggestion is to add one “don’t” to the list: DON’T KISS THE BOSS’S BUTT! You can accomplish everything on Doyle’s list, and more, without slobbering and drooling. The idea is to prove yourself to earn respect, not be an idolizing fan.
And, by the way, in case you think you’re immune to all this good advice because you ARE the boss, remember that you always answer to someone… whether it’s a partner, a board of directors, stockholders, your family, or a higher power.
Thanks for the mind prompt!
Best as always – Hal Alpiar
Focus on high quality deliverables, especially first drafts. You become very valuable when your boss/manager is not bogged down with reviewing your work, and correcting mistakes you could have caught.
Also, proactivley seek feedback periodically, not necessarily during company scheduled timeframes, and make adjustments where necessary.
If you’re not doing these things– you’re probably layed-off right now.
Excellent article! Congratulations
Doyle,
I love the article. Here are some my suggestions: 1) Have a geninue interest to get to know your boss perfessionally and personally, 2) your boss is one of your biggest clients, and 3) Give your boss the respect he or she deserves, even if you do not always agreed or see eye to eye (prosper where you are at).
Great!
Be honest; even when you mess up, own up. You gain credibility and you’re not seen as someone who shirks responsibility.
very nice article!
Please add the following :
it is nice to walk by your boss every morning to say ” Good Morning”
how many people do that every morning ?
if you can invest $5-7 every week to buy a donate or cookies and put it on a place where every body can access and get some that will make you very special!
try to maintain an excellent humor, and show warm feelings when it needs
If you want an easy life at work, yes, this is what you need to do, but there is a bit of a “brown nose” element in here, don’t you think?
Pleasing your boss Vs doing what is right to the company? Quite often these are two clashing actions. What to do then?
What if your boss is an absolute failure? Does the guide still applies? What if he or she isn’t that bad, but you know better?
As I said, good for an easy life, but not so much if you are up for a challenge, you are professional and always think with the company’s big picture in your head.
If you are an executive, you must think like a manager, if you are a manager you should think like a director, directors should think like business owners and businesses owners must think of the full range of stakeholders…
I kind of disagree a bit. If you are in sales and you get the love of your boss for any other reason that is not your performance, then something is wrong with you or him. The main reason why a sales person should work the phones should not be EVER to look good to his boss, but to make his/her paycheck bigger. As a Sales Manager, I couldn’t care less if you make 1 or 150 calls a day, as long as you are a top performer. As long as you bring in the numbers, it is irrelevant to me whether you conduct your business in the Golf Course or, working 14 hours a day in an office. You eat what you kill, but if you don’t kill enough then, you should go hunting for another tribe.
I have to agree with Levin. What’s important is the quality, not the quantity.
I agree with Levin it’s all about results. If you are doing these things and not producing you won’t last. You can bring all the coffee and dougnuts you can carry but if you don’t produce revenue you a drag on the bottom line. Remember coffee is for closers.
I like this article but i also agree with what Levin commented. Probably it also depends on the boss as a person to some extent.
What ever you all say, this IS a brown nose job. It doesn’t matter how good your relationship is to your colleagues, but if it’s not good to your boss, you are likely to loose your job, regardless of your competence. Most often the brown nose people, and the kiss A.. people, are the ones who have very little else to offer! A lot of the time, the boss is incompetent, insecure, or covering his own a.. in front of his boss, and if he have to fire you to look better, or to put aside his own incompetence he will. There is absolutely no loyalty from most bosses, it is ALL political games in a company, some more than others. Ask yourself, why are the most successful people the ones who are always in the bosses office, promoting himself (on someone elses credit). This type of person may be nice, but it is not a sincere, honest person of integrity, because all that matters to him, is how he looks in the eyes of his boss, and if he have to setup on someone to get there, he will. I have no respect for bosses, managers, or anyone else condoning this, and most do. Good Management, is VERY hard to come by, almost impossible. This management, notice the ones who have integrity, and true commitment to the company, and who will not step on anybody to go their way! It does not matter what time you come to office, how much sales you generate, or what ever else you do. It’s all to do with kissing your bosses a… Therefore, if you cannot do that, don’t work in a company, because you are likely to get fired sooner or later…
Ras,
You must have had a very bad experience and clearly you are a McGregor Theory X advocate. I don’t think you can generalised in such way.
I’ve also worked in extremely competitive markets and have been lucky enough to get a good boss supporting the team who didn’t quite need any sucking…
I guess it all comes down to personal experiences and who do you have to report to…
SOmetimes I feel it’s ironic to read such articles.
On one hand we always find performance management to be biggest issue in most organizations while at the same time these
are the most practical of suggestions.
Since your boss liked you when he hired you, but it appears he doesn’t like you now, you may want to do some sole searching, and find what you changed.
Otherwise, fulfill the promises that you made during the interview and he will like you forever.
I’m not knocking this article. It is good to see what you should do in various areas, but it is not rocket science.
I shared my idea for any employee who followed this advice would be a STAR and would also be a good entrepreneur later on.
and :
Two rules:
1.Boss is always right.
2.If the boss wrong see rule no.1.
Strange that from all these comments, nobody has mentioned anything about what the boss have to do?
I mean, the boss, in my opinion is a support function to make me excel! If I excel, my boss excel.
Another thing. What if you were hired by group management, and sent to the other side of the world to work like I was. They told me, you will have this and this boss, which was OK with me, then I come out to the new country, and the first day my boss, tells me, oh by the way, we changed a bit, let me introduce you to your new boss, a local, which I certainly was not fond of…
I got a boss, who was the Military type of boss, do what you are told, and no questions asked! I am not your support fucntion, you are supposed to know before I tell you what I want. What he actually told me straight to my face; “your job is to make me shine in front of my boss”!!!
Already then, I hated my boss, and new that this was never going to work, but what could I do, I was on the other side of the globe, and couldn’t do anything else than tell myself, this has to work…
I am just saying, the initial comment is only saying what we as employees have to do, but why not the other way around? Why doesn’t the boss have to do just the same to us. I.e. top 10 things to make your staff love you, etc….
What a great segue into a new topic! What are the top 10 things a boss can do to make you love him or her? 1. Listen.
I did these things in a previous company I worked:
1. Say Hi or smile everytime seeing the president, manager, directors
2. Never say bad things or complain about other coworkers
3. Just work hard
4. Sing while working
And you know what, the president and directors liked me a lot and always tried to come talking to me. My coworkers saw that and they started telling me what was wrong on the production line or their thoughts, or problems.
But one thing was not good when I realized that the president and the directors had deep feeling for me. I quit as I was so afraid of the outcome when i tried hard to refuse it.