Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Project managers don't have a lot of authority, but they must keep their projects on track--they can't allow anyone to get in their way. In this book a veteran project manager shares her secrets on how to tactfully keep your boss from accidentally sabotaging your project's success. What do you do when the biggest threat to your project is your boss? It's not that your boss is out to get you. In fact, bosses generally mean well. But clueless leadership from a well-intentioned boss can sometimes cause more damage than a criminal mastermind tying your project to the railroad tracks.
Lucky for you, the best project managers have got "managing up" down to a fine science. The reason is that project managers are often outside consultants with no formal position in the organization they're working for, putting them at a double disadvantage. Learn how tried-and-tested techniques from the discipline of project management can be used to manage five main "types" of difficult bosses. Dana Brownlee, certified Project Management Professional, has repeatable, reliable techniques based on years of project consulting, which apply to each of these difficult boss types. Your boss will be eating right from your hand in no time.
Synopsis
This is a must-read for bosses and subordinates alike, as it exposes our flaws but teaches us how we can work together to achieve our common goals.
--Ellen Coulter, President, The Advantage Software Company What do you do when the biggest threat to your project is your boss? It's not that your boss is out to get you. In fact, bosses generally mean well. But clueless leadership from a well-intentioned boss can sometimes cause more damage than a criminal mastermind tying your project to the railroad tracks.
The Unwritten Rules of Managing Up provides refreshingly practical and candid insight into the best practices and techniques that project managers have successfully used for decades to manage a wide variety of senior-level stakeholders--ranging from perfectly competent and pleasant to downright dysfunctional and inept.
While managing up is an incredibly valuable skill for virtually any type of boss (not just the difficult ones), the book includes recommendations for managing six particularly challenging--and common--types of senior leaders. They are the bombastic Tornado, who takes over meetings without realizing it; the Wishful Thinker, who regularly asks the impossible; the Clueless Chameleon, who can't quite decide what he or she really wants (but still holds you responsible for delivering it); the MIA Boss, who is just not around enough; the Meddlesome Micromanager, who hovers and insists you complete a task his or her way; and the Naked Emperor, who falls in love with his or her own crazy ideas. Brownlee also offers basic techniques to use with any boss, even a great one.
This book is not just for professionals seeking to enhance their workplace effectiveness but also for senior leaders interested in addressing their blind spots and coaching others toward a more collaborative, results-focused leadership approach.