When Things Are Chaotic, Be a Stellar Communicator With Your Manager

Does your direct supervisor know exactly what you’re working on this week and what kind of results that you’re committed to making happen? And also, what kind of exceptions are happening and what you’re doing about those? If not, you might call your manager a micromanager, but let me assure you, they may not be a micromanager. You have made them into a micromanager.

You see managers are responsible for the outcomes of the job for all their direct reports. And if a manager does not have great visibility in the status of every project, who’s being called, what kind of things are you talking to them about? Where are the exceptions? What kind of results are you getting? Where are you having problems getting the results? What are you doing about that? Without complete communication and the status of every project, and what’s being done about it, that manager is put in a very uncomfortable spot called my manager or my board, if it’s a CEO, fully expects me to deliver on the outcomes, and I can’t see the inputs being managed properly, so guess what? I now am a micromanager.

When that happens, that doesn’t look good for you because that basically has said you’re letting them down. Step in and be an authentic communicator, that creates great visibility. And if you have an oopsy and a problem, bring it up and talk about what you’re doing about it, because there is no manager who will be surprised that something broke down or some number didn’t get hit. What they don’t want to hear about is that you’re covering it up and not making it completely visible, as well as your plan to get around it.

Build some great visibility in everything you do and make sure that you give your manager a phenomenal daily or weekly report, at a minimum, a monthly report as well, about exactly the status of everything, so they don’t have to ask. And think of the time you’ll save for them and for you.

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