7 Strategies to Avoid Letting a Horrible Boss Take You Down

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7 Strategies to Avoid Letting a Horrible Boss Take You Down

Your boss may be a jerk, but he’s your jerk, because he’s your boss. Don’t let him take you down or out.

A bad boss gives you three choices – suffer, leave your job, or learn to manage up. Your job and sometimes your career success require that you effectively play the hand you’re dealt.

These seven strategies put you ahead of the game:

Make lemonade from your lemon boss
You can learn management by learning to manage up.

You’ll meet more than one difficult person during your career and be placed in numerous situations where you need the skills for handling responsibility without authority.

Success stems from playing the hand you’re dealt. Your difficult boss gives you an MBA in handling problem people.

Practice self-leadership
Don’t let a bad boss’s problems excuse your own. You won’t gain by going to war or making her look bad. In the long-run, if you make her look good, you develop a foundation for your own success.

Don’t slack off, bad-mouth her, or otherwise mentally check out. These reactions undermine your own integrity and leave you branded a slacker or complainer.

Treat your boss the way you’d treat a problem customer, the one always right, and leave work every day knowing you gave it your best shot.

Practice stealth upward management
Work around your boss’s weaknesses.

Is he a disorganized mess? Help him organize. Keep his calendar, remind him of meetings, projects and deadlines.

Does she love to micro-manage? Drown her in information, briefing her before she asks you questions. The more information you supply, the less a micromanager worries.

Does he forget what he said and then accuse you of misunderstanding? Repeat his instructions back to him to clarify, and then document what you understood in an immediate upward email.

Does she hesitate to make decisions? Give her the facts and support she needs to move forward.

Change your lens
Don’t let your boss’s deficiencies blind you to what you can learn from him. Perhaps he takes ruthless advantage of you, but you can learn negotiations from him. Possibly he’s a disorganized mess, but truly cares about his employees.

Openly notice what’s right about your boss. Praise her if you can. Her gratitude may surprise you and offer you the breakthrough you need to survive.

Win him over
Can you can turn your problem boss into an ally?

Learn what motivates her. Is it looking good to her superiors? Help her. Is it saving money? Exercise frugality. Does he need to be right? Let him know when he is.

Learn your boss’s expectations, and meet them. Does he nitpick if you’re a minute late to work or back from lunch? Show up two minutes early and let him know when you work late so he’ll know he gets more than he pays for. After all, your boss is the boss.

Consider speaking up
You may dread speaking up, feeling it could make matters worse. In my management consulting practice, I’ve learned many bad bosses don’t realize how they come across or the problems they create.

If you don’t say anything, you may lose your chance to fix the one problem in an otherwise great job – your boss. Before you let a problem boss siphon off your last ounce of job satisfaction, plan what you’ll say, and to whom you’ll say it, carefully.

Focus on the problem and not your boss, and present the issues in a rational and thoughtful manner.

Don’t make it worse
If you’re close to the point of no return, you may need to quit. If you do, carefully select your next job. You don’t want to jump from the “frying pan into the fire.”