Help Your Boss Help You

by Ken Kousen

TOC | Early praise for Help Your Boss Help You 👉

Table of Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

• Who This Book Is For
• Chapter Summaries
• Acknowledging My Own Biases
• Plural Convention
• References to Popular Media
• Online Resources

1. Making Inevitable Conflict Productive

• Differing Agendas
• Why We Go to Work
• What Your Manager Wants
• Why Managers Are So Bad So Often
• Putting It All Together: Building a Relationship

2. Giving Good-Enough Answers

• Winning the Game of School
• Winning the Game of Business
• Giving Good-Enough Answers
• Putting It All Together: Good-Enough Answers

3. Creating Constructive Loyalty

• Trust Goes Both Ways
• The Critical Importance of Loyalty
• Failing to Establish Loyalty
• Your Manager Lives in Fear
• Building Constructive Loyalty
• Putting It All Together: Constructive Loyalty

4. Sending the Important Two Messages

• I Got This: Taking Responsibility
• I Got Your Back: We’re a Team
• Putting It All Together: The Two Messages

5. Winning the Prisoner’s Dilemma

• A Frustrating, but Typical, Situation
• The Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma
• The Tit-for-Tat Solution
• Applying TFT to the Employee/Manager Relationship
• Pushing Back Right Away
• Managers Who Refuse to Learn
• Evolutionary IPD
• Putting It All Together: Building the Relationship

6. Communicating More Effectively

• The Four Scales
• The Keirsey Temperament Sorter
• Putting It All Together: Communication Strategies

7. Managing the Chain of Command

• The Worst of Both Worlds
• How Not to Go Around Your Boss
• Providing Cover for the Boss
• Your Boss’s Boss
• Navigating the Matrix
• Putting It All Together: Following the Chain

8. Your Boss Is Not Your Friend

• The Dangers of Oversharing
• Maintaining Emotional Distance
• Offices in Popular Media
• My Friend Got Promoted
• Your Boss Is Not Your Enemy, Either
• Putting It All Together: Protecting Yourself

9. Dealing with Special Cases

• The Flat Organization
• Remote Work
• The Micromanager
• The Tragedy of Human Resources
• Older Employees and Younger Managers
• Truly Unethical Managers
• Putting It All Together: Special Cases

10. Managing Your Manager

• Push for Periodic Meetings
• Telling Malice from Stupidity
• Reflective Listening
• Telling Your Boss They’re Completely and Totally Wrong
• Putting It All Together: The Real Win

Bibliography

Copyright © 2021, The Pragmatic Bookshelf.

TOC | Early praise for Help Your Boss Help You 👉

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