Have a less than perfect boss?
Here’s how to be happy at work anyway
Many times in our careers, we find ourselves on a team with a new leader whom we believe was hired with insufficient experience or is a micromanager. Sometimes we find ourselves working for the person who beat us out for the promotion. There can be many reasons we find ourselves unhappy with our leader. And it’s not uncommon to commiserate with other team members on how it’s possible to work successfully for someone who has no experience in our field. While we are questioning and evaluating the likelihood of the leader’s success, our doubts trickle in.
Consider for a second that we could be asking the wrong question. A more helpful question might be, “How can I maintain faith in myself when I make my happiness at work dependent upon other people?”
Flipping these questions around a bit might open up some freedom at work. The first place to look first is ourselves. Is it is possible that you lack assurance in your skills because you’re easily thrown off your game by a hiring decision that doesn’t follow your expectations?
The ability to have faith in others starts with yourself.
It’s about having confidence in your own skillsets to be great regardless of somebody else’s behavior. The good news is you can find freedom to succeed in spite of a less than perfect boss.
Ask a more helpful question
First, if you believe your success and workplace performance is dependent upon another person’s behavior or resume, you are setting yourself up for profound disappointment because people will often be imperfect following life according to your script. At that rate, you may find it difficult to have confidence in anyone because a good majority of people won’t live their life according to your expectations.
If you believe your success and performance is dependent upon another person’s behavior or resume, you are setting yourself up for profound disappointment.
How can you help this situation? Ask an empowering question. “What do I need to do to be able to trust my skillset and actions around others?”
When you shift your focus to that side of the equation, the world opens up to the ability to trust many people in our lives. We can trust them not because they’re perfect and they do what I ask and are they are always trustworthy, but because I trust my own skills around them. I trust that I can be honest and skillful.
Step into your own power
Stop making your faith dependent on other people’s behavior. Instead, restore your own faith in yourself and build up your own skillset to be able to do great work in spite of the decisions or behaviors of another. Otherwise, we end up giving up our power, citing our boss as the reason we can’t succeed.
A powerful question is, “Given that I have a boss who behaves this way, how can I choose to be joyful, happy, and successful?” There are two ways to go through this day and this situation, joy or misery, your choice. But you know what? It depends on what you’re believing. Suffering is completely optional.
There are two ways to go through this day, with joy or misery, your choice.
As we evaluate the decisions at work that are upsetting to us, this is often the perfect place to ask more helpful questions to get us reflecting beyond ego. When we can stop judging and start helping, and edit our stories, it might just open up whole new world of skills you can grow in next to move confidently throughout your career.
Learning to work with a less than perfect boss is one of the best skills to learn. Discover how to tune into your thoughts and get back to the facts with this Edit Your Story exercise.
