Making Yourself Easy to Manage
The relationship you have with your manager is critical to your career growth and happiness.
A few years ago, a friend mentioned how early in her tenure at a job her manager at the time told her that she needed to make herself easy to manage. We both found the request really funny, mostly due to its bluntness. And if you knew this friend, you’d find this story even funnier because she’s not the type of person who needed that kind of direction.
Since then, I’ve often thought back on this story and what it means to be easy to manage. Usually this story comes back to me when I’m working with someone on my team on something or trying to give them feedback. In these situations, sometimes I’m left wondering, “Why is this so hard?”
And I often reflect on this sentiment when I’m working with my own management chain. Am I over-communicating with my manager or not enough? Do I need to let them know about something that I think is bubbling? Do I need to escalate something? Do I need to advocate for someone on my team? Am I easy to manage in this moment or am I being a total pain in the ass?
I’ve found that the relationship I have with my manager (and my skip manager) has been critical to my happiness at work and my development. And I think that’s the case for most…
