Managing Multiple Bosses: How to Juggle Priorities, Personalities & Projects -- and Make It Look

324 Pages·1998·1.3 MB·English

by  Pat Nickerson

Managing Multiple Bosses : How to Juggle
title: Priorities, Personalities & Projects, and
Make It Look Easy
author: Nickerson, Pat.
publisher: AMACOM Books
isbn10 | asin: 0814470254
print isbn13: 9780814470251
ebook isbn13: 9780585034638
language: English
subject Management, Decision making.
publication date: 1999
lcc: HD31.N4898 1999eb
ddc: 650.1
subject: Management, Decision making.
Managing Multiple Bosses
How to Juggle Priorities, Personalities & Projects
and Make It Look Easy
Pat Nickerson
American Management Association
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Brussels Mexico City Tokyo Toronto
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nickerson, Pat.
Managing multiple bosses: how to juggle priorities, personalities
& projectsand make it look easy / Pat Nickerson.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8144-7025-4
1. Management. 2. Decision making. I. Title.
HD31.N4898 1998
650.1dc21 9829095
CIP
© 1999 Pat Nickerson.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in whole or in part, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of AMACOM, an imprint of AMA
Publications, a division of American Management Association, 1601
Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
Printing number
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Page v
Contents
List of Cases ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
Why This Multi-Boss Phenomenon? xiv
Need a Mind-Set Overhaul? xv
How to Use This Book xvii
1. Protect Your Priorities 1
How Managers Invest Their Time 1
Multi-Bosses, More Clients, and Less Certainty 3
Do What Entrepreneurs Do 4
Keep Priorities Visible: A Seven-Step Menu 4
Make Choices on Projects, Not Personalities 5
Expect Conflicts as Bosses Multiply 7
Exploit the Power of Graphic Solutions 9
Use Triage to Avoid Traps 10
Tool Kit: Chart Your Bosses' Bedrock Risks 12
Control Interruptions, but Enhance Interactions 15
Tool Kit: Use the Dot Chart to Pinpoint Patterns 16
An Illuminating Interview: Negotiating for Life 19
Triumphs and Turnarounds: Pacific Interval 21
Summary: Ten Tools and Techniques to Try 21
2. Conquer the Communication Crunch 23
You Still Need Meetings 23
Create Shared Graphics 23
You Can Still Get Private Time 24
Consider Time and Priority Management as Two Distinct 26
Things
Page vi
Begin: Do Your Homework on New Standards 26
Some Worn Standards to Scuttle 27
Six New Standards to Adopt and Announce 28
You Need Priority Protocols 31
Tool Kit: The Work-Worry-Warn Chart for Commitment 33
Meetings: The Most Frequently Mentioned Time Wasters 35
Tool Kit: Action Minutes Save Time 38
An Illuminating Interview: Communicating Well on 38
Priorities
No Triumph: A Tragedy 40
Lessons Learned Here 40
Summary: Ten Communication Points to Ponder 41
3. "Just Say No": Not an Option 42
Negotiate, Don't Capitulate 42
Seven Requests You Cannot Say Yes To 43
Five Sample Scenarios 44
Asserting Yourself Without Hurting Yourself 48
When You Must Say No on Moral Grounds 51
Enhance Your Perspective With Added Options 53
Reduce Rudeness and Righteous Indignation 53
How to Calm Distraught Customers 53
How to Respond With Compassion 54
Liberate Yourself From Other People's Fear 55
An Illuminating Interview: On Hidden Agendas 55
Triumphs and Turnarounds: The Telecommunications 57
Industry
Summary: "Just Say No": Not an Option 57
4. Conflict Survival School 59
First, Quit Your Role as Volunteer Therapist 59
Excise the Term "Personality Conflict" From Your 62
Vocabulary
Admit That Most Conflicts Are About Power 62
Test Your Detachment on This Scenario 62
Reduce Role Ambiguities 64
Negotiate Irrational Workloads From Multi-Bosses 66
Team Decision Making Reduces Conflict 68
What Blocks You From Taking Initiative? 69
Tool Kit: Silent GraffitiAll-Hands Problem Solver 72
Page vii
Raise Your Tolerance for Conflicts 73
An Illuminating Interview: The Blessings in Peacemaking 74
Triumphs and Turnarounds: How to Redirect Your 75
Energy
Summary: Conflict Survival School 75
5. Stress Reduction Strategies 77
New Choices in Stress Management 79
Stress Saver Tools 80
Survey Responses on Helpful Applications 83
Reduce Seasonal Stress: Ask Your Multiple Bosses to 85
Help
Tool Kit: Recipes for Peak Workload Coverage 87
An Illuminating Interview: Thinking Beyond the 89
Workload
Triumphs and Turnarounds: WorkLife Management 92
Schedule Your WorkLife Balance 93
Summary: Ten Stress Reduction Strategies 93
6. Assertive? Abolish the Thought! 95
Nonassertion: The Price You Pay 95
Aggression: To Be Used Sparingly 96
Assertion: Recommended With Caution 96
Do's and Don'ts: Assertion, Nonassertion, Aggression 97
Consider a New Pathway: The Five-A's Method 97
The Five A's: Practice Pays 98
Applying the Five-A's Method to Your Situation 107
Supreme Assertion Test: Run a Meeting Full of Bosses 107
An Illuminating Interview: Assertiveness and Humor 108
Triumphs and Turnarounds: The Power of Affirmations 109
Summary: Find Your Right Level of Assertion 111
7. The Delicate Art of Delegating 112
Need Some Excuses? 112
How You Know That Your D-Day Has Arrived 113
Find the Tasks to Delegate 113
Look for Help in Unusual Places 114
Cut Through the Boss's Confidentiality Barrier 115