How to deal with an overly ambitious boss?
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Current boss is normally nice and patient but when it involves projects with cross functional teams, aka peers of her level, she tends to include a whole spreadsheet of bullet points to include.
Her points are often great and “goes out of the way to impress”, and I always try to support her and do up a nice presentation.
However, she is like an advisor, doing all the talk while I go crazy, amidst all the other projects i have, to make last minute changes to her points.
Sometimes she contradicts her point and I would have to scramble to make changes again. Makes me feel that all this talk is easy, but I’m dying to do all the work.
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Normal? How should I manage my boss?
Netizens’ comments
- If it’s pushing you beyond capacity then I’d explain just that: “Sorry, I don’t have the bandwidth to do this right now. If you really need it done, perhaps we can discuss another task I can push back to create time to work on this.”
I guess whether or not this is realistic depends on what kind of person your boss is and whether they will hold you personally accountable for not doing that, but the only way your boss can adjust her behaviour is for her to know that she is pushing you beyond what is reasonable.
Then you guys can hopefully have a mature conversation about how to approach this problem and take it from there. - This is not an “overly ambitious” boss.
This is a boss who creates busywork for subordinates to do in order to look good in front of her peers while (I am guessing) not giving subordinates enough credit.
During your next review with her try to ask some questions about your growth potential in the company. E.g. what do you have to do in order to get a promotion. Assuming she gives a proper and doable plan of action, write an email summarising that. Future ammo for you to present to HR should she not promote you. - Sounds like we’ve got the same boss