Building a healthy, positive relationship with your boss significantly enhances job satisfaction and career progression, despite the challenges posed by incompetent or overwhelmed managers. Even when faced with a difficult boss, taking responsibility for improving the relationship is essential. Key points include: - Maintaining a positive relationship with your boss improves job satisfaction and career outcomes. - Many managers suffer from being overextended or incompetent, complicating the employee-manager dynamic. - Employees must actively work to make the relationship functional, regardless of their boss's shortcomings. - Acknowledging the reality of bad bosses is crucial, as they often become legendary in workplace culture.
This article is crucial for Engineering Leaders as it addresses the challenge of managing relationships with difficult bosses, which can impact team dynamics and productivity. An actionable takeaway is to actively work on building a healthy relationship with your boss, regardless of their shortcomings, to enhance job satisfaction and career progression.
Having a healthy, positive relationship with your boss makes your work life much easier — it’s also good for your job satisfaction and your career. But some managers don’t make it easy. Bad bosses are the stuff of legend. And too many managers are overextended, overwhelmed, or downright incompetent — a topic that HBR has covered extensively over the years. Even if your boss has some serious shortcomings, it’s in your best interest, and it’s your responsibility, to make the relationship work.