While it’s critical to understand your boss in order to manage upwards and establish a productive working relationship, it’s equally important to understand yourself. Indeed, this is essential for your relationships with your direct reports, as well as those with your superiors.
In any relationship, the other person is just one half of the picture: you yourself are the other half of the relationship. Furthermore, as much as you can influence other people, you’ll always have more direct control over your own thinking and behaviours than that of others.
Therefore, at the basis of a good relationship should be an understanding of your own needs, personality, and preferred working style, as well as your strengths and weaknesses. This kind of awareness will help you to pinpoint why you’re struggling to work with your boss, or why you are experiencing conflicts or challenges, and ultimately overcome them.
I’ve worked with a wide range of clients across different industries to help them better understand themselves and become the kind of manager they’d like to be – you can read some of their testimonials here.
