Influencing Up

A remarkable proportion of people who work have complaints about their boss. The problem of getting any attention or guidance from the boss is increasingly frequent under current lean organizational conditions. On the other hand, bosses are often too overbearing, too restrictive, vague about expectations but judgmental about performance, self protective, self promoting, afraid or unwilling to do necessary aspects of their jobs, uninterested in what matters to the subordinate, or occasionally not technically competent to do the job. Fearful of retaliation or a career limiting move, or just unclear as to how to go about trying to change the boss's behavior, people get paralyzed into inaction. Yet for many people, their boss is the organization, and their commitment and satisfaction depends on this critical relationship. In their classic book, Influence Without Authority, Allan Cohen and David Bradford provided a universal model of how to influence someone you don't control. This new book will build on those ideas but provide many examples of problematic bosses and how to approach building a satisfying partnership with them, along with examples of what a great partnership with your boss can do for your career - and your mental health! It offers a new model of manager subordinate relationships, and a lot of practical advice about how to bring the relationship into more of a partnership in which both parties benefit.