Comments on: How does your boss know you’re doing a great job? http://www.ytechie.com/2008/04/how-does-your-boss-know-youre-doing-a-great-job.html Productive software development using ASP.NET, C#, Adobe Flex, and other technologies and tools. Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:45:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Joe http://www.ytechie.com/2008/04/how-does-your-boss-know-youre-doing-a-great-job.html/comment-page-1#comment-63 Joe Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:14:00 +0000 http://207.36.235.13/2008/04/how-does-your-boss-know-youre-doing-a-great-job.html#comment-63 Excellent observations Jason! You are so right about the fact that stuff get's summarized more and more the higher it goes in the chain so providing a high level perspective is a great idea. <br/>Perhaps I've mentioned this to you before - I always told my various bosses: "I'm here to make you look good." This has generally worked well for me in a software environment where you and I both used to be ("generally" meaning the only exception for me was a guy on with the initials J.B.). This was usually true because the software boss understood software - most of them used to be programmers at one point so they could appreciate what it took to accomplish a difficult task and probably even more importantly, they could appreciate creativity. <br/>I'm not in software anymore either and I'm in a similar situation to what you describe: I have a supervisor who has no clue what I do or who I am or how well I'm doing it. He just doesn't have the background in my specialty. Unfortunatly many of my peers and his own peers see him, well, in a rather unflattering light; hmmmm... previous boss at same company was viewed the same way... is there a pattern here???<br/>Anyway, I've been considering a new strategy as well. I think it's important for him to know that I'm his advocate and I want to make him look good - that hasn't changed and I beleive that strategy honestly and fully played out can have an impact. In this light, I've been very careful to NOT jump on the bandwagon and dis him - I'll even stick up for him at times to my peers. I learned that lesson. "Piling on" just makes me look like a whiner and it always gets back to him. It also drags others down with you; there is simply nothing productive about it - it was a big mistake and I wish I could Ctrl-Z that... <br/>Sorry, back to the point. In light of the fact that he doesn't understand what I do nor is he readily able to recognize my creativity, I've tried to make sure that those that do see it and appreciate it (especially my internal customers), pass that along to my boss - not necessarily by asking but by doing such a good job for them that they ask me who I work for so they can send an email. I work for a very large and dispersed company out of my home so my boss doesn't interact with me on a daily basis. Your idea of weekly status reports is excellent. I've also use this tactic: I will pass praise emails on to my boss with a question like "do you think we could take advantage of this on the East coast (or in Europe or at this customer... etc)?". That way, now he knows about it and the ball is in his court - he can take my creative solution and apply it to another similar situation and make himself look good and drag me along with him. Doing this in email provides a bit of "insurance" since there is an electronic trail in case your boss is unscropulous - he can't just claim it as his idea. <br/><br/>Thanks again for the article - I like the new tech specific blog! Excellent observations Jason! You are so right about the fact that stuff get’s summarized more and more the higher it goes in the chain so providing a high level perspective is a great idea.
Perhaps I’ve mentioned this to you before – I always told my various bosses: “I’m here to make you look good.” This has generally worked well for me in a software environment where you and I both used to be (“generally” meaning the only exception for me was a guy on with the initials J.B.). This was usually true because the software boss understood software – most of them used to be programmers at one point so they could appreciate what it took to accomplish a difficult task and probably even more importantly, they could appreciate creativity.
I’m not in software anymore either and I’m in a similar situation to what you describe: I have a supervisor who has no clue what I do or who I am or how well I’m doing it. He just doesn’t have the background in my specialty. Unfortunatly many of my peers and his own peers see him, well, in a rather unflattering light; hmmmm… previous boss at same company was viewed the same way… is there a pattern here???
Anyway, I’ve been considering a new strategy as well. I think it’s important for him to know that I’m his advocate and I want to make him look good – that hasn’t changed and I beleive that strategy honestly and fully played out can have an impact. In this light, I’ve been very careful to NOT jump on the bandwagon and dis him – I’ll even stick up for him at times to my peers. I learned that lesson. “Piling on” just makes me look like a whiner and it always gets back to him. It also drags others down with you; there is simply nothing productive about it – it was a big mistake and I wish I could Ctrl-Z that…
Sorry, back to the point. In light of the fact that he doesn’t understand what I do nor is he readily able to recognize my creativity, I’ve tried to make sure that those that do see it and appreciate it (especially my internal customers), pass that along to my boss – not necessarily by asking but by doing such a good job for them that they ask me who I work for so they can send an email. I work for a very large and dispersed company out of my home so my boss doesn’t interact with me on a daily basis. Your idea of weekly status reports is excellent. I’ve also use this tactic: I will pass praise emails on to my boss with a question like “do you think we could take advantage of this on the East coast (or in Europe or at this customer… etc)?”. That way, now he knows about it and the ball is in his court – he can take my creative solution and apply it to another similar situation and make himself look good and drag me along with him. Doing this in email provides a bit of “insurance” since there is an electronic trail in case your boss is unscropulous – he can’t just claim it as his idea.

Thanks again for the article – I like the new tech specific blog!

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