High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Why Leaders Should Be Mindful, Selfless, and Compassionate

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• Why Leaders Should Be Mindful, Selfless, and Compassionate: "Once you have a genuine sense of concern for others, there’s no room for cheating, bullying, or exploitation; instead, you can be honest, truthful, and transparent in your conduct."

• 7 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Manager and Leader: "Your success, rather, derives from how well your team performs. Your job, therefore, is to support, protect, and motivate your team--as individuals and as a unit."

• How to Be Happier at Work and in Life: "If you have 20 minutes free, you might be tempted to fritter it away on social media or the news. But these little chunks of time can boost our happiness more than we expect if we use them thoughtfully."

• 4 Ways to Successfully Turn Your Day Job Into a Successful Side-hustle: "Moving away from a steady, full-time position to being on your own is the scariest, yet most invigorating feeling in the world"
• 3 Keys to Developing Daily Disciplines:"To know what is important to you and to commit to those things as part of your “must do’s” is to create the ecosytem for a more effective use of your time."

5 Ways to Deal with an Unreliable Manager

Managers are not perfect and the best managers can recognize their strengths and weaknesses and manage around them, while also learning from their employees and putting them into position to utilize their strengths.

Unfortunately, sometimes you encounter a manger who is unreliable or incompetent and should not have been hired for the position they're in.

How do you navigate a situation where your manager is not effective? Take the following steps until your current reporting situation works itself out.

Document your communication. An unreliable or ineffective manager might be disorganized and have difficulty remembering agreements or understandings you've come to. Be sure to clearly and accurately document your conversations and clarify email exchanges if there is some uncertainty. You want to be able to follow-up with clear documentation about what's been discussed and agreed to.

Find other experts/mentors in the company. Your manager might not be the best person to train you or offer you opportunities to develop in your career. Be proactive and seek out additional mentors within your organization. You can likely do this with your current supervisors approval if you present this in a way that shows your initiative and interest in developing your career.

Take initiative (and don't wait for a plan). Speaking of initiative, show some. An unreliable manager may keep you waiting for feedback on a proposal or avoid giving you counsel on how to proceed on a new project. Go forward and learn from your mistakes. Failure and mistakes are inevitable in life and in your career so go ahead and make them on your own terms.

Take ownership over meetings. Don't wait for your manager to schedule meetings with you. An unreliable manager might schedule infrequent meetings or they might be unfocused. Take charge of the meetings with your supervisor by scheduling them and developing a brief and clear agenda that provides you with the information and resources you need to do your job well.

Be realistic about expectations. If it takes two follow-up emails to your manager in order to get a reply on something important then recognize this and build this into your expectations. Avoid becoming frustrated when you don't get a response after the first message. Managing your expectations can go a long way toward improving your experience with an unreliable manager but a part of those expectation should include the recognition that it's unlikely your supervisor will change. Understanding this will put you in a better position to manage the situation. 

How to Have a Difficult Conversation with Your Boss

Throughout your career there are times when you need to have a frank conversation with your supervisor. Perhaps you feel you’ve been disrespected in front of your peers, or you’ve been overlooked for a promotion or for an important assignment.

However, confronting your manager about this can be intimidating and so you might put the matter off, increasing your frustration and making it less likely you’ll find resolution on the issue.

Here are several tips for having a difficult, but productive, discussion with your supervisor.

Schedule a meeting. Do not just pop in on your manager and attempt to have a serious conversation unannounced, even if he or she has an open-door policy. You want a good result from the meeting and you’re more likely to get that if you’ve both been able to prepare for the discussion. Therefore, you want to set up a meeting time with your boss, providing a brief purpose for it.

Prepare for the meeting. Be clear about what you want to say and what your desired outcome is for the meeting. If you want a raise you need to be able to succinctly state your case for it, ask for a specific dollar amount or percentage increase, and request a deadline for hearing back about your request. These three steps can serve as a simple outline, regardless of your question or concern.

Be specific. When meeting with your boss, state clearly what the issue or concern is without judging or criticizing your supervisor. Take ownership of the issue and seek to bring about a win-win. For example, if you felt disrespected in front of your co-workers, assume the best of your boss and let him or her know that you experienced the situation as disrespectful rather than stating that your supervisor disrespected you. You are more likely to have a good outcome when you avoid attributing negative intentions and assume the best in your supervisor.

Follow up. Be sure to again thank your manager for taking the time to address a difficult subject and for their willingness to hear your point of view. Also remind your boss of any follow-up necessary and then be sure to follow-through on getting back to him or her at the appointed time.

Learning to address conflicts and concerns with your manager will improve your work experience, make you more effective at your job, and help you develop leadership skills necessary to advance in your career.

4 Steps to Prepare for a Difficult Conversation with Your Boss

To be successful in your life and career requires vulnerability and courage. Sometimes you'll put yourself out there and be rejected for a promotion or be looked over for that new project.

There are times in our careers when we need to have a difficult conversation with our supervisor and unless we're able to muster up the courage to confront the situation head-on we'll be unable to move forward.



Here, then, are four steps to prepare for a difficult conversation with your boss.

1. Understand exactly what you want and and what you hope to accomplish. Are you looking for a raise? Perhaps you think you were wrongly denied a promotion or an opportunity on a new project. Or maybe you feel stuck with little opportunity to move up or learn new skills. Whatever the situation is, be sure you're clear about what it is you want and what outcome you are looking for.

2. Acknowledge your feelings about the situation. It is okay to be angry, sad, disappointed, frustrated, discouraged, or any number of other feelings you might experience but in order to have an effective conversation with your manager you need to fully own and understand how you're feeling about the circumstances.

3. Write out your ideas and imagine the response of your boss. By writing down what you want to say it will help you better formulate your thoughts, and help you anticipate and prepare for your supervisor's reaction. Be sure to focus on your feelings and thoughts about the situation without blaming your boss and people him or her on the defensive, making it less likely they'll be receptive to you comments.

4. Practice the conversation with a friend or family member. Role-playing the discussion will provide you with confidence before you meet with your boss, along with an opportunity to gain valuable feedback from your role-playing partner.

Now you're ready to schedule that difficult conversation.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 3 Tips for Finding a Mentor

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• 3 Tips for Finding a Mentor: "Many people seek out the most successful person they can -- but that’s a mistake. The best mentors are not loud, outspoken and quote-ready. They’re those who gain respect among peers."
• Learn 5 Mindsets of Highly Successful People: "Successful people know they have much more control over the trajectory of their lives than others realize."
• How You Can Tell if Your Boss Appreciates You: "Your participation in important and high-profile projects is a message from your boss about your importance to her team. If you’re as involved in the action as you want to be, then you are a key player on her squad."
• 6 Habits of Managers Who Have Loyal Employees: "Ultimately, employees appreciate it when their manager makes the effort to think thoughtfully about what they have to say. Beyond the recognition gesture itself, this creates emotional connections."
• 2-Minute Habits That Will Make You Feel Better at Work: "To put this into practice in the office, each night before bed, spend two minutes identifying and writing down your top five 'non-negotiable' goals that you want to achieve the next day at work."