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.