How to Deal with a Newly Promoted Boss - The Muse

How to Deal with a Newly Promoted Boss - The MuseHow to Deal with a Newly Promoted Boss So, your new boss is, well, new- eitherbeibei at the company, at being a manager, or at both. While this can be exciting, it can also lead to frustrating challenges that youve never dealt with before. Yes, this persons (hopefully) qualified to do the job. But no, he or shes notlage going to be the perfect manager from day one. So, how can you handle this situation without letting that person affect your work or general well-being? There are a few strategies that Ive picked up after being in this position a few times- they not only made it easier, but also furthered my career. 1. Offer to HelpBeing a new manager can be a little overwhelming and a little lonely. So, take a look at what your new boss is struggling with and try to identify opportunities where you can step in and help.Maybe hes having trouble wrangling team updates from everyone, or way behind on a stack of crucial paperwork, or even j ust struggling with the companys internal technology. If you have the knowledge, offer a hand. And if you dont have that, but you do have the time, offer to do something you do know how to do. Sure, he can finish that spreadsheet this week, but offer to do it today so its one less thing for him to think about.Youll earn brownie points and have the potential to become his new right-hand person. 2. Take InitiativeIts likely that your boss is so busy with learning his or her new responsibilities that shes not focusing on new projects, or even peripheral ones, if they arent aligned with the departments core goals (no matter how promising they are, or how in-depth they were discussed with a previous manager).When one of my new supervisors started in her role, with a focus on the companys new products, I noticed that our blogging and social media efforts started to lag. Rather than sit around and watch our followers plateau, I set up a meeting with her, showed her what could be gained fro m keeping up our editorial and social platforms, offered to take it on, and set up a good time for me to fill her in on the progress. She said yes.That one conversation ended up opening many doors for me both within that company as well as with other potential employers. Plus, my boss greatly appreciated that she ended up looking good in the process, too, which wasnt a bad way to kick off a new relationship. 3. Play Along With Your Boss Micromanaging (at First)Its pretty common for people to micromanage their first couple of weeks (or months) on the job. While its easy to want to rebel upon the first bogus request your new boss makes (She wants to personally edit every client schmelzglas I send out), take a deep breath and remember this likely isnt permanent. Instead, its probably your managers way of getting a lay of the land and learning not only what you do, but how it plays into the teams larger effort. However, if this habit keeps going (or gets worse), you should definitely co nsider taking action. Dont feel like you can talk to your supervisor upfront about it quite yet? Try getting ahead of it. For example, do you know your manager is going to ask to see your client emails before you send them out? Send the drafts to him before he asks to prove that youre on top of your game.In most cases, managers (especially new ones) are looking for people they can count on to stay on top of their own work. The sooner you show this person that she has nothing to worry about with you, the sooner shell get off your back.4. Dont Shoot Down Every New Idea Your Boss HasJust because your manager is new doesnt mean that he doesnt have good ideas. In fact, he was (ideally) hired because he does. However, that doesnt mean hell walk in the door and immediately know which great ideas work for your company. So rather than refusing and just saying weve always done things this way, explain why. (Its a classic show, dont tell scenario.)One of my new bosses felt like our team was fr agmented and suggested starting an email chain to update one another with our daily progress. While her thinking made sense, our team knew this would quickly get annoying. But rather than Reply All to her with a no, I told her one-on-one that I loved her idea (we were too fragmented) and I wanted to offer up a suggestion What if we did this over Slack instead? I explained it was actually better than email because Slack was much more efficient (not to mention, all of our inboxes wouldnt be clogged with unrelated messages). Rather than turning down her idea, I helped her to make it a stronger one. Having a new person in charge doesnt have to be a drag- it can actually be an important and exciting career opportunity if you let itPhoto of computer help courtesy of Shutterstock.