Comments on: Are you making these communications mistakes with your manager?

By: Andy Parkinson’s World » Blog Archive » 3/25/10: Top Career Posts this Week

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:06:44 +0000

[...] From CubeRules: Are you making these communications mistakes with your manager? “Manager – employee communication is tricky. The process should be straightforward, but then, business is social and social situations are never that simple. Throw in the fact that your manager is writing your performance review and has influence on your pay and career and you get a communications nightmare. If you want to be an effective communicator with your supervisor, don’t make these killer mistakes.” [...]

By: Scot Herrick

Scot Herrick — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:57:28 +0000

Pras, if your manager is rushed, take the information you can and come back later with some work done and rework what is needed. This isn't a prototype as such, because your manager never really had the time to go through the requirements. Having done some work on the task and then going back in at a better time to talk through the requirements, however, shows you did some work, recognized the manager was busy and came back with some effort.

On the clarifications in the first meeting, yes, get as much as you can -- it still won't be enough information to give a good deliverable, but it gives you more information to get it closer. So if you are not getting a 'drive by' task and there is time, get the clarification you need. But still prototype it.

I don't think prototyping is necessarily showing that you are taking initiative for your own results. But, it does deliver a higher quality result to your manager or customer, gets you into a collaborative mode for the results, and will help you get to a higher level of trust with the people you prototype with. A manager won't say that is showing initiative to own your results...but you know it is taking initiative to own your results.

By: Pras

Pras — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:05:50 +0000

Scott,

I have a question that relates to this? When you meet your manager and he is rushed and assigns you a task or a project, is it good to formally set up a time to go over a prototype?

Is it also good to get as much clarification as possible at the first meeting when they give you the assignment?

Does this show you are taking initiative to own your results??