How well do you get on with your boss?
I had a familiar conversation a-la-'my-boss-is-a-PR-person-that-just-doesn't-get-IC-and-is-driving-me-nuts' with someone last week, hence the question.
I've always been tough on my bosses. It took me a very long time to realise I was being TOO tough. Fundamentally, I expected my managers to be better than me. To know everything I did and be able to do everything I could - only more, and bigger, and better. Given that I set impossible standards for myself, the standards I set for them were sky high, especially as most of them did have PR background and were never going to be IC experts - that's why they employed me.
It took me until my last in house job to realise just how impossible those standards were, and to stop fuming inwardly at the things managers didn't get about internal comms and start looking instead for the things they were good at and respecting them for those. My last boss was phenomenally good at building relationships. When I asked him how he did it, he looked a bit perplexed because he did it naturally, but eventually said he looked for an outside work interest/topic he had in common with them and formed a bond that way.
It's amazing how much easier and less frustrating things got when I stopped stressing about what was missing and started looking at the good things. I learnt a lot more, and I developed a lot more respect and understanding for my boss. I also reflected about what I gained through having a manager without an IC background - a lot more autonomy, freedom and access to the senior team. And if there was learning I needed that I couldn't get from him, fine - I went and got it somewhere else.
Looking back, I really wish I'd learned the lesson earlier about not expecting my manager to be superman and looking for what I could value instead. I just thought I'd pass that one on, in case it saves someone else a few years of totally fruitless frustration. (I should point out that most of my managers have been really great people and I promise I haven't spent all my time inwardly moaning about them!)
Sue
PS I discovered today that the Swedish equivalent of pancake day is to eat something called Semla, a totally calorific doughy object filled with marzipan and absolutely laden with cream. Obviously I had to try one - adopt local cultures and all that, and anyway, it's a good work up to cutting out chocolate for lent - yes, really!!
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