Disabusing Your Meddling Boss!

I have a client who was recently promoted to an executive position in the corporate ranks. As a part of her new job she is now expected to put together strategic presentations to senior executives, which are often attended by the CEO. So, barely a few months into her job she was excited about putting together a new plan for developing a channel strategy for the company’s retail channel. In that presentation, which was about two weeks away, the CEO was also going to be there, so it was an important show for her to make her mark!

My client worked hard to pull together a stellar presentation on the strategy, how to go about making the change, and what would be needed to support this change from the various functional areas within the organization to succeed. She was quite excited about her message and how she was going to present it.

On the eve of my client’s presentation her boss shows up from out of town—he works remotely—and saunters into her office. He asks her, for the first time, how the presentation was coming along, at which point my client showed him what she had put together. The boss did not have much experience in the channels or partners area, so my client did not seek her guidance before she put her PowerPoint deck together (a mistake we shall address later in this blog). So, late that evening my client’s boss goes through the entire presentation and rips it apart. He then redirects my client to put together a whole new deck for her to present the next day. To make matters worse he was going to be away on that presentation day, as he had another commitment to meet someone in Europe.

So, my client regrouped, and to please her boss, stayed up all night re-scripting the presentation and trying to own it. When her time came the next day, the obvious happened. Her presentation tanked in a few minutes and people attending the meeting left the room holding their noses! My client was crestfallen. She even felt that her career was over because of what had happened in that meeting, for really no fault of hers.

Clearly, a number of things had gone wrong in this episode, some of which were by my client’s doing—or not doing. This situation is not that uncommon. So, here’s what I recommend as a preferred course of action:

1. When an important presentation is scheduled make sure that your boss and you are in synch with what the message is, what role each one will play in that presentation, and who is going to be the final arbiter of the message. Even when you think that you know more than your boss does (and who doesn’t?) make sure that you take this extra step beforehand to prevent communicating any sense of subterfuge or skullduggery.

2. Once the roles and responsibilities are agreed to, make sure that you coordinate ongoing message development to avoid any surprises. If you must educate your boss in a new area, as was the case with my client, take the time and effort. Also, tell your boss to keep out of the areas where you’re confident of your authority, and are able to provide the needed leadership.

3. No matter what you think of your boss there’s a reason they are the boss. So, acknowledge this simple reality and respect the structure.

4. If the boss does not cooperate through the process and/or uses being remote as an alibi for their lack of awareness of what is going on, do not wait till the last minute to get their approval. Also, if they interfere at a point when you cannot accommodate their changed thinking, take charge and ask them to stay away until after the presentation (a tough call to make!). This is what my client should have done when her boss interfered at the eleventh hour.

5. If you succumb to the boss’ pressure, acquiesce to the changes they “suggest,” and you present something that tanks because of it, the best course of action for you is to reach out to those who attended the presentation and to seek their feedback. This opens up an avenue for you to have an “objective” dialog with your boss with the right insights, rather than giving them subjective—even an emotional—account of what happened.

6. With this plan you now have a course of action in place for a new relationship with your boss. At this point you are in a position to make your demands known and how you are going to manage your ongoing relationships with your boss.

7. If your boss is unable to meet your terms, getting defensive—even defiant—about their actions, one avenue you still have is to team-up with a few people in that audience that watched you tank, and then get them to champion a new course of action about your role with a more appropriate—and different—role in future presentations for your boss. If you persuade them to go to your boss’ boss and suggest a new arrangement of how future presentations should be staged, then you have succeeded in parlaying your defeat into a success. This is a tricky move and you should manage it carefully. (Translation: Do not go around your boss to complain to the big boss what happened!)

8. Once this episode is behind you, it is your priority to make sure that your working relationship with your boss continues to be amicable, productive, and cooperative!

Good luck!