Give your Boss Wine

and Not Grapes

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Give your boss Wine and not Grapes

Why Boss starts rejecting you?
During my service of more that 25 years, I had worked with more than 10 bosses.
Managing your boss is one of the most important part of your job, rather I should
say it is your one of the foremost duty to handle your boss. If boss is happy all will
be in the right direction. One of My bosses told me that the relation between
Boss and subordinate is like Husband and Wife. Loyalty, confidence, trust, interdependency and care for each other are mostly wanted in this relation. Here we
will discuss some of the major areas of concerned.
1) Saying NO This is one of the most dangerous situation, when you
decided to say NO to your boss. No boss loves to hear NO from his/her
subordinates. Even though your are right and justifiable, but this is not
accepted by any boss. So before saying NO, think twice and try to avoid
to say NO. Manage the situation by using some other vocabulary. Before
saying NO, present your views on the issue and remind same kind of
situation where you/he has dropped the decision or have failed to succeed.
Let the decision comes from him/her. Present the data and analysis to
support him taking decision.
2) Procrastinating the tasks There are situations where you are not able to
complete the task on time or unable to even attempt due to laziness or
scarcity of time or over loaded with work. Your boss may be having other
subordinates; he may assign the same task to other person, in case you are
unable to complete it. If it is a routine, it is an indicator that you are going
to face a rough time ahead and have to face worst on employment front.
3) Talking Problem When you start depending on analysis and decisions
from your boss, it is time to depart. It is your duty to collect data, analyse
data and provide the options to your boss to take decision. Never go to
your boss with problem, rather go with Solution and seek his final approval
on the decision you want to take. Always talk solutions for a problem. Boss
doesnt work with base-line data and analysis.

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Give your boss Wine and not Grapes

4) Involvement in your Tasks If your boss is involved in helping you in your

day-to-day tasks, it means he/she is investing his/her time in your task. This
cant be done for long. By doing so, your boss will start losing on his
priorities and is not justifying his/her job. But it is your lagging that you are
unable to perform as per the management. Your boss cant save you for
longer time. Every body in organization is watching you and your boss. So
do your job yourself. If you need training on the job or training on skill
development, do that and dont waste your boss time in helping you in
your job. Rather you should extend your hand in helping your boss to give
some of your time to him. Save his time. Help him reminding meeting
times, scheduling tasks, followup with others on his/her behalf. If he
progress, you will also and visa versa.
5) Improper and inaccurate data When you present your data with your
boss, it should be in the desireable format and the data should be concise
and accurate. Re-work on the data always create stress and which induce
rejection and denial. You should present the decisional data instead of
bulky database. All bosses wants Wine and not grapes. So always convert
Grapes in Wine.
6) Over commitment There are people, to impress their Bosses, accept all
the assignments offered by the boss. Boss will be happy only if what to
promise is what you deliver. If you dont deliver, dont take responsibility.
Accept only what you can deliver. Your boss has N number of options to
handle and delegate the tasks. If you do that, it will go against you. Even
when your boss has task of your caliber, he will divert to someone else.
Non-delivery creates un-trust and ultimately create problem in your
assessment.
7) Personal Differences Normally Boss will not align with your likes and
dislikes. Therefore it is better for you to understand your Bosss likes and

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Give your boss Wine and not Grapes

dislikes. Align yourself with your bosss likes and dislikes. Match your
frequency with him/her to have a good relationship and understanding.
Personal differences will be harmful for you only. Sooner the better, align
yourself.
8) Asking for opinion Never ask for your bosss opinion, if not requirement.
It is always better not to ask for. He/she will be having very fever opinion
on the issue you want to have, because you knows the basic data and
situation, therefore you have more options. If you ask one, then your boss
will always see that his/her opinion are taken care. Therefore it should be
always avoided to ask for any opinion in the initial stage. Even though if you
want to know his /her opinions then prepares a list of opinions and present
those to your boss. 99% your boss will give decision out of the list.
9) Over Smart Dont be over smart. Even though you may be best in
technical skills or in analytical skills, but you cant over smart your boss.
Boss has all the powers and experience. Experience always has more
weightage. Every person wants others with respect him/her and Boss has
always a bigger ego. Take all decision in consultations with your boss.
Indirectly you are doing the tasks with approval from your boss. If you do
so, your boss will be always happy and will support you in all respect.
10) Build Trust of your Boss - By supplying half cooked reports, mistakes in the
text, grammatical mistake, illogical wits, etcs., you irritate your boss. And if
it is done repeatedly, for sure youre going to lose his/her trust. Once trust
is gone, everything else will go. The boss will either give all the tasks to
someone else or will fire you left and right every time you do mistake,
compelling you to quit.
In nut shell, you cant play with your boss, be supportive by
provide required data in the required format complete in all

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Give your boss Wine and not Grapes

respect. Respect his time and yours. Dont be over smart, and
dont try to teach your boss, understand his level and
expectations.

Maintain

his

self-respect

by

obeying

his

instructions and maintain your self-respe+ct by getting

appreciation and trust from your Boss. End of the day, Boss
should be happy with your performance and productivity.
Your performance should boost his image also.
About author
Rajinder Singh Mann, B.Sc., PGDCS, MBA, MPhil. Having Experience of 25 years
in S&OP, Education, Logistics, SCM. Has worked in diverse industries like
Publishing, Fasteners, Paints and Varnishes, Food Processing, Education and
Training, Steel wares and Table-wares. Presently associated with Ceramics
Industry heading Supply Chain Department.

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