Standing up to your boss

Posted by Mitch McCrimmon Mar 7, 2007

Do you have a really demanding boss? Do you feel overworked? There is little use complaining to such bosses. They will just think you aren't up to the job and find someone else. The key to asserting yourself with such bosses is to focus on their needs, not yours. Make them realize that, to do the best job you can for them, you need to follow the 80/20 rule. That means investing 80% of your time on the 20% of things that are most important to them. Giving everything equal importance is a recipe for a poor return on the investment of your talent, time and other resources. Talk about being strategic and tease out of them a priority ranking so that you can invest your resources for the best return in line with your boss's needs. If you can convince your boss that you have his best interests at heart, how can he argue with that?