HOW TO HANDLE A LOUSY BOSS—PART 3
Leading The Horse To Water.
If you genuinely have a lousy boss, then one of the ways that you may need to render service is to point gently in the right direction. Yes, there may be times when you can see the solution but your boss cannot. You must lead that horse to water.
You can do this in ways that are nonthreatening but sometimes it will demand some creativity and conversational jujitsu. For example, you might digress into a minibrainstorming session and then leave your boss hanging with an unanswered question in which the solution becomes more obvious over time. You might be surprised how many times the next day your boss is trumpeting what you already knew was the solution to the problem.
Did you receive the credit? No. Did the boss arrive at a smart decision? Yes. Did the team win? Yes. So what if you did not receive the credit? Sometimes that is how you take a hit for the team.
Remember, the premise here is that you genuinely have a lousy boss. If that is the case, then sometimes adjustments must be made. As long as you have a lousy boss, the more adjustments you can make that ultimately advance the team further than it would have advanced otherwise, then the better off everyone is.
This strategy will not always work for the same reason the adage remains true: although you can lead a horse to water, you cannot make it drink. In some cases, that horse will go thirsty. In some cases, your lousy boss simply will not see the solution to the problem.
When you have a lousy boss, you have to make many adjustments for you and for the team. As I have stated before, this is a very complex situation. That is why you may want to stay tuned for Part 4!
