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Course Outline
What Is a Boss?
- Why we need bosses
- What bosses do
- What bosses worry about
- What bosses need
- What bosses really want: both documented and unstated
- How to understand a boss’s needs, fears, and priorities
- How and why the role of bosses has changed in the 21st century, especially when it comes to leading skilled technical people
Understanding Managerial Behaviors and Styles: Up and Across
- Personality differences
- Behavior styles
- Emotional intelligence
- Leadership styles and attitudes
- How to profile your boss
- Profiling your fellow managers
- Understanding the organization
- Looking two levels up and across
- Your boss’s boss
- Who manages your peers?
- Expectations and influence in your part of the matrix
Understanding Your Dual Leader-Follower Role
- Winning follower styles and attitudes
- Problematic follower styles and attitudes
- What you can do to improve managing up
- How to avoid being micro-managed
Understanding Your Relationship with Other Managers
- Winning interaction styles and attitudes
- Problematic interaction styles and attitudes
- What you can do to improve your relationships across the organization
- Monitoring and managing your relationships across the organization
- Achieving the Right Business Outcome, Regardless of Your Boss Type
- Understand power and influence
- Understand boss-worker roles
- Understand politics and true business priorities
- What you can do to get what you need from your boss
- What you actually do–and do not–control (despite what you are told)
Achieving the Right Business Outcomes in Cooperation with Other Managers
- How to set up mutual wins
- How to escalate your issues to the larger picture of the managers above you
Dealing With a New Boss
- Meet and educate your new boss
- Handle any changes demanded while protecting what is working well
- Avoid constantly bringing up the past
- Optimize the new relationship as quickly as possible
Workshop: Seeing the Big Picture
A practical session that demonstrates the importance of including your colleagues and your manager’s needs when setting your own priorities
Managing Multiple Bosses
- Identify who your real bosses are, despite the reporting lines
- Deal with virtual bosses
- Deal with your boss’s boss
- Deal with conflicts between your line management and corporate demands
- Skillfully say ‘no’ to people who are not your boss
Dealing With Difficult Bosses
- Identify acceptable versus unacceptable behavior
- Deal with cultural, generational, and gender conflicts in bosses
- Understand what you can and cannot do to change the situation
Effective Escalating
- Know when to escalate
- How and when to deliver the bad news
- Escalate to exploit your boss’s influence
- Escalate without abdication
- Achieve win-win outcomes when escalating
- Get fast results when escalating in a crisis
Effective Upwards Communication and Reporting
- How to write an effective senior management report
- Develop effective presentation techniques to senior management
- Define the desired outcomes for you and your management
- Create the right structure and message
- Learn how to identify what senior managers really want to know about
Conclusion: Managing Yourself So That You Can Manage Others
Course Schedule
This instance has one attendance option - online.
- 3/3/2025 02:00pm - 05:00pm Central Time
- 3/4/2025 02:00pm - 05:00pm Central Time
- 3/5/2025 02:00pm - 05:00pm Central Time
- 3/6/2025 02:00pm - 05:00pm Central Time
Additional Information
Online course materials will be available approximately one week prior to the course date.
Program Director & Instructors
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Program Director
Jon Wellik
Trevor Manning
Consultant
Trevor Manning is an accomplished author, leaderhsip consultant, and trainer with extensive international experience leading technical teams. He has held roles such as chief engineer, technical director, Chief Operating Officer, and board advisor.
With a diverse background spanning various companites including a large government-owned utility, a US-headquartered manufacturer, an international London headquartered start-up, and a privately owned telecommunications operator, Trevor offers valuable insights into real-world business operations.
Trevor leads three training courses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, focusing on practical insights derived from his wealth of experience.
Effectively Managing Technical Teams
Leadership Beyond Your Team: Managing Up and Across
Critical Conversations: Results-based Communication
Trevor has published several technical and leadership books and lives in Brisbane, Australia.