What Really Makes Your Boss Tick?

These two simple but effective questions can accelerate your EQ with your boss.

Do You Understand Your Boss?
Getting to know what makes people tick isn’t easy. But I have a tool that really helps me, especially at the beginning. It’s about asking two simple questions that uncover a number of ways you can be more effective with and for your boss.

The Two Questions

1. What is your boss most afraid of at work? (Or what do they worry about?)
2. What really gets your boss really jazzed at work?

How Does This Work? 
Very simply, observe your boss in your one-on-ones, in team meetings, in meetings with her peers and/or superiors. What seems to stress her out? What seems to excite her? What types of deliverables, information or tasks does she find most engaging?

What Gets Your Boss Jazzed?
For example, one of my bosses LOVED chocolate. I’m not talking about your garden variety chocaholic – she was something special. I noticed that there was an extra spring in her step every time she had chocolate, and it seemed to improve her day dramatically. So, I found special chocolates every now and then to punctuate our already strong effective relationship. She was a very strong person, and didn’t need a lot of TLC most of the time, but I think my little reminders that I was there for her helped on especially hard days.

Another boss I had loved information presented in a certain way. If you could get it all onto one page, he was ecstatic. I usually did my best to do this, and I always noticed a slightly bigger smile on his face when I presented my documents to him. It just made his day that someone really “got” him and made an effort to speak his preferred language.

What is Your Boss Afraid of?
One of my bosses was really intimidated by his boss. He would get a little more flustered before his meetings with his superior, vent a little here and there about the difference in their styles. Fortunately, I was really good at presenting updates to my boss in a way that he could use directly with his boss. I did this for a little while, and then explained later what I had been doing. My boss just looked at me and thanked me simply and honestly. I was making things easier for him to communicate up, which I think built a sense of camaraderie.

One of my bosses was always worrying about missing deadlines. Her team was responsible for a tremendous amount of activity, so not only was she tracking her own project timelines, she was tracking the timelines associated with four other people, too. I found that sometimes, she needed to be interrupted to be told that we were falling behind on something. I would do this immediately, simply, quickly and concisely. At first, it felt a little strange to knock on her door while she was focused on a project. But I soon saw that it really worked for her: she highly valued knowing about potential problems, because it meant she could do something about it. She also sensed over time that I really had her back and was aligned with her values and goals.

Over Time…
I’ve studied a lot of personality type paradigms, and while I find those really helpful in general, I find my two questions very effective. I use it to identify opportunities to team with, instill trust and overall support my bosses. Two questions aren’t enough to really get to know someone, but it can help accelerate the get-to-know-you process considerably.

Cultural Currency

In every work culture, I've noticed that there's always a currency that's harder than cash.

I've done some overseas living and travel, and one thing that always stresses me out is currency exchange. I remember traveling in Europe (long ago) and needing to exchange money at every border. Thankfully, the highway toll booths had charts - large charts - of some 10+ currencies and amounts that were acceptable and I didn’t need to do the math in my head.

Sometimes, I feel like workplace cultures are like that, but without the helpful conversion chart. Whether it's from company to company or department to department, I've noticed that there's always a currency that's harder than cash. And figuring out what that currency is can make or break you.

For example, I once came from a very perfectionistic culture to a culture where volume of deliverables was the name of the game. My previous job had taught me to be careful, paranoid in fact. I cross checked, asked for peer reviews and checked again. Shifting to a different economy where volume was more important than quality was difficult. I had to learn to balance the need to get stuff out the door with making sure it was of sufficient quality. It felt awkward, and I felt inefficient as well as frustrated about the lower quality work product. But I was doing what I was supposed to be doing.

I'm sure everyone can relate to that feeling of not quite getting it.

Here are some ideas on how to adapt more quickly.

• Find out what the currency of your new economy is. It could be anything to making sure you do enough chit-chat at the coffee machine to making sure you're visible at certain times to delivering visually stunning reports every quarter. Whatever it is, look for what "scores points" in your environment. If you start looking, I'm sure you can pick it up pretty quickly.
  
• Ask yourself if you understand how to produce that currency. Sometimes you don't. If you don't, start learning! For example, I see folks struggle with various types of small talk. They typical example is when a group is used to talking about sports and you don't know the first thing about it. Another example is when everyone's talking about the challenges of parenthood, and you don't have kids let alone a partner/spouse. In those instances, for your participation to count maybe you ask questions instead of making contributions.
  
• Are you willing to deal in that currency? Sometimes jobs and companies are awesome, but their cultures aren't. You might find yourself needing to leave the new gig in order to stay true to your values. I don't see a lot of value in handling currency daily that's poisonous to you. But on the other hand, maybe you do want to make the effort and flex your skills and learn.
  
• Can you exchange your old currency for the new one? And how much is it worth? I really hope that if you’re changing jobs that what you did before counts toward something in the new job. But let's face it - not all currencies are exchangeable. My family had to regularly leave things behind when we moved, because it wouldn’t fit or work in the new place (e.g. appliances that worked off a different voltage). Maybe you can bring some of the old currency forward, but if you’re in a different economy it’s likely you’ll lose some value in the exchange. Bear that in mind if you feel like you’re not being valued – maybe you’re trying to pay in the wrong currency, or your currency isn’t valuable enough.

Whether or not any of my examples were relevant, I hope that you find the concept of “cultural currency” useful as you navigate your future.