Managing Up: How to Forge an Effective Relationship With Those Above You - Hardcover

Badowski, Rosanne; Gittines, Roger

 
9780385507721: Managing Up: How to Forge an Effective Relationship With Those Above You
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0385507720 ISBN 13: 9780385507721
Verlag: Doubleday, 2003

Inhaltsangabe

A guide to creating a productive working relationship with a manager shares anecdotes about the author's works with top business leaders while addressing such topics as empowerment, prioritizing, multitasking, and working under pressure.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

<b>ROSANNE BADOWSKI</b> has worked with former GE CEO Jack Welch for thirteen years. Prior to becoming Welch’s executive assistant, she spent twelve years in administrative positions in international human resources, executive management, and organization planning at GE. She lives in Easton, Connecticut.

Aus dem Klappentext

a boss. And anyone who has aspired to move up the corporate ladder knows that their relationship with those they report to is crucial. In <i>Managing Up</i> Rosanne Badowski offers a straightforward, entertaining, no-holds-barred account of what it takes to make your relationship with your boss work to your advantage, no matter where you stand in the corporate hierarchy. <br><br>Told through rich, colorful anecdotes about her years spent working with one of the smartest, most demanding and dynamic business leaders of the twentieth century, legendary GE CEO Jack Welch, Badowski reveals the secrets to career success she has gleaned over the years. At heart, it’s about working with the person above you to create a productive and effective partnership.<br><br>Everyone is a manager, in one way or another, Badowski points out. She discusses first-hand what it’s like to have to be a mind reader, to anticipate the future, to plan for the unexpected, and to perform the impossi

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Chapter 1

Chemistry

“WHEN THE GODS . . . punish us, they answer our prayers,” wrote Oscar Wilde. In other words, be careful what you wish for.

In the fall of 1988, I had no interest in becoming executive assistant to John F. Welch, the Chairman and CEO of GE. In fact, from my job as administrative assistant in GE’s Corporate Human Resources department, I was praying to get a promotion to an entry-level management position that had just opened up in GE Supply. In retrospect, perhaps my prayers conveyed mixed messages. On one hand, I wanted to move up the ladder, but on the other, I liked my boss, my colleagues, and the work I was doing. The two wishes may have canceled each other out.

At the time, I had been at GE for more than twelve years in a variety of administrative assignments. Corporate Human Resources was one of the better gigs, with lots of responsibility and opportunities to deal with senior executives and some of the company’s hottest businesses. One of the advantages of being in HR was that it let you get involved in many different areas instead of being stuck doing the same old thing. I know HR can be dumped on for being too “back-office” or “touchy-feely,” but that’s a bad rap. A good HR department goes beyond handing out benefit booklets and is the driver of successful employee development.

The broad experience I gained in HR is what gave me a shot at the posted open management position. That job entailed managing a group of regional sales facilities for products distributed by GE Supply. I actively campaigned for the job and overcame most of the personnel hurdles. Jack Peiffer (senior vice president of Corporate Human Resources and my manager at the time) agreed to the move. He was a wonderful boss with a down-to-earth demeanor, and his blessing on my candidacy was important not only politically but personally. Nonetheless, I was having trouble bringing the final offer to closure, so I went to him to ask what was going on. Instead of giving me a straight answer, his usual approach, he tap-danced around, finally saying that on further reflection he didn’t think the position was right for me. I was shocked and angry, and left his office determined to get the promotion or quit. Being single and not having children, I had—and still have—the luxury of independence and a few rash acts. I was happy working at GE, but I was not going to be stifled and held back. I wanted out. A few days later, Mr. Peiffer took me aside and explained what was going on: Jack Welch’s executive assistant, Helga Keller, was leaving to get married. My name had been tossed into the hat as a possible candidate, and I was on the short list.

I briefly considered taking my name off the list, but I didn’t want to embarrass those who had obviously been singing my praises. I was also curious to see what the hiring process was like at the CEO-level of a company as enormous as GE. Maybe I’d learn something new. I agreed to be screened and, if I made it that far, interviewed by Jack Welch. It may seem like a pretty flimsy rationale for not pursuing the management slot, but at the time it made sense to me. But I’ve never kidded myself into thinking that Mr. Peiffer and the company got out the scales and carefully weighed the benefits of Rosanne the manager against Rosanne the executive assistant. HR had a paramount goal: fill the position in the CEO’s office with someone who had a reasonable track record and was likely to stick it out for a while. Jack Peiffer was enough of an HR veteran to know how tricky it is to match a senior executive with an assistant and how costly a mistake can be in terms of wasted time, aggravation, and lost productivity. A successful match also comes from pure personal chemistry. Filling the position of the executive assistant to the CEO was a more crucial task for HR than filling an entry-level management position at GE Supply. It was easier for the HR team to disappoint me temporarily. Looking back, if I had been in Jack Peiffer’s shoes, I would have made the same decision that he did. Besides, I wasn’t disappointed for long.

Ms. Curiosity and Miscalculation

At the time, I didn’t think there was a chance I would get the job.

Why?

Because I really didn’t want it. But I realize in retrospect that my “not a chance” mind-set gave me a tremendous advantage over the other candidates. I wasn’t afraid, and I didn’t overprepare or oversell myself in my one-hour interview with Jack Welch at a subsequent lunch several days later.

Also, the Jack Welch “cult” was only in its infancy, or more accurately, adolescence. After seven years as CEO, he’d had his share of media attention, much of it critical, or at least tough and skeptical. At the time, the Welch cost-cutting, downsizing, and deal-making style was fodder for columnists and commentators, but at GE headquarters he was simply the CEO rather than a legend or icon. Jack Peiffer and the other department heads, whom I dealt with day in and day out, were far more immediate and real to me. Jack Welch was a blip on someone else’s radar screen.

I’m probably going to regret these comments. But please don’t misread me. Jack Welch was definitely shaking up GE. Yet at the time he was not held in awe by most GE headquarters employees any more than Reg Jones, his predecessor, had been. The glory years of GE’s being the largest and most valuable company in the world were still to come.

While I didn’t do anything special to prepare for the interview, I wasn’t as lackadaisical as I sound. At that level and with such a large company, there are literally thousands of issues and functions involved. I could have crammed for weeks without scratching the surface—and probably wouldn’t have really lighted on anything even resembling a surface, for that matter. Putting aside my underlying belief that there was no way I would be offered the job, it would have been crazy to try to bluff my way into it.

CEOs may not always inspire awe, but they don’t rise to the top without being able to spot phonies. I’m not saying that being prepared is the same thing as faking it. Not at all. But the most impressive preparation is the kind that comes from being fully effective in your present job. It doesn’t come from drills, dry runs, or dress rehearsals prior to an interview. Being fully effective springs from building a reputation for being a team player, demonstrating a willingness to accept responsibility, bringing new ideas to the job, and being productive. Knowing today what was at stake and how much I would have missed out on if I hadn’t gotten the job, I might have done a bit more homework if I were to do it all over again. But even today I’d have to say it’s easy to overdo it. There were several times that I’ve kidded around, small-talked, and tried to calm the jitters in otherwise well-qualified men and women who came in to interview with Jack Welch. What I couldn’t come out and say was, “This guy knows your record and résumé as well as you do. Now he wants to know who you are. Just go in there and be yourself.”

I know—easier said than done. In my case, despite not wearing a lucky bracelet or pulling an all-nighter, I did have the jitters. Worrying that I didn’t prepare enough would have made them worse. I didn’t shake or stammer; I blushed. When I realized what I was doing, I blushed even more. The red cheeks made a nice contrast to the blue dress I was wearing.

The interview took less than an hour. Then and now, the...

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Verlag
Doubleday
Erscheinungsdatum
2003
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0385507720
ISBN 13 
9780385507721
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Auflage
1
Anzahl der Seiten
215
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Doubleday
https://knopfdoubleday.com/imprint/doubleday/

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