She calls it “managing up.”īecause at the end of the day, our bosses can have a lot of influence over our career trajectory: what projects we work on, what teams we’re a part of, our visibility in the organization and the industry, and what we get out of a job, she adds.

Regardless, it’s going to make you a stronger professional (and a better manager if and when you’re in that role) if you figure out ways to adapt and work together rather than jump ship because of your differences, Abbajay says. “You’re going to have a spectrum of different types of bosses.”Īnd there are a lot of ways those bosses can fail at being a boss. And more likely than not - unless you work for the same manager your entire career - you’re going to have a boss over the course of your career who has different preferences from you: you may not communicate well, you may not get along, or you may not approach problems in the same way, Abbajay says. We all have our preferences about how we work. People often get promoted into manager roles because they have and excel at the technical skills needed for their job, not because they have good managerial skills.) Related Most managers don’t get training on how to manage, Abbajay says.

They not only hold their employees accountable, they support their employees when they need to.”Ī boss can be lacking when it comes to any of those qualities. And there are qualities that make someone an effective manager of the people they’re managing, like supporting those people, valuing those people, listening to them, coaching them, and caring about their engagement and wellbeing, Abbajay tells NBC News BETTER. There are qualities that make someone a productive manager, like being organized, keeping things on track, and delivering on the goals of the organization. (She’s also the author of ' Managing Up: How to Move Up, Win at Work, and Succeed with Any Type of Boss'.) It helps to not think of managers as either just good or bad, explains Mary Abbajay, president of Careerstone Group, an organizational consulting and coaching service.

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