I really did join campus with a dream to scale corporate heights and even took most of my classes seriously, thinking they'll all come in handy one day or the other. Most of them did. But there's one course I never took because there wasn't one. This is the one on "managing your boss".
As I started my first day, I met the first-ever boss of my work life. She seemed to be an all-smiling, approachable and informal person, and then it all started to pour out. "Let's discuss your work plan," she said and, "let me tell you about my operating style."
After it was over, I shuddered at these words going back to the front office to check whether I had joined the defence forces by mistake.
As days passed by, I kept looking at the work plan, day in and day out and often repeated the words that she had used to describe her operating style.
However, the meek management trainee that I was, I went about things ensuring what I did, fitted into the work plan and the operating style.
Today, I often smile to myself when I realise that if there's anything that I've repeatedly used with someone new in my team before we got down to work, it's been exactly those two magical terms they never taught me at B-school.
A work plan is all about your objectives and the projects that you have to manage. It's important to know the latter more than the former since it is usually a team goal that you are expected to contribute to.
Projects help you plan your day-to-day activities and often this is your boss's silent evaluation of what you are good at. Remember, your boss wants you to succeed so that he succeeds as well. Don't hesitate to make sure you reach a common understanding with your boss at the first available opportunity.
What my first boss did may have been unsettling for a management trainee to begin with, but it sure did take the uncertainty out of way on what was expected of me.
Operating style is more intangible and is not something you can often put down on a piece of paper and have sign offs like with the work plan. This is the more tricky part.
Sometimes, bosses themselves are not aware of what they are perceived to be, outside their glass houses. Those who are can tell you about it, like my first boss did, could save you the trouble. Those who are not, and simply leave you to guess it, are the ones you need to prepare for.
Anup Jain is General Manager-Brand Marketing with Whirlpool of India Ltd. He is graduated from FMS, Delhi in 1996.