The day to day tasks of a manager are often unclear to those under her supervision. Even though I’ve been a manager, I still don’t really understand what my boss’s job is like. And I know that when I wasn’t a manager, I was often perplexed about what my boss was doing all day long.
I think some bosses like that level of ambiguity. There seems to be more flexibility and autonomy in it. However, being secretive about what it is you do, is not always helpful for your staff.
Boss jobs often don’t have a typical day. Much of the time there’s a few meetings to run or attend, a few crises in which to intervene, and a bunch of assignments that happen some point in the day when people aren’t asking questions. There’s also the mental preparation time that often doesn’t get seen or counted, which is the time it takes for a boss to mentally prepare for a difficult conversation, or to deliberate on a tough decision.
Inviting your team to learn about what you do can be helpful in 2 ways.
- When your team learns about all of the work that you produce, all of the hats that you wear, all of the moments when you advocate for them, all of the dilemmas you consider, they’ll be able to better appreciate your role and how it helps them.
- When your team learns about what your days are filled with, what type of stress you endure, what kind of tasks you’re assigned, what kind of decisions you’re asked to make, they’ll be able to consider whether or not moving up into a role like that is what they want.
Bosses: have you been transparent about your responsibilities with your team? How has it gone? Share with us in the comments below.