Be concise, strategic, helpful when corresponding with boss

- When you're striving to be promoted, the first person who comes to mind is your boss. Even if they aren't the person with the final say, your boss has the most influence over your promotion. So communicating with your boss is absolutely critical. And there are two key underpinnings you want to be able to pull through in every communication you have with your boss. First and foremost, show your boss, you are all in. You want your boss to see that you understand your organization's goals, and that you are aligning your work accordingly. You want your boss to see you connecting the dots between strategy and tactics. That means paying attention to the daily task and the pressing challenges, and also taking a very long view. So, make sure you talk with your boss about how your industry is changing and growing, and the ways that you and your department and your organization can leverage that. Now the second thing you want your boss to know is that you have their back. No matter what your position or your level is, part of your job is to make your boss successful. Now there's a big difference between being a suck up and being helpful. You don't need to offer to pick up their dry cleaning, but you should offer to help in areas that will make your boss more successful. So for example, maybe you're approving their deck before a big presentation, or talking through a customer problem with him or her. Let's look at a scenario. Elizabeth is updating me, her boss, on the expedited product launch we talked about in the last video. Things are going well with a few minor hiccups. Let's see how Elizabeth lets me know. So how's the expedited product launch going? - So I was talking to Kelly in marketing about that, and she said they wanted to change the ad that's featuring the family to an ad that features a couple to better compete with our competitors' ads, which is just featuring a couple. So they change the copy a little bit, but they still have to change the graphic. They're working with graphics to get something new. And then I was also talking with Greg in product. He was saying there's a few bugs in the software. And the biggest bug is weird. It's this weird thing where it's not letting people log out of the account management page, but he said it's just the first line in the code, should be no problem to fix. Well, thanks it's something different, but either way it should be fixed. And then they also said there are a few bigger bugs, but Greg said Todd said that those bugs will also be done and that they know what's causing them. So we should be all good for month end. - Okay. That's a lot. Sounds like you're really on top of it. - Thanks. - Hm. What did you think? Elizabeth gave me the info. She told me what I needed to know. But now let's watch another way Elizabeth could have framed this conversation. So next, where are we with the expedited product launch? - We're pacing really well. So top line things you need to know are I'm working with Kelly over in marketing and she's tweaking the last bit of the ads to better compete with our new competitors ads. And we're just waiting on a few graphic things there. And then Greg over in products said he's fixing the last of the bugs by the end of the month. So, we're on pace for an end of the month launch. - That's great. I'm really glad to hear that Elizabeth. - Me too. You know, I know how important it is to our group and to the whole company. - It is. - So, I went ahead and I made a big spreadsheet of all the details, so you can be sure I'm on this. - Good. I'm glad. Thanks for understanding how important this is. - Of course. - In the second scenario, Elizabeth was more concise. She connected our initiative to the larger strategy, and she let me know as the boss, why this is so important. You see, communicating with your boss is not about going into minute detail about every single thing you've accomplished. It's about being concise, strategic, and helpful.