Managing Your Boss
Prompt:
I got to say that the most useful five tips would be clarifying roles and expectations with your boss. Basically us narrow minded students always think about landing that super cool internship that is all sunshines and rainbows. At least that is the case with me. Once i have landed this so called dream internships, reality hit me hard. Every on on ones with my boss has been nothing but alignment of task and responsibilities for the week. On days where i try to be too clever and initiate my own task, my boss would later straighten out my priorities. I am grateful my boss does this without me learning the heard way, and definitely i feel this to be the most useful out of all the tips. These tips, particularly in building a collaborative working relationship help me manage my relationship with them. It is no longer, i tell you what to do and all i do is obey. More than that, it has become two people working towards the same goal. Once you get this mentality, knowing this tip would not only make you more productive, but makes work more fun due to a sense of belonging. One tip that is not really useful to me would be earning the trust of my boss. Maybe its because i have such an empowering work environment that trust is never an issue for me. But for this factor, the underlying factor would be that i always have a sense of being trusted in all of my workplaces. As an intern, all my work is done very independently and i set the bar for myself. I guess my natural work ethic of being a strict planner plays a role into this. Given that i can manage my own work flow and work independently once task are clear, i always have trust from my bosses in all of my internships. Definitely having work in Indonesia and San Francisco, some of the cultural differences that makes some of these tips more useful lies within authority and status. Back in Indonesia, the working culture was always very autocratic with little sense of freedom to start your own project. Tips like earning trust from your boss and dont waste your boss time is very applicable in Indonesia where the culture is very centered around the boss. However this is less likely to happen when i am working in more of the start-up like culture.
- What are the most useful of the five tips offered in the video, and why?
- How might some of these tips help you (if at all) in managing your own relationship with your internship supervisor, or a past supervisor you have had?
- Which of the tips might not be as useful to you in regard to your current internship, your personal sense of professionalism or workplace ethics, or in regard to other workplace situations you’ve experienced, and why?
- Can you identify any cultural differences that would make some of these tips more or less useful than others?
I got to say that the most useful five tips would be clarifying roles and expectations with your boss. Basically us narrow minded students always think about landing that super cool internship that is all sunshines and rainbows. At least that is the case with me. Once i have landed this so called dream internships, reality hit me hard. Every on on ones with my boss has been nothing but alignment of task and responsibilities for the week. On days where i try to be too clever and initiate my own task, my boss would later straighten out my priorities. I am grateful my boss does this without me learning the heard way, and definitely i feel this to be the most useful out of all the tips. These tips, particularly in building a collaborative working relationship help me manage my relationship with them. It is no longer, i tell you what to do and all i do is obey. More than that, it has become two people working towards the same goal. Once you get this mentality, knowing this tip would not only make you more productive, but makes work more fun due to a sense of belonging. One tip that is not really useful to me would be earning the trust of my boss. Maybe its because i have such an empowering work environment that trust is never an issue for me. But for this factor, the underlying factor would be that i always have a sense of being trusted in all of my workplaces. As an intern, all my work is done very independently and i set the bar for myself. I guess my natural work ethic of being a strict planner plays a role into this. Given that i can manage my own work flow and work independently once task are clear, i always have trust from my bosses in all of my internships. Definitely having work in Indonesia and San Francisco, some of the cultural differences that makes some of these tips more useful lies within authority and status. Back in Indonesia, the working culture was always very autocratic with little sense of freedom to start your own project. Tips like earning trust from your boss and dont waste your boss time is very applicable in Indonesia where the culture is very centered around the boss. However this is less likely to happen when i am working in more of the start-up like culture.