Job Tuition

How to Communicate With Your Boss

April 1st, 2007 by Andrew

An important part of any job is being able to communicate with your boss. Talking efficiently with your boss can make or break your job. With that in mind, here are some things to consider.

Listen first

Good communication always begins with listening. If you don’t listen to your boss, it will be hard to perform your job. Actually, make that impossible.

Without listening to your boss, you can’t know what you need to do. Your projects will be a muddled mess.

On the other hand, if you listen attentively, you will catch most of what your boss tells you. Careful listening will tell you exactly what you need to do.

Ask questions

After you’ve listened carefully, it’s time to clarify your assignment. You’ll undoubtedly have questions about the task. Fortunately, you can easily ask your boss for clarification.

Here’s a few things that might be unclear:

• When is the deadline?
• What final product is expected?
• Are periodic status reports needed?

It’s important not to be shy about asking questions like this. Your boss won’t think your ignorant. In reality, he’ll appreciate your foresight and eagerly provide answers.

Send updates

Keep your boss in the loop. Just because she assigned a project to you does not mean that she knows what’s going on. It’s up to you to fill her in.

A good way to do this is with periodic status reports. Consider sending an email to your boss once a week, simply listing the status of your projects. This doesn’t have to be detailed. In fact, it should be a broad snapshot that your boss can quickly skim to see your progress and availability.

If you work remotely, status reports are even more important. It’s difficult for a supervisor to know what employees in other locations are doing. Remove the guesswork by periodically (and reliably) telling your boss what’s on your plate.

Get approval

My final thought on supervisor communication pertains to new projects. Always clear them with your supervisor.

In many jobs, other people in the company will come to you with tasks and things they need. But your supervisor may not want to devote time to these things. Thus, it’s crucial to be sure you are doing things that are important to your boss.

The rule of thumb: ask, if you’re not sure.