Your #1 Job is to Make Your Boss Look Good

My friend is the subordinate in this situation. It's not really his thing, but he's more accepting of it than I would be, and we disagreed. I'm trying to determine if my opinion is unreasonable... or in the majority. I would find it uncomfortable and disruptive. I would say your #1 priority is to the company... and then to yourself. Gaining recognition because of your accomplishments; not because you made your boss look good. It somehow seems overly political to me. Like a "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" kind of thing. Just seems wrong.

I've always concentrated on making myself and the company look good....The boss is on his own....

If you make yourself look good at the exspense of others, you are a failure, or a lawyer.

Do your job, to the best of your ability, and the rest should do likewise.

SE, you should change your name to Solar Ego.

And have been showing your colors as of late.

http://cr4.globalspec.com/comment/1148179/Re-VW-Mitsubishi-and-the-Ethical-Engineer

You should do your job period. It sounds as though when you're in an organization, you'd rather pick and choose the work you do that will make your facade look good.

Just like the discription of the boss in this OP. In life, there are times you have to do a low profile and humbling work in the trenches that nobody knows about or cares to do. But is a very important and integral part for the success of a project.

These are the people I support, and would go out of my way to assist.

You actually sound like the boss the OP described.

I don't have a facade... I've done more than my share of 'humbling' work as you call it, I just call it work....My example cited is from a real world event, I was just being honest...You seem to be particularly belligerent today, trouble in paradise?

I don't know what your problem is, but you are totally off base....The real world experience I alluded to was when I walked out of a company that was engaged in dishonest practices...I've worked hard my whole life and don't hesitate to take responsibility.... Now take a hike...

Oh, now you just walked out, no damage?

Again from the same earlier post.

http://cr4.globalspec.com/comment/1148179/Re-VW-Mitsubishi-and-the-Ethical-Engineer

Instead of trying going through all that work of trying to explain yourself from your conflict two posts. Isn't it easier to just admit you misspoke. That's understandable. But you can't.

You just try to deflect it on someone else.

No reason for me to go into detail, but I stand behind my statement....maybe I'll tell you the story someday, but not today...

And I'll listen... Frankly, I'd actually enjoy that. For me it's almost like a support group, if for anything else to vent to others that understand..

I can only make my own actions look good. I cannot make anyone else's actions look good or bad. The emperor chooses their own wardrobe.

Following that up... I would be worried that if you should in fact screw up for whatever reason, your boss's main concern would be the damage to his own reputation, and would take it personally, making repercussions more drastic and possibly unfairly biased.

Been there done that more than I want to admit to.

Ditto...

That's why I'm pretty adament (at times to the limit) on pseudo anything dealing with a profession,... Engineers, management....

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/34629/At-Least-Have-Some-Experience

I beleive anybody with good moral ethics have.

Would I change?... I may handle things slightly different, but no. If you accept that type of culture and fall into place, you're no better than they are. And that's unexceptable to me.

So, fortunately, I'm more picky to the culture I work in.

Yes, this is a thing. I have not experienced it, but I have heard of it from others. It is one of those widespread bits of "wisdom" in the business world. Try googling it and you get references all over the business world, including Forbes magazine and Robert Half.

I think it sounds really bad, but I also think there is some truth to it, if you consider that doing your job well makes your boss look good. Perhaps more to the point, it makes your boss happy to look good. If your first job is to keep your job, then you want the person who hires and fires you to be happy with your work, and perhaps even more happy with the way you treat him.

If your boss is happier with brown-nosing than with good work, then I'd say find another job. But then some employees are happier with brown-nosing than doing good work, so they would be made for each other until the company goes out of business.

I look at it this way. If the boss has said x will be ready on y date, he looks good when that happens.

If it is your job to do that, that is how you make him look good.

I suppose, instead of look good, ie appear better than he/she is, maybe it should be read as 'fulfilling orders by the deadline' 'making the greatest product' 'making more widgets' or other of your job requirements

I do remember listening to a guy moan about his boss not being committed to the firm, always coming in 'late'. As an employer I had to say 'if you guys were any good he wouldn't have to go in at all'

cnc jim

I always worked for the company under direction of the boss. I was middle management and in most of my many jobs working for the company and boss was the same thing, but not in all my jobs. What ever my situation though I was loyal to the company. I know for a fact this lost me quite a few job interviews. If I considered the boss to be capable of doing any employees job, and willing to do it if needed, I was always prepared to build his reputation. I never considered this to be brown nosing. It was more a way of insuring we kept a good guy at the helm. I am retired now, still learning new skills, fighting off a now stabilised disease, (I am not out of the woods but no longer fear being attacked by wolves.) but I still miss several aspects of work. I myself was always prepared to do any job that I was prepared to delegate when the need arose and stood up for those both under and over me when necessary. So no, I don't think my job was ever to make the boss look good. The company yes and when these two were compatible then I would do so. By the way, is this director related to the owner of the business. In my last job the director was a distant relative of the family that owned the business and he often turned up in work gear to help clear back logs, do factory maintenance and on one occasion altering a three day production run stuff up by the drafting office.

I am retired but active in several charities. Some are well run, one or two are not. My latest involvement is as a governor of a local primary school (a voluntary post), for which I was interviewed by the chairman of governors and a deputy head teacher. The standard of the interview process was dreadful, and though I was offered the post, I was in two minds as to whether to bother. In the end I accepted, with the intention of going through all the school governor processes with a sharp knife. If my chairman fails again I shall tell him so.

I will suggest make your organisation healthy. Do anything which will be in interest of your company. It should earn your company more profit and also should make your customers make look good.

The "Boss" doesn't have to know or be an expert in your line of work.... But he must be a darn good administrator to lead your dept., and be given that responsibilities by his superiors!

On the otherhand you also must be good enough to function and do your share, at the minimum meet the job description as required by your position /title...

It is a given that if you shine in your assigned position, your "boss" automatically will benefit and him too as well as rest in the chain of command! It is everyone's resposibility to coordinate and work together as a whole to succeed! It is teamwork and your role as defined need to be a good team player!

Working with a good boss, I always felt that it is your job to make him look good. Because a good boss reflects that onto you.

One also has to recognize a poor boss, that is only looking after themselves on the backs of others.

I was always wary of the people who preaches and puts up the false facade of "team work". And if they show themselves that way, I'll call them out.

And dEpending how established the pseudo management is. I'm not a very good ally to them. On the other hand, the workers they manage, are ver grateful that I stood up against this pseudo leaders and I'll call them out.

But you have to be prepared for the worse, if pseudo management is well engrained in their culture. Which I have done also and paid for it dearly.

It's nonsense.

• The job of a boss is to create the environment within which people may perform.
• The job of a Director is to work with other Directors as a team to create policy.

End of.

Ask the engineer who gave the go ahead for the Challenger launch in 1986.

The real engineers who were there strongly opposed any launch that far outside the acceptable launch limits that morning. It was TOO COLD to launch.

Maybe you just don't know the facts.

"Ebeling and four other engineers at NASA contractor Morton Thiokol had tried to stop the launch."

http://www.engineering.com/Library/ArticlesPage/tabid/85/ArticleID/170/The-Space-Shuttle-Challenger-Disaster.aspx

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/28/464744781/30-years-after-disaster-challenger-engineer-still-blames-himself

It sucks when you're right and nobody listens.

In one sense it is your job to make your boss look good. You do this by doing your job well, and letting him (if he's a good boss) look good, if only by the fact that he chose you for his "team".

You also make him look good when you find something that could be an embarrassment for him and inform him of your suspicions: let HIM explain why something won't work or at least produce the level result expected by HIS boss.

Your #1 job is NOT making him look bad (or at least trying to; if he want to make a fool of himself, at least you weren't the reason).

"Your job is to make someone else look good." Unless you are a personal assistant, a roadie, or a make-up artist/fashion designer, i have a three-word description for that position:

WORST. JOB. EVER.

As well as three words of advice:

Get out NOW!

Making the boss look good should also make you/the team look good. There are bosses out there that do not share credit, but I am quite sure that senior management can see that the "boss" does not do all the work. If they don't, well too bad for the company. It has been my experience that the glory seeking bosses, don't really last that long - at least in small/medium size companies. Large companies, different story - there are lots of places for the glory seekers and they are generally intelligent enough to be able to blend in with the culture and fudge their way through just about anything, not always, but usually.

Could be that the mentioned Director wasn't telling or you didn't get the whole story. And remember, people are subject to selective deafness - hearing only what they want to hear.

Yes, pretty much. You want people to think your boss hired you because she thought you were the right person for the job. In turn, your boss will also tell everyone else what a good job you do. It is however, not usually your job to make your boss 'feel good'. That's what schmoozing is all about right down to the proverbial ass kissing.

I don't know why making your Boss look good helps you in your carrier. Now days every one works with targets and all try to achieve it. If you have achieved your target, your boss should be happy or look good. Even if he is still not looking good then it is not your problem. You have performed well. You should not bother about his looks. At time of yearly performance review if there is no recognition about your performance then better try to change the job.

Well that's interesting... at least one person here believes very strongly that it's right for a boss to instruct his employees that making him look good is their #1 priority; so much so, that they voted down 2 previously GA's that thought otherwise.

Anyways, the reason for my asking the question was to determine if my opinion, that a boss like that is pretty messed up, was in the majority. I'm glad to see that the consensus is pretty one-sided on this.

Good take on it. OOBE

As oppose for a boss to hire employees to make him look bad.... oh yeah, that will work.... lol

I don't know about the #1 priority as opposed to the company

For me that phrase is just a consequence of doing my job right. I always assume that my boss became my boss because he had deserved it (whether he actually deserved it or not). I find it safer and better that way. I don't feel bad if he looked good because of me because if he did, I look good to him, too! The team looks good, and everyone is happy. My position allows me to have some guys under me sometimes, when the economy is good. I show those guys how good I treat my boss, how I follow him and respect him. What I experienced was that those guys did follow my lead. And it was a really great feeling to have a wonderful team around you. I believe that to be a good leader, one must be a really good follower first. Cheers!

I understand what you're saying. That's often true.

My point was that this guy specifically instructs his subordinates that their highest priority is to make their boss look good.

What you describe should happen of its own. I think there is something wrong when it is spelled out in this way. And that's the difference.

You are right. There is something very, very wrong with this mindset. For one thing, it never really works out that way for a variety of reasons. Typically, the failure modes are as follows:

1) The boss offers more than he can deliver with the assets he has. In his mind, the subordinates need to work free overtime to meet his unrealistic promises.

2) The boss doesn't offer enough. He depends on his subordinates to make up the difference by coming up with cost savings ideas or innovations he didn't ask for. In this case it is a lack of leadership.

Anything less is a failure to make the boss look good.

A really good boss trains other people to take his place. Of course, he has to be making a contribution himself, else there is nothing for him to pass on.

The worst kind of boss is an empire builder. One that lies about performance in both directions. It happens all the time and they frequently make the same statement that you pointed out.

I see, I think it is unethical for a Boss to say that, unless maybe he actually owns the company. A good boss just tries to facilitate your talents to reach a certain objective for the company. I once became a Lead Engineer of one of our projects, that was getting behind after someone else lead that project and got fired. I study the situation, and asked the engineers why I think their designs were so conservative. What they told me was that all their designs were just "dictated" to them by the previous Lead and all they did was to show in by calculations that they were good. I told them that was not right. That was not proper engineering. So I told them to just redo their work as if nobody were dictating them how to do their job, and I would just be there to verify and check their work at the end. In a matter of a few days, we must have saved the company at least half a million dollars! My Boss was on vacation at that time. When he came back, he smiled and asked me how I did it. I told him I just let the Engineers be the Engineers.

This scenario is typical when job descriptions for each level of employment were not properly defined and filled by qualified, competent people! Where some people were hired either by influence or nepotism! Which becomes problematic and true on position(s) that are of supervisory /managerial responsibilities!

Self respect, and self confidence somehow comes hand-in-hand with competency regardless of the position he/she is assigned on!

Having said that, I believe this particular boss either got his job thru influence, plain not technically qualified or has some personaly issues?

The story is, he got this "advice" from his boss years ago, before his promotion, and now that he is in charge, he is now subjecting those below him to the same fate.

Regardless....so now you all are in a join him or lick him predicament??

Sometimes, if you're President, you can get both.

Sometimes is true.....since even a CEO or a company President still may report to the Board of Governors or to its Chairman.....

I capitalized President for a specific reason.

Some boss rides only on your accomplishments and deny connection with messes and failures. They always bring soap and towel, anytime, they wash their hands clean with yours with mud.

navy huh?

In the private sector, I would challenge him with very direct questions about competency.

I think the first sentence of your third paragraph might have affected the situation.

I found this out by a Navy Captain (O-6) at the Pentagon. He called me about orders to my next duty station. This Captain was the community detailer (a high-level placement officer) who proceeded to tell me that he was tasked with finding me a good job next assignment......since my superior officer had done me no favors.

When he looked into my situation, he found an odd thing. Multiple letters of commendation for me by 8 of 10 squadron commanding officers, also the ship's commanding officer, yet my department head failed to make a recommendation for my advancement. The detailer called his Admiral at the Pentagon; His Admiral looked into the situation, and talked to people he also knew, and whom I had worked with. The detailer had called to tell me that he was ordered to "fix it"; both my department head's, and my situation. As it turned out, the Atlantic Fleet Admiral had directed this Captain, who called me, to "retire" my department head. 20 years was enough for this man; prior years, no one wanted to have the task of retiring this officer for fear of being labeled "racist". The community detailer said my "department head was a quota". He would retire at 20 years, get his pension, and be gone. Because of his race, he had been "carried" in his career.

A year after this phone call, I happened across one of our department's senior enlisted, and in the same week our 30-year LDO (went up the ranks from enlisted to officer based on experience and success) in the department named Jim. Both told me what they had seen and heard in years prior, that I had not been privy to. The Master Chief (highest ranking enlisted man in our department) let it be known up the ranks that I did a great job, and hadn't been treated fairly. Jim was the one whom the Admiral called, about my situation, since they had worked together in previous years also. Jim told the Admiral that I was a keeper, and Frank Smith, the department head, needed to retire---he shouldn't be allowed to go further. He lacked true experience and courage.

Anyway, when anyone hears that their #1 job is to make the boss happy, or look good.....there is a definite problem. And it is a very difficult situation to get out of, unless one can get a better job elsewhere and move on.

I don't mind working for a boss who is sharp and knows how to manage, but your Frank Smith?, sounds like a true idiot to work for.

"I don't mind working for a boss who is sharp and knows how to manage,"

That's not the type of boss the OP was talking about, but the exact opposite; that's a boss who knows how and does make his TEAM look good. A typical description, when it happens in the military, is "...like a father to his men."