Fire Your Boss by Stephen M. Pollan, Mark Levine Page B
Authors: Stephen M. Pollan, Mark Levine
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producer, referred to by some as “a programming genius,” had actually screamed at Tom in front of the entire cast and crew after a recent show. I calmed Tom down, walked him through my approach to work, and asked him to prepare an analysis of his boss’s actions. When we went over them, it sounded like the man was a maniac. He not only ranted, raved, and insulted everyone from the cameraman to the hosts, but he seemed to have a vendetta against other shows on the network. He was the prototypical fighter boss.
The coward
. This is the boss who’s always afraid. She’s frightened of anything new and every potential change. She’s always seeing the potential risk or downside; for her there’s a cloud around every silver lining and the glass is always half empty. Because she’s so fearful she’s always blaming others for problems.
When I told Janet Crosetti to figure out her department chairman’s needs and wants, she really took the task to heart. She jotted down her observations for a week, and then when she realized there was no departmental staff meeting that week, continued making notes for another week. Janet even went to a PTA meeting and a school board meeting, both of which she knew her boss would attend, in order to observe her in different environments. She said she noticed that whenever a new idea was proposed, her boss reacted negatively, but using a different rationale depending on which audience she was facing. At a staff meeting she said the new idea — one of Janet’s proposals — would take too much prep time. At the PTA meeting she knocked down one parent’s idea by saying it could detract from the time spent with each child. And at the school board she responded to a question about creating a literary magazine for the school by saying it would be too costly. Janet said her boss’s two favorite phrases were “We’ve always…” and “We’ve never…” Janet needed no help from me to see her department chairperson was a cowardly boss.
So Many Needs, So Little Time
Once you’ve figured out your boss’s needs, you have a simple mission: do whatever you can to help him or her meet one or more of those needs.
If you’ve found your boss has one pressing need, your task is clear. But if your boss has multiple needs, you’ll have to do some prioritizing. You probably won’t be able to meet all the needs you’ve uncovered, at least not right away. That’s not a bad thing, however. Multiple needs offer multiple chances to curry favor with your boss. Once you’ve learned the technique, you can tackle one after another, growing in your boss’s admiration each step along the way. But right now, let’s concentrate on deciding which need you should address first.
Back in the 1950s a psychologist named Abraham Maslow developed a theory of human behavior based on needs. (See the box on page 90: Maslow’s Achievers And Optimism.) He believed that individuals are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that some needs must be satisfied before others. He arranged categories of needs into a pyramid shape, which he called the hierarchy of needs. The current model of Maslow’s pyramid has eight stages, or types of needs. 10
10. In the 1950s Maslow’s initial model had five stages: biological and physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness and love needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization. During the 1970s the pyramid grew by another two stages, adding cognitive needs and aesthetic needs as two new levels between esteem needs and self-actualization. Finally, in the 1990s, the current eight-stage model was adopted.
MASLOW’S ACHIEVERS AND OPTIMISM
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has become a favorite of those looking for psychological insights that can be applied in pragmatic ways. That’s because, unlike most of the other major psychological theories, Maslow’s is an optimistic philosophy based on high achievers. Freud based his theories on his study of mentally ill and neurotic
The coward
. This is the boss who’s always afraid. She’s frightened of anything new and every potential change. She’s always seeing the potential risk or downside; for her there’s a cloud around every silver lining and the glass is always half empty. Because she’s so fearful she’s always blaming others for problems.
When I told Janet Crosetti to figure out her department chairman’s needs and wants, she really took the task to heart. She jotted down her observations for a week, and then when she realized there was no departmental staff meeting that week, continued making notes for another week. Janet even went to a PTA meeting and a school board meeting, both of which she knew her boss would attend, in order to observe her in different environments. She said she noticed that whenever a new idea was proposed, her boss reacted negatively, but using a different rationale depending on which audience she was facing. At a staff meeting she said the new idea — one of Janet’s proposals — would take too much prep time. At the PTA meeting she knocked down one parent’s idea by saying it could detract from the time spent with each child. And at the school board she responded to a question about creating a literary magazine for the school by saying it would be too costly. Janet said her boss’s two favorite phrases were “We’ve always…” and “We’ve never…” Janet needed no help from me to see her department chairperson was a cowardly boss.
So Many Needs, So Little Time
Once you’ve figured out your boss’s needs, you have a simple mission: do whatever you can to help him or her meet one or more of those needs.
If you’ve found your boss has one pressing need, your task is clear. But if your boss has multiple needs, you’ll have to do some prioritizing. You probably won’t be able to meet all the needs you’ve uncovered, at least not right away. That’s not a bad thing, however. Multiple needs offer multiple chances to curry favor with your boss. Once you’ve learned the technique, you can tackle one after another, growing in your boss’s admiration each step along the way. But right now, let’s concentrate on deciding which need you should address first.
Back in the 1950s a psychologist named Abraham Maslow developed a theory of human behavior based on needs. (See the box on page 90: Maslow’s Achievers And Optimism.) He believed that individuals are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that some needs must be satisfied before others. He arranged categories of needs into a pyramid shape, which he called the hierarchy of needs. The current model of Maslow’s pyramid has eight stages, or types of needs. 10
10. In the 1950s Maslow’s initial model had five stages: biological and physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness and love needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization. During the 1970s the pyramid grew by another two stages, adding cognitive needs and aesthetic needs as two new levels between esteem needs and self-actualization. Finally, in the 1990s, the current eight-stage model was adopted.
MASLOW’S ACHIEVERS AND OPTIMISM
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has become a favorite of those looking for psychological insights that can be applied in pragmatic ways. That’s because, unlike most of the other major psychological theories, Maslow’s is an optimistic philosophy based on high achievers. Freud based his theories on his study of mentally ill and neurotic
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