How to Talk to your Boss

Here’s the god-honest truth; your work life will improve once you learn how to communicate with your superiors and coworkers. 

And here are 7 tips on how to do exactly that. 

Think Twice

To put it bluntly, I'll start with a common-case scenario. When you ask your boss or coworker for help they have to stop their work and take their time to figure out how to help you and then communicate back to you. 

Instead, try to solve it yourself first. What happens when you do this is you find a good enough solution and sharpen your problem-solving skills at the same time. 

This avoids wasting their time and your time waiting for their response.

However, if it's too difficult don't waste too much time trying to do it yourself. It's always ok to ask for help. 

Read: Bad Optimizations in Business and Life

Ask With Solutions

This is a culture we cultivated at BaunIt that has been extremely beneficial in boosting our productivity. 

If you can't find an exact solution, do what you can and move to assistance from there. Tell them about your thinking, reasoning, and problems encountered -and successfully solve them together. 

This way, you will reduce your boss’s workload (which we love), spend less time going through problems, and sharpen your skills as well. 

Default to Async

If you stop what you're doing, it's inefficient. Context switching is the enemy of productivity. 

For Example

Say, an impromptu meeting with 5 people, would mean 5 people who had to stop their work to meet.

Instead of wasting that time, default to async communication, and they would reply when they're available. This way, you can clearly explain what you're having a problem with or what you need approval for.

Async comms means communicating through text or video recording, whereby one responds when one can.

With Goleko, you can screencast recordings directly to your coworkers, ensuring issues are communicated and tackled effectively.

Clarity

Do you speak with clarity? If not, then you'll get confused and have to think and ask questions. 

Be clear AND concise to avoid wasted time. 

Here’s a tip; ask yourself what information or details about your problem would your boss or coworker need to help you effectively.

Clarity vs Conciseness

A lot of people are clear, but they aren't concise. 

Clarity means that you have explained what happened thoroughly, but conciseness means keeping it brief enough that the recipient will grasp your subject in one setting. 

In the spirit of conciseness, simply, don't write a novel.

Read: VideoFeedbackr: Record your Screen Well!

Ownership

When you take ownership of a project or task, your thinking completely changes and you are driven to do a great job. You might not like that task (which is understandable, some tasks aren't that fun to do) but taking ownership switches your mindset by giving you a sense of responsibility over it. 

As a boss myself, seeing my employees take ownership of their tasks fills me with appreciation, because I know they will do their best. It sets you apart from others. 

And if you are not being appreciated, then you need to find a new place to work.

Read: True Teamwork in Software Development

Evaluate and Improve

You don't put your hand on a hot stove. Why? Because you're going to get burnt, and it’ll hurt.

Now, how did you know that? 

You probably learned that the hard way. I still remember the first time I touched a stove. It’s a memory you keep for life. 

Learn from your Workplace

Take advantage of opportunities you get at your workplace, and write down what went well, what went bad, and what things you learned from others that can improve your flow. Take your time to think about all these things and evaluate them.

Evaluation is one of the most important yet overlooked skills in the workplace. This goes double for CEOs and Project Managers because it's hard for your employees to tell you what you're doing wrong (not when their paychecks depend on whether they make you angry or not) so you have to tell yourself. 

Meetings

Say you have to have a meeting, but what then? How do you make this meeting productive?

In this case, it’s best to have a cross-cut agenda that ensures the meeting is relevant for all parties.

I prefer to write down a clear agenda before the meeting to save time and communicate clearly. To make this even better, default to 1-on-1 instead of group meetings if you are working on different projects or tasks.

Read: Meetings Suck! Make them Great Again!

If scheduling, try to keep it below 10 minutes. In my experience has been good enough to get most things done!

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