St.Louis Business Journal
TAKE YOUR BOSS SOLUTIONS NOT UNDIGESTED PROBLEMS

By Anna Navarro

May 2008  

Author's note: Client stories in this column are based on actual situations fictionalized to protect privacy and told with permission.



Mastering the fine art of taking your boss solutions instead of dumping problems on him or her is one of the best things you can do for your career.

Burt was a young man just starting out in the field of selling promotional products. He'd gotten in trouble several times before he developed this skill and learned to do it well.

At first he'd been apprenticed to Harry, who was the company’s top salesman and was retiring soon. The older man had taken Burt under his wing and taught him a great deal. When Burt took over some of his smaller accounts, he encouraged him to ask for help if he ran into any problems. In part that was because he was kind, but it was also because he still shared the commission on these accounts.

Burt turned to Harry for help often. If a customer griped about the color choices available in tee shirts, for example, Burt would take the issue to Harry, and Harry would run interference with the sourcing department and get the problem solved.

When Harry retired, Burt asked his new boss, the VP of Sales, for similar help. The VP was impatient with the issues he raised, and Burt couldn’t get access to him in a timely way. As a result, his sales were suffering. That’s when he came to see me.

I soon realized that the habits Burt had developed while apprenticing with Harry were creating difficulty for him. He needed to realize that much of the time he could solve problems on his own, though there were still times when he could and should turn to his boss.

We worked through several situations, helping him figure out who within the company he needed to talk to to solve his customers' problems and how to brainstorm and negotiate with them instead of going to his boss. He caught on quickly and his boss noticed. Burt soon worked his way into the VP's good graces.

Then he committed a typical beginner's mistake. He failed to talk to his boss about something he should have taken to him about, and nearly lost a big account as a result.

The customer was furious about a consistent backlog in deliveries. Burt had tried to resolve the issue, but failed to recognize signs that his internal team wasn't going to deliver. The customer finally called the VP of sales and threatened to cancel the order and go to a competitor unless the situation was rectified.

The VP was able to bring sufficient pressure on the sourcing department to switch suppliers, something Burt would never have been able to do on his own. The account was saved but the company paid a premium to the new supplier for a rush delivery and so lost money on the transaction.

Burt’s boss chewed him out for not advising him of the situation. He said he could have averted the entire crisis if he had been advised earlier. Burt realized he needed to learn more about when and how to ask for help.

A learning opportunity soon presented itself. Burt had a chance to make a big sale to a new account, but there were conflicts within the customer company that might get in the way of closing the deal. The disagreement was a reflection of a deeper split within the organization.

Burt came up with several good solutions, but recognized the risk might be to alienate one or the other faction. I coached him to go to his boss and discuss the problem and his proposed solutions. His boss was impressed with his ideas, made a few suggestions and urged him to present his solutions to the customer. Both factions bought his proposal. Burt not only made the sale, he got a great review and a pay increase.

This, in a nutshell, is what Burt now understood: Never just dump problems on your boss. Try to solve them yourself as much as possible. But if a problem requires more clout than you have or involves taking risks or committing significant resources, be sure you review the situation and your proposed solutions with your boss before moving ahead.

Anna Navarro is the founder of Work Transitions, a nationwide career consulting firm that trains independent career strategists and consults with individual clients.

This column was originally published by the St. Louis Business Journal. The actual title of the column and date in which it appeared in the Business Journal may be slightly different from what appears on WorkTransitions.com.