How to escape from your clingy manager

Managers are sometimes tempted to hold on to their best employees by restricting their access to other senior managers.

If you’re trapped in this situation, how do you become known in your organisation?

Here are two good suggestions.

The age-old rule that you can’t go around your direct manager to talk to his or her boss holds true.

It would be chaos if we all went to the top of our organisations whenever we disagreed with our managers.

Here are two alternative ideas:

1

Volunteer for cross-functional activities that include people at your level or above

For example, offer to bring a new product or process to your division.

Sign up for a task force assessing a new strategy.

Serve on a focus group to evaluate new benefit options.

Almost anything will work, especially if it has been proposed by someone senior to you and if you say: “Yes, but I have to check with my boss.”

Here’s the trick: Your boss will not be able to say no if you volunteer in a meeting where people have heard you volunteer, or if the request is an important organisational priority.

He or she will undoubtedly ask you to do it along with your current job.

You’ll just have to figure out how to do that or how to say no to assignments that aren’t as crucial.

2

Become an internal entrepreneur

This isn’t as difficult as you might think.

There are always opportunities to start something new, and colleagues who will get engaged with the idea and help out.

One caveat: your project may have to start as a skunk-works operation at lunch or after work, especially if you work in a very formal organisation.

– Copyright Harvard Business Review 2014