What to do when you’re not the boss’s favorite? (4 min read)

Building a good relationship between you and your boss is one of the main to-dos for your career. Sometimes, because of personality clashes, work ethic issues on either party’s behalf and other factors, your boss may express negative feelings or show no support towards you. Instead of lashing out against your boss, it’s better to start to think of ways that you could work on removing the negative wave and improve your relationship with your boss – it’s possible!

Keep in mind that the goal here is not to become best friends with your boss. Rather, it’s about establishing mutual respect.

If the situation is bad enough that it stops you from being productive, approach your boss in a direct, genuine and professional manner. When expressing yourself, keep the focus on how you want to do what is best for the company to thrive, so it doesn’t sound selfish or narrow-minded.

You could start to schedule meetings to express your ideas and input about how you can bring value to his plans, team and the company. Then shift gears on yourself and ask how you can improve on the work you’re doing. This will show your boss that you truly care and want to make a difference.

Sometimes even after approaching the issue with those steps, the situation may not get better with your boss.

This is not the end of the road.

Use your mentors’ and coaches’ inputs to plan additional steps. If that will not solve the situation, it’s then time to consider changing your work situation, role, department or even considering a different job. Plan accordingly with next step though and don’t blurt out that you quit without having a backup.

The possible approaches that you could take are endless, these are just a few! The point is that when you have a problem that is impacting you in such a way that you feel you are not performing at the best level you could be performing at, then you take action. Taking genuine and polite action shows everyone that you care, which makes the problem you have easier to solve.  People see that you are approaching it with sincere intentions.  And remember, there is always a positive way to look at these types of situations. You never know, maybe changing your job will land you in your favorite role and opportunity ever!

We will all have a bad boss at some point in our work life, but how you choose to approach it is what will make the difference.