Managing Up: How to Forge an Effective Relationship With Those Above You - Hardcover

Badowski, Rosanne; Gittines, Roger

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385507720 ISBN 13: 9780385507721

Publisher: Doubleday Business, 2003

Synopsis

Everyone has a boss. And anyone who has aspired to move up the corporate ladder knows that their relationship with those they report to is crucial. In Managing Up Rosanne Badowski offers a straightforward, entertaining, no-holds-barred account of what it takes to make your relationship with your boss work to your advantage, no matter where you stand in the corporate hierarchy.

Told through rich, colorful anecdotes about her years spent working with one of the smartest, most demanding and dynamic business leaders of the twentieth century, legendary GE CEO Jack Welch, Badowski reveals the secrets to career success she has gleaned over the years. At heart, it’s about working with the person above you to create a productive and effective partnership.

Everyone is a manager, in one way or another, Badowski points out. She discusses first-hand what it’s like to have to be a mind reader, to anticipate the future, to plan for the unexpected, and to perform the impossible. With refreshing candor and a hint of attitude, Badowski’s advice is unlike any other. She advises us that “Impatience is a virtue,” to “Have no shame,” and to “Beware the too-quiet office.” Having worked in one of the most challenging, high-profile corporate environments anywhere, no one knows more about prioritizing, about making decisions on behalf of your boss, about sifting through a daily barrage of data and information, about multitasking at warp speed, and exhibiting grace under fire. Ultimately, Badowski says, excelling at what you do is about a shared passion for the job.

Managing Up is an invaluable guide for managing your career and juggling responsibilities with finesse and confidence. It should become a management bible for anyone hoping to get ahead in their profession.

About this title

About the Author

ROSANNE BADOWSKI has worked with former GE CEO Jack Welch for thirteen years. Prior to becoming Welch’s executive assistant, she spent twelve years in administrative positions in international human resources, executive management, and organization planning at GE. She lives in Easton, Connecticut.

From the Back Cover

“Rosanne Badowski’s extraordinary fifteen years in the trenches with Jack Welch have given her unparalleled expertise in the art of leadership. Far more than an ordinary how-to book, Managing Up is a terrifically engaging and entertaining read, filled with stories and lessons from a woman who has seen it all.”
- Noel Tichy, professor at the University of Michigan Business School and author of The Cycle of Leadership: How Great Leaders Teach Their Organizations to Win

“I always wondered how Jack did it… and now I know one big reason. Rosanne Badowski. Managing history’s greatest manager – that’s what Managing Up is all about, and it’s riveting. Stand back, Peter Drucker. If you’re the boss (or think you are)… read it. If you work for the boss, read it twice. You can’t afford not to.”
- Gerry Roche, senior chairman of Heidrick & Struggles

“Rosanne has seen it all… Her book is an inside view of the pressures and life in the executive office.”
- Bob Wright, vice chairman and executive officer, GE; chairman & chief executive officer, NBC

“Managing Up shows what you can learn when you keep your eyes and ears open and happen to work for/with a terrific boss. Great lessons for readers here, managing up, down and sideways.”
- Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business at the University of Southern California, and co-author of GEEKS AND GEEZERS

From the Inside Flap

a boss. And anyone who has aspired to move up the corporate ladder knows that their relationship with those they report to is crucial. In <i>Managing Up</i> Rosanne Badowski offers a straightforward, entertaining, no-holds-barred account of what it takes to make your relationship with your boss work to your advantage, no matter where you stand in the corporate hierarchy. <br><br>Told through rich, colorful anecdotes about her years spent working with one of the smartest, most demanding and dynamic business leaders of the twentieth century, legendary GE CEO Jack Welch, Badowski reveals the secrets to career success she has gleaned over the years. At heart, it’s about working with the person above you to create a productive and effective partnership.<br><br>Everyone is a manager, in one way or another, Badowski points out. She discusses first-hand what it’s like to have to be a mind reader, to anticipate the future, to plan for the unexpected, and to perform the impossi

Reviews

The business book market is jammed with books for bosses, telling them how to manage, lead, create corporate strategy and get more from employees. Badowski's tome takes a different approach, but is just as useful: it's meant for all workers, regardless of their position. Because, as she wisely points out, everyone has a boss. Badowski, who has the distinction of being Jack Welch's former executive assistant, here explains how she survived and thrived during her 14-plus years as the boss man's "secret weapon." She's written a snappy little guide, mixing anecdotes with clear-cut tips on how to partner with higher-ups. She advises readers to "make the agenda of the person you work for your own" and asserts that "individuals solve problems-not senior management." Of course, not everyone is lucky enough to have had such a celebrated corporate leader as his or her boss. But if workers can follow Badowski's advice, they may find ways to win over crabby supervisors-or at least strengthen their relationships with other colleagues.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Who could resist learning the inner secrets of working with Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric? Badowski was Welch's administrative assistant for 13 years, and what she has to say about managing up is primarily based on common sense. The real lure here is the stories and anecdotes she shares about the great man and his team. Every one of her 15 ingredients for managing up, from chemistry to passion and purpose, is illustrated with GE--and Welch--examples. She talks about impatience as a virtue, noting that an impatient boss needs higher maintenance, which prompted her to develop an elaborate, color-coded filing system so that Welch could find needed materials quickly. Fairness is also defined in GE terms--Welch would categorize the workforce into three groups: 20 percent were stars; 70 percent fell in the midrange; and 10 percent were performance-challenged (and usually weeded out during evaluations). Thanks to coauthor Gittines, the narrative is smooth and personable. A fine introduction to the business world for new workforce entrants. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

Chemistry

“WHEN THE GODS . . . punish us, they answer our prayers,” wrote Oscar Wilde. In other words, be careful what you wish for.

In the fall of 1988, I had no interest in becoming executive assistant to John F. Welch, the Chairman and CEO of GE. In fact, from my job as administrative assistant in GE’s Corporate Human Resources department, I was praying to get a promotion to an entry-level management position that had just opened up in GE Supply. In retrospect, perhaps my prayers conveyed mixed messages. On one hand, I wanted to move up the ladder, but on the other, I liked my boss, my colleagues, and the work I was doing. The two wishes may have canceled each other out.

At the time, I had been at GE for more than twelve years in a variety of administrative assignments. Corporate Human Resources was one of the better gigs, with lots of responsibility and opportunities to deal with senior executives and some of the company’s hottest businesses. One of the advantages of being in HR was that it let you get involved in many different areas instead of being stuck doing the same old thing. I know HR can be dumped on for being too “back-office” or “touchy-feely,” but that’s a bad rap. A good HR department goes beyond handing out benefit booklets and is the driver of successful employee development.

The broad experience I gained in HR is what gave me a shot at the posted open management position. That job entailed managing a group of regional sales facilities for products distributed by GE Supply. I actively campaigned for the job and overcame most of the personnel hurdles. Jack Peiffer (senior vice president of Corporate Human Resources and my manager at the time) agreed to the move. He was a wonderful boss with a down-to-earth demeanor, and his blessing on my candidacy was important not only politically but personally. Nonetheless, I was having trouble bringing the final offer to closure, so I went to him to ask what was going on. Instead of giving me a straight answer, his usual approach, he tap-danced around, finally saying that on further reflection he didn’t think the position was right for me. I was shocked and angry, and left his office determined to get the promotion or quit. Being single and not having children, I had—and still have—the luxury of independence and a few rash acts. I was happy working at GE, but I was not going to be stifled and held back. I wanted out. A few days later, Mr. Peiffer took me aside and explained what was going on: Jack Welch’s executive assistant, Helga Keller, was leaving to get married. My name had been tossed into the hat as a possible candidate, and I was on the short list.

I briefly considered taking my name off the list, but I didn’t want to embarrass those who had obviously been singing my praises. I was also curious to see what the hiring process was like at the CEO-level of a company as enormous as GE. Maybe I’d learn something new. I agreed to be screened and, if I made it that far, interviewed by Jack Welch. It may seem like a pretty flimsy rationale for not pursuing the management slot, but at the time it made sense to me. But I’ve never kidded myself into thinking that Mr. Peiffer and the company got out the scales and carefully weighed the benefits of Rosanne the manager against Rosanne the executive assistant. HR had a paramount goal: fill the position in the CEO’s office with someone who had a reasonable track record and was likely to stick it out for a while. Jack Peiffer was enough of an HR veteran to know how tricky it is to match a senior executive with an assistant and how costly a mistake can be in terms of wasted time, aggravation, and lost productivity. A successful match also comes from pure personal chemistry. Filling the position of the executive assistant to the CEO was a more crucial task for HR than filling an entry-level management position at GE Supply. It was easier for the HR team to disappoint me temporarily. Looking back, if I had been in Jack Peiffer’s shoes, I would have made the same decision that he did. Besides, I wasn’t disappointed for long.

Ms. Curiosity and Miscalculation

At the time, I didn’t think there was a chance I would get the job.

Why?

Because I really didn’t want it. But I realize in retrospect that my “not a chance” mind-set gave me a tremendous advantage over the other candidates. I wasn’t afraid, and I didn’t overprepare or oversell myself in my one-hour interview with Jack Welch at a subsequent lunch several days later.

Also, the Jack Welch “cult” was only in its infancy, or more accurately, adolescence. After seven years as CEO, he’d had his share of media attention, much of it critical, or at least tough and skeptical. At the time, the Welch cost-cutting, downsizing, and deal-making style was fodder for columnists and commentators, but at GE headquarters he was simply the CEO rather than a legend or icon. Jack Peiffer and the other department heads, whom I dealt with day in and day out, were far more immediate and real to me. Jack Welch was a blip on someone else’s radar screen.

I’m probably going to regret these comments. But please don’t misread me. Jack Welch was definitely shaking up GE. Yet at the time he was not held in awe by most GE headquarters employees any more than Reg Jones, his predecessor, had been. The glory years of GE’s being the largest and most valuable company in the world were still to come.

While I didn’t do anything special to prepare for the interview, I wasn’t as lackadaisical as I sound. At that level and with such a large company, there are literally thousands of issues and functions involved. I could have crammed for weeks without scratching the surface—and probably wouldn’t have really lighted on anything even resembling a surface, for that matter. Putting aside my underlying belief that there was no way I would be offered the job, it would have been crazy to try to bluff my way into it.

CEOs may not always inspire awe, but they don’t rise to the top without being able to spot phonies. I’m not saying that being prepared is the same thing as faking it. Not at all. But the most impressive preparation is the kind that comes from being fully effective in your present job. It doesn’t come from drills, dry runs, or dress rehearsals prior to an interview. Being fully effective springs from building a reputation for being a team player, demonstrating a willingness to accept responsibility, bringing new ideas to the job, and being productive. Knowing today what was at stake and how much I would have missed out on if I hadn’t gotten the job, I might have done a bit more homework if I were to do it all over again. But even today I’d have to say it’s easy to overdo it. There were several times that I’ve kidded around, small-talked, and tried to calm the jitters in otherwise well-qualified men and women who came in to interview with Jack Welch. What I couldn’t come out and say was, “This guy knows your record and résumé as well as you do. Now he wants to know who you are. Just go in there and be yourself.”

I know—easier said than done. In my case, despite not wearing a lucky bracelet or pulling an all-nighter, I did have the jitters. Worrying that I didn’t prepare enough would have made them worse. I didn’t shake or stammer; I blushed. When I realized what I was doing, I blushed even more. The red cheeks made a nice contrast to the blue dress I was wearing.

The interview took less than an hour. Then and now, the substance of it is pretty much a blur. He was in the side chair in the sitting area of his office, and I was on the couch facing a floor-to-ceiling window that bathed the room in bright morning light. Half of my brain was thinking, Wow, I can’t believe I’m sitting in this lovely office being interviewed by The Man. The other half was saying, Settle down and pay attention to the questions so that you can at least come up with a few mildly intelligent answers. What surprised me was that he didn’t grill me in that machine-gun style that I had heard about, which was a good thing because rapid-fire interrogation is indeed one of his hallmarks. It takes years of getting used to. A Jack Welch business meeting or briefing is best measured not by elapsed time but by QPM—questions per minute.

I’m thankful we clocked up a low QPM rate that day. Most of what he asked was aimed at measuring what kind of commitment I was willing to make to the job. He was obviously trying to find someone who could match—or come reasonably close to—his own commitment, which is basically expressed in today’s lingo by two numbers: 24 and 7. I’m a hard worker and believe in being totally involved in what I do, but I didn’t really understand commitment à la Jack Welch.

I do now, though.

During the interview, I was more than a little confused as to what he was driving at, and I told him so. I asked if he was suggesting that we do a trial run to see if we were a good fit. He dismissed that out of hand. He was not interested in trials. I was in it from day one—and so was he—or we could go our separate ways.

Then he dropped on me what seemed like the ultimate interview-killer:
“You remind me of my ex-wife,” he said.

I was stunned into silence.

The best response I could come back with was “Doesn’t sound too good for my chances of getting this job.”

We both laughed. Looking back, I think what he meant was that he perceived streaks of independence that were characteristic of Carolyn. They had divorced the year before after twenty-eight year...

Edition details

• Publisher: Doubleday Business
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385507720
• ISBN 13: 9780385507721
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240