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Managing The Boss

Starting broadly, this summer I have used a number of Kotter and Gabarro’s suggestions for managing my mentor. Initially when I started at Third Rock, I was eager to learn about my mentor’s particular work style. After two weeks, I grew to learn that Craig was a listener who liked to converse and discuss findings with his partners and his associates. He has a fantastic memory and can recall conversations extremely effectively. My mentor has a reputation for being short with his emails and I learned quickly that the best way to obtain clarification on an assignment or a concept was to ask him directly. He expressed that when I ask him questions verbally, he can more easily ground his thoughts and can explain his ideas more succinctly. Craig and I often conduct conference calls as well. He appreciates it when I take notes and follow up with him after. This helps us both brainstorm and draft future action items that we need to complete.

Over time I have also managed my mentor by demonstrating my ability to be dependable and reliable. I thoroughly check over my work and try to present a polished and finished product to Craig. I also try to go beyond expectations and try to improve various presentations and slides even when I have not been asked to. Craig at times will create powerpoint slides that are not as clear and direct as they could be. I take it upon myself to help improve the layout of his slides to present to other senior members of the company.

The last suggestion that I have used from Kotter and Gabarro’s article is making effective use of my mentor’s time and resources. My process for efficiently working with my mentor starts with me writing down all relevant questions that I have regarding assignments and projects we are working on. It helps to structure my overall understanding of a project and uses time more efficiently because I am prepared for interactions with him. In addition I approach other members of the office who could answer questions that I have as well. This helps preserve my bossess time and allows me to develop relationships with other co-workers.

This week I have executed all of these suggestions on numerous conference calls and seminars that I have attended with my mentor. I have proven that I am a diligent and dependable intern, by asking relevant questions during meetings and taking useful notes for Craig. I believe this week has augmented the relationship between my mentor and that we both work and mesh well with one another.

#Kunal Rayakar

Piss Off the Boss

My mentor, Jim, does a phenomenal job of establishing a dynamic of mutual dependence among him, my fellow intern (Johnny) and I. He never fails to remind us how much he needs our help and cooperation to do his job effectively. However, I am intimidated by his brash demeanor which causes me to miss opportunities for further clarification and/or feedback. Striking the balance between proactively seeking information and hassling my boss has proven hard to master. Jim doesn’t like to stifle my independent thinking with specific directions – he would rather I come up with a creative solution on my own or with my fellow intern… even if it is not what he was originally looking for. Alas, the frustration: his directions are often abstract while his expectations are particular. Over the summer I have come to discover ways of coping with this frustration by overcoming the intimidation and nerves and being more proactive in my conversations with Jim, specifically when a new project is being introduced. Now, one of my first questions is “What are your goals?” or “What are you trying to accomplish with this assignment?”. That way I at least have a specific destination to arrive at even if I lack the details of the mode of transportation to be used. I have noticed that it takes me less time to complete projects because less edits and reviews are needed. I’m able to be more efficient with my research and my presentation of material is more tailored to his style.

Jim and I are ideas people. This similarity both helps and hinders our working relationship. It helps by giving me more intuition into what he wants because I identify with his thought process. But it hinders us time-wise because neither of us intrinsically enjoys laying out a concrete plan for executing our ideas. Luckily, Johnny is great in this regard. All in all, we make a great team! This teamwork proved to be invaluable on a recent project in which my fellow intern and I were asked to write a memo proving that a company was committing Medicaid fraud. We first sought specific information about Jim’s goals: prove that what a corporation was doing was illegal. Then shortly after beginning our research when we found evidence of the legality of the corporation’s activities we questioned Jim and, respectfully, disagreed. He didn’t like it. But, we had proof; we were not making unsubstantiated claims. He challenged us to dig deeper and in a slightly different direction. Ultimately, Jim was right about the fraud. The memo that we wrote was very well done, but only because we were not afraid to piss off the boss and challenge his claims.

#Lena Silva

If you can't say anything nice, then here is a participation ribbon for trying.

What? Participation ribbon for attending class today? For my 12/12 place finish in my mathlete competition?

What ever happened to intrinsic value? Just because I may not hold a piece of silk that shouts “Good job!” to me, doesn’t mean that I walked away from a competition with nothing. This article made me think about the quick shift in society that focuses on avoiding potentially hurting anybody’s feelings. For instance, I recently heard on a radio broadcast that there is a mayor of a town who banned the all-star team in little-league, because it made other kids feel left out and inferior. What about teaching children to reach for something they want? To work harder so they can make the team next year?

Along these same lines, there is a push right now to rid of any messy activities during O-week, because some freshmen may not want to get mashed potatoes on their delicate skin. This trend of oversensitivity strips away values others hold dear, of hardships and experiences that bond, and trumps the idea of working hard to achieve something, to climb a ladder of success; not just ride the elevator. Perhaps this is a contributing factor of why the American education system is struggling in comparison to our world-counterparts.

Well that seemingly came out of nowhere. Ironically, the trait I would say I most identify with is social-intelligence. I’m arguing that I’m pretty good at picking up social cues, while simultaneously denouncing societal trends.

I use social-intelligence nearly every second of the day, particularly with social media now so prevalent. Staying on good terms with everyone you can is a huge benefit to any type of success you are attempting to achieve, and additionally provides that intrinsic value I was harping on earlier that relationships can produce. It’s nice to get along and have friends, ya know?

#Drew Travis

Put on a poker face and tell them what's what!

I, unfortunately, can relate to Bonnevie’s situation in the Gabarro and Kotter article. My mentor and I have little to no contact and I have found that it is extremely difficult to get in touch with her and keep her on track. She is definitely an “S” personality. No offense to all you S’s out there, but my personality-type does not mesh well with the “forgetful and relaxed” personality. My mentor loves to laugh and joke around, but has an extremely hard time remembering to get things done. I have sent her numerous emails and have gotten zero replies. Granted, my email address is “Intern3” so it can be easily ignored, but hey, interns need love too!

I use one of Gabarro and Kotter’s suggestions, which is to discuss a matter with my mentor in person, and then send her a follow-up email (or vice versa). During the site visit, Dustin said that in order to get my mentor’s attention, I have to keep nagging her and constantly come to her office and give her updates, rather than send an email and wait for her to reply. I do not like having to constantly be on someone’s case and reminding them of their duties, so I limit the updates to things that are truly important. Luckily, I don’t work with my mentor; I work with another director in the office.

The other director is much more agreeable to work with because he’s very clear about what he wants. He likes to have constant updates. I, again, use the Gabarro and Kotter method of meeting with the director and giving him a print-out of updated information. He also likes to meet daily and get an overview of what we need to do that day, where we’re at so far in the project, and what are our future goals. The constant updating keeps him on track and keeps me in the loop as far as where we are and where we need to be.

This week, I have used the straightforward method of simply walking into my mentor, or my other supervisor’s office and updating them. It gets their attention quickly and forces them to pay attention to me instead of ignoring my email. With my mentor, it works beautifully. With my other supervisor, I usually have to write out an update and hand it in.

#Theresa Masciale

“Managing” my Boss’s Stress

During my time at Virgo, the “boss” that I’ve interacted the most with has been my mentor Ajay. From the first week, it became clear to me that he is a very social and agreeable person, who gets things done by talking to people. However, I also found that he, like most bosses according to Gabarro and Kotter’s article, does not explicitly state his expectations. At first, it was hard to know whether we were on the right track, because Ajay would agree with anything and everything we suggested. This led me to believe that there weren’t any expectations of us at all! I lean towards overdependence on authority, rather than counterdependence, so it was hard for me to find the motivation to work hard at adding value to the company, since anything we did was “great” according to Ajay. However, I soon realized that my mentor’s praise was not necessarily an adequate indicator of the quality of my work.

Gabarro and Kotter also touch on the subject of seeing things from your boss’s point-of-view, keeping in mind his/her own goals and limitations. This skill was particularly useful a few weeks ago, when Ajay started getting very busy near the end of the first quarter of Virgo’s fiscal year. As the head of the planning department, he had to ensure that three months’ worth of backlogged orders got shipped before the end of June to ensure that the quarter end financial figures were as high as possible. Needless to say, he was very busy, and I realized that a few interns and their optimization project were not his priority (regardless of how useful our work may end up being). Therefore, instead of asking him for help or guidance during this time, we stayed out of his way as much as possible, even offering to help him out on the shop floor as it got more and more chaotic. We were unable to do anything to directly relieve his responsibilities, but when he scheduled several “quick” meetings with us that wound up being him rambling for over an hour about random, unrelated topics, I knew that at least we were helping him keep his sanity during those stressful weeks. My early recognition of his talkative, social style of working helped me realize that even though it seemed like we weren’t doing anything useful by just hearing him talk, we were actually going through the motions of his style of work, helping to give him a break from the stress of the shop floor while still being “productive”.

#Ariel Heiblum

Managing two sides of the boss-style spectrum

Because my two bosses have very different styles, understanding their styles has been vital to producing work that has the greatest impact.

Kiran, the Operational Excellence director, is very results driven. I found this out in our first meeting where we were defining our project within his department. During that meeting, he wasted no time in talking about possibilities for the summer, he defined what he envisioned we would be doing and told us to immediately create a plan to execute our project. Kiran quickly put us into contact with everyone we would need to talk to in order to make our project successful within the same day, and later that afternoon we had started. Understanding this has enabled me to prepare for meetings differently than I would have otherwise. Throughout our project, I have made it a point to not only identify where efficiency is lacking but also to propose two to three possible solutions and a tangible set of steps to address each problem. This has made recent meetings with Kiran very efficient. In the meeting we had last week to update him on our progress, I proposed what could be fixed in the assembly area with a plan, and later that day I met with someone on his team to begin the designs for a new tool that will decrease the cycle time for the assembly process. If I hadn’t provided that plan, we would have had to meet again to discuss it, wasting more time making it less likely that the action will be implemented before we leave.

Whereas we have very loose expectations from Kiran, Amit, my boss in the design department, laid out a plan to complete our project on the first day detailing the different aspects we would be covering over the course of the summer and tentative due dates for each part. I began taking meticulous notes over what he would teach me about the new soft-seated ball valve seat designs. This became invaluable in later meetings. He likes to teach by asking questions and not until I know and understand the answers will he continue. With the nature of what I was learning, there was a lot to remember so having studied my notes before meetings enabled me to be prepared making meetings as effective as possible. Unlike Kiran’s oral presentations, Amit likes for me to present my updates in a report format. These reports are comprehensive of what I have learned and include designs I have worked on.

What has enabled me to be successful in producing work for such different bosses is that part of each of their styles is similar to my own. I am the type of person that needs to write everything down, so my reports to Amit come out of my personal notes, whereas, being very results driven and strategy based, creating tangible plans for Kiran come from my wanting to implement and execute these plans to improve their efficiency before I leave this summer.

#Allison Garza

Managing the boss

My boss (and mentor) has been out on vacation for most of this past week. I always work out of his office, and so I usually am with him almost the entirety of every day, and his absence has given me a good opportunity to sit back and reflect on how are relationship is. The article divides all the suggestions up into several categories, but even without those ideas, I’ve found there are two big things I have to keep in mind: making sure everything is explicit, from what you enjoy doing and had trouble doing to being honest about how your work is going; and trying to see your interactions from their point of view - is this worth their time, is this the best way to approach them (like the article discusses), etc.

I have had a few situations in which I was doing a project and he wanted me to do something differently than I had where I disagreed with him. But he is the boss, and for me, as long as it isn’t something that the education or well being of the students will be hurt by, I just let them go. In a school, the barometer for every decision has to be whether or not it is for the students. The things I was doing that we did have disagreement on really had no impact on the experience of the students, and so I made the changes and just went with it.

This week was the last week of summer school for us. There has only been one week this whole summer we haven’t had kids in classes and at the school. Now that the kids and most of the teachers are off, my goal for the remainder of the summer is to get to know him and the other administrators in the school on a less formal level (since when there are kids around, we have to call each other Mr/Ms Lastname). I doubt this is going to involve any serious epiphanies or revelations about what he and I both expect since I feel that we have done a pretty good job and being open.

#Cody Shilling

Managing My Reputation with My Boss

Like Bonnevie and his boss Gibbons, I had unrealistic expectations of my mentor, Neal, and assumed he would be there to make sure my interests were catered to and to provide constant advice and support, even when I was too shy to ask for it. I used be overly dependent on Neal, and therefore ended up frustrated when I didn’t get the guidance I needed or the positive feedback on projects I thought I deserved.

After my second week, I pulled myself out of the situation and looked not only at how my actions and efforts were being received, but also how I was delivering them. I put myself in Neal’s shoes and thought about what he prioritizes over everything else and how those priorities compared to my own. I came up with a mental list of mutual expectations we could have for each other: I could expect him to prioritize projects if I was able to communicate their importance to EasyBib and he could expect me to always put forth a full effort.

Since then, I have been asking how I can help with the things that I know cause Neal the most stress, whether that be heading the development of a new product or editing a short presentation. I have also been observing Neal’s work style. Previously, my formal work ethic would clash with his casual one. By observing and incorporating aspects of his work style, I have proven we are more compatible than I originally thought. We communicate more easily and frequently, which helps me clarify my project goals quickly and allows him to pull me back on track the moment he sees me heading in the wrong direction with a project.

After six weeks of making sure I understood what was important to Neal, this week I had to explain why a small aspect of EasyBib Elementary, a new product I have been developing, was taking much longer than expected. Though I could have lied and finished the project in the short time he expected, I chose to be honest so as to maintain my dependability and reputation for completing projects within the timeframes I set for myself. I think he appreciated the honesty and surprisingly offered more resources to help me complete the project on my terms.

I also showed good use of time and resources when I took what I learned from a spreadsheet Neal had shown me at the beginning of my internship and created new financial projects in the same format for a partnership he and Darshan, the other Co-CEO, are considering. I also took the new information on the core curriculum I gathered this week and applied it to projects I had completed and turned in earlier this summer. I think Neal really appreciated my effort to refine projects without being asked to because it showed him that I cared about the company as he would want anyone working for him to.

#Nivriti Chowdhry

'Managing' My Mentor by Managing Myself

For most of this week, as is often the case, my mentor was not in the office, first at a conference in China, and then on holiday. We have a good relationship when she is in, though, and I always get the feeling that she respects my abilities and is confident that I can produce what is asked of me well, probably because of the way I have handled myself both in her presence and in her absences.

My biggest task for the summer is to produce a policy paper, and in spite of the fact that it is not something I am directly interested in, I am writing a paper on economics, exportation, and renewable energy, because that is something my mentor is interested in, and she requested something like that from me. She has not set any deadlines or even given me a particular direction to go in, other than this broad topic, so I have taken it upon myself to send her parts of my paper throughout the summer and to request meetings when it fits into her schedule so that I can make sure that our expectations are the same for this paper. I understand that even though she is not always checking up on me, she still expects me to make valuable contributions and produce a helpful paper, and so I have taken it upon myself to make sure these rather broad things get done with full thoughtfulness of the details.

This week, when my mentor was in town, my department actually went to Brussels, where part of the department works, and where we were putting on a few meetings for some European energy experts; as the headquarters of the EU, Brussels is also where EU energy policy gets discussed. Even though I have been specifically told that I should think of myself as more of a researcher than a typical student intern, I still took it upon myself while I was there to help the other interns set up for the meetings, even though some of the tasks were very basic, like making coffee, setting up the conference table, and checking people in. I knew they needed to be done, though, and in this way, I felt like I could make a valuable contribution to the department. I definitely know that my presence in Brussels was not exactly essential, and so any way that I could help, I tried, because I was grateful for the opportunity to go. I also ended up being the official note taker at one of the meetings because when one of my coworkers asked if I thought I could, I felt this would be a good way to make a positive contribution, and I knew it would help my mentor if she did not have to worry about assigning that job to someone later, so close to the start of the meeting.

#Mariel Rodriguez

Boss Management

Earlier in the summer I did a complete 180. I came in, expecting to work under my mentor, and talked with many of the previous SME Fellows in an attempt to get the biggest leg up on understanding his leadership styles. Yet, after only two weeks, fate decided I would be reporting to not one but two people, and my mentor was neither of them. Let’s just say I had a whole new set of people to figure out.

I have mostly managed by bosses by understanding their goals and objectives. I have found that this not only makes sure we are on the same page, but also serves as a way that I can learn the business. By doing this, I give them someone to serve as a soundboard, to whom they can articulate their ideas such that they can better understand them themselves. At the same time, I get a better sense of our overall goal, so I can see just exactly how my piece fits in the bigger puzzle. This has been the best technique because of how much it helps me as well. If we fail to gain some kind of higher level understanding, then we have completed our assignments but failed to realize how it contributes to the goals of the company.

One of things that I realized I needed to work on was understanding how to selectively use my bosses’ time and resources. Earlier in the experience I would kind of enter people’s offices unannounced (well, besides knocking), and expect them to step away from what they are doing to talk to me. I hadn’t really thought about what it would feel like to be on the other end of that situation, where an intern kept knocking on my door and expected attention. I have now learned several skills to help manage this, and I now work around people’s schedules and arrange meetings times such that they can prepare. This way I don’t walk in when they are pushed right up against a deadline, or on a conference call, etc. Calling and planning ahead also shows that you respect their time, and that you just care about yourself and what you need. This has fostered a relationship of mutual respect and understanding, and resembles one of two colleagues, not just one of an intern and his boss.

These two techniques have helped me excel in my SME this summer. As we move into the last few weeks and I try to squeeze every last drop of knowledge out of this experience, I will focus on trying to make my relationship with my boss a lasting one!

#Jeremy Scher

Managing My Boss

During my first week at Champion Fiberglass my supervisor told me what his strengths were and how he managed subordinates. At the time I did not fully understand the significance of what he was telling me, but I have since found that I use a lot of that information on a daily basis to help inform him of what I have been doing. For example, he is a data guy and I distinctly remember him saying to me “always show me the data.” As a result, at the end of the day I compile an email with any significant data I have collected and send it to him, then the next morning after he has had a chance to review it we typically discuss what it means and what the next step should be. I have found that allowing him to review the data I’ve collected is a benefit to both of us because we’re both on the same page before the meeting begins and can spend more time discussing what the information means rather than review what has already been done.

Unfortunately, my supervisor is not always effective in expressing expectations, which has resulted in a few miscommunications over the course of the summer. Early in my internship there were times when I would be asked to complete a certain task, but what I was supposed to be doing would not be clear to me. As a result, it would take me much longer than necessary to get the job done, or it would not be exactly what my supervisor was looking for. I began to realize though, that the poor communication was also a failure on my part. It was my responsibility to ask questions and understand what needed to be done, as much as it was my supervisor’s responsibility to express his expectations. Therefore, I began to ask more questions about what exactly I needed to do and how to go about accomplishing it. To be honest, most of the miscommunications occurred because I was not familiar with various terminology, or processes that are common in the fiberglass industry and I don’t think my supervisor really recognized that. By asking questions though, I learned a lot more about fiberglass as a result. My supervisor was also eager to share the information with me, despite the worry that my questions might seem stupid or a waste of time.

All in all, after reading Managing Your Boss it is clear to me that a successful boss-employee relationship is heavily dependent on open and effective communication between those involved. As a result, I’ve tried to deliver information in a way that is meaningful to my boss, but also work with him to help him understand how he can be most effective in explaining things to me.

#Cameron Smith

Managing my Boss

I thought this week’s article had a good message—obviously, you need to take some responsibility for making sure that your relationship with your boss is good, for both personal reasons and for the good of whatever company you’re working for. I think being able to manage your relationship with your boss is also a big sign of maturity. If you have good communication with your boss and you know how to work with them, chances are that you will be less likely to blame failures or mistakes on them, and I think taking responsibility for your actions says a lot about a person.

I guess I’ve been lucky this summer in that my mentor and I have pretty similar work styles. She tends to email tasks to me, which works well because I like to have information written down. At the beginning of the summer I was unsure how often I was supposed to updated her on what I was doing, since I don’t help her on one big project and instead tend to just complete a bunch of little tasks. I’m also a pretty independent person and didn’t want to bother her by updating her on lots of meaningless things (for example, sending a couple invitations to new invitees to our summit). However, as the summer has gone by and the office has gotten busier, I’ve gotten in the habit of sending her emails with bullet points of all of the things I’ve been working on. She’s away at meetings or handling phone calls a lot, so this ensures that I get the information to her without bombarding her inbox or swinging by her cubicle only to see that she’s gone.

Over the summer I’ve had the chance to work with our office’s grant competition, which has required me to work under two people in our office who aren’t my mentor. This has been a bit more challenging, in part because of the nature of how the work was structured and in part because the people I was working with had work styles that were different than mine. I was used to giving my mentor occasional updates once I had enough progress to warrant an email, and she trusted me to get things done. However, these employees wanted constant updates and I quickly had to adapt to emailing them on my progress no matter how mundane it seemed—literally, after every phone call I made. It was a little irritating because it felt like I wasn’t being trusted to get the work done on my own, but I understand that there was a lot going on and that was just their way of keeping track of things.

#Kaitlin Barnes

Managing Your Boss

The first week of the internship, a colleague mentioned that my mentors appreciated “go-getters”, people who aggressively sought for work, help, and advice. After six weeks, I realize how important this piece of advice has been. Within a large organization like MSKCC, where emails get lost in the masses, actively following up and calling upon people has been instrumental in moving forward. In this instance, my 9-week time limit was an advantage - it gave me a much-needed sense of urgency.

As mentioned in Managing Your Boss, keeping my mentors informed, about things both good and bad, has been important for me when driving research with lots of people-dependencies. Dr. Scher and I began the summer with a discussion of mutual expectations and our frequent meetings afterwards have reinforced these expectations. Reviewing the progress of my projects weekly has allowed my mentors to best refer me to resources and people within Sloan-Kettering, and help me when they could. For instance, this past week, I had been having trouble getting a response from an individual within MSKCC, having written five emails without getting a response. In my meeting with Dr. Scher, he offered the simple advice: “copy me”, which apparently worked like a charm.

Selectively using my bosses’ time and resources in ways that align with their strengths has been key to resolving roadblocks. I have learned that Dr. Scher’s experience allows him to answer questions about clinical needs and background with ease – however he admits himself that he focuses less on the technical details. On the other hand, Dr. Danila is a technical whiz, able to work through the math and analyses that I present to him. As the research I am a part of is both analytical and clinical, going to the right person has helped me time-effectively make progress with my mentors. Keeping the time commitments and pressures in mind this past week, when both Dr. Scher and Danila had just returned from vacation, I avoided claims on their time early in the week and during clinic, knowing the amount of catch-up needed. In general, learning my mentors’ schedules and priorities (project-wise) has helped me develop smooth working relationships.

#Nathan Liu

Managing Your Boss

I did not have much interaction with my boss this week as he was working on a project that required him to be out of the office. The article’s emphasis on how a relationship between a boss and employee must be managed by both parties really resonated as it is something I have learned over the course of the summer. In previous work environments I have always had regular contact with my boss, clear goals and deadlines, and regular checking of my work. Currently I am working on two ongoing projects with only the end of the internship as deadlines and it is not uncommon for my boss to be out of the office four days a week. I came in expecting a mentor who I would see most days and who would actively be involved in helping me develop ideas for my paper. And while my mentor is very useful in helping me find sources and learn about the research process, he has given me a lot of independence and expected me to take charge of my projects. I’ve learned that I cannot wait for someone to come check on me, I have to be proactive in asking for feedback and in making sure that my work is what my mentor is expecting. I have also learned to be more explicit in the questions I ask. “Am I on the right track?” only garnered a response of “yes”, which was not incredibly helpful in determining the direction I should take my project next. I have to have ideas ready and ask which option would work best or ask what my next step should be.

#Abby Marcus

Managing Everyone for Group Decisions

In the past few weeks, many of the employees in the Houston Center for Literacy office have been out on summer vacations. Because many projects still have to move forward, learning everyone’s personality and work style has been key to communicating, making decisions, and getting work done.

For example, we are in the process of creating a new website. Our old site was hard to use and doesn’t present the right image of HCL. It’s an exciting project, but also time-sensitive. After meeting with the website designer we had just three days to review their template and submit our first round of edits. With the CEO out of town, my mentor working from Dallas, and the communications specialist at a conference, working as a team became much harder. Thankfully, everyone in my office is extremely aware of how to work well with each other and because I’ve watched them do this, I was able to help make communication move smoothly between bosses and managers. Chrystal, the communications specialist, heard about this deadline and worried that it wouldn’t get done in time with so many people out of the office. I was able to suggest that she allow Jackie, director of advocacy, to take over since Jackie had strong opinions about the redesign and could effectively manage the edits from within the office. This helped Chrystal calm down and line up all the project’s moving pieces before she left for her conference.

Getting in touch with the other members of the executive team to get approval also could have been difficult, but thankfully Jackie and I knew how to manage our bosses well. We sent drafts of an outline back and forth, making as many edits and asking as many questions as we could to head off the concerns they would have. Although she understands deadlines, my mentor Annie will not sacrifice thorough review or attention to detail. We also knew this would help Sheri focus because although she runs HCL, she prefers to delegate and just approve the final product. When we got on the conference call on Thursday, this hard work paid off. It only took about an hour to hammer out the final details, make a few small changes, and get approval from both Annie and Sheri.

I credit much of this process to the office environment at HCL. Even without the extra attention to managing my bosses and getting to know an office environment that the SME has encouraged, I feel like the discussions between my colleagues would have prepared me to successfully navigate situations like this. The topic of each person’s working style has come up in conversation on multiple occasions so that I have been able to combine my perceptions with feedback from around the office and create a fuller picture of each person’s identity and personality. I’m so thankful to have learned this skill because even if my next office isn’t as open, I will know how to search out this valuable information.

#Maggie Sulc

Managing The Boss

The first time I met with my mentor, Dr. Quach, my goal was to understand his overarching goals for UTMB and how I could help the organization get closer to them. He had never had an intern before, so I felt pressure to exceed perhaps nonexistent expectations. With this in mind, I did all I could to “manage my boss.” The first few weeks, I went with him everywhere, observing his style of work and determining our work dynamic. The time spent with him gave me ample opportunity to understand how to develop our working relationship.

Unfortunately, the amount of time with my mentor varied greatly after the first couple weeks. Some weeks, I spend 30 hours with him, and other weeks, I do not see him at all. Because of the inconsistent amount of time we spend together, I look for ways to keep my mentor in the loop. He is too busy to micromanage me, so I establish a steady stream of contact with him via email. In order to strategize, he prefers meetings, so we try to make time once a week to meet up in person to discuss projects. On my end, I realize that I do not need a mentor who gives me step-by-step instructions. I enjoy learning entire processes rather than just what it takes to accomplish a task, so the freedom that my relationship with my mentor allows me to take away what I want while still adding value.

This past week, I continued to update my mentor via email, and on occasion, I would stop into his office between his meetings to catch up. This approach, similar to what I have done all summer, has made our relationship consistent and effective. Learning how to make the most of our relationship has not only helped me add value to UTMB, but it has also taught me a lot about the importance of communication and establishing relationships—two things my mentor finds important as well. Besides my boss, I strive to “manage” everyone around me. Like Kotter and Gabarro, I believe that it is important to manage your superiors, but I also believe it is equally important to manage your peers and coworkers. Though a relationship with the boss is necessary to succeed, relationships with coworkers ensure that everyone wins.

#Kelvin Pho

mutual management

I feel like I didn’t need to even read the rest of the article after Gabarro and Kotter mentioned flow of information. I pick up a lot of quirks or preferences that my boss, Duncan, has from his executive and board secretaries: he doesn’t like color coded things, he likes things to be printed out, etc. But, the flow of information to him is absolutely essential. I wish I could bold that x3, underline 5 times and enlarge it (I probably could but I don’t know how to/suck at html coding) because Duncan designed his entire senior staff, board, and administrative system around the flow of information within the administrative building. He set up almost kind of a flow chart of people that designates who each subordinate reports to, with him as the peak and me kind of branched off on my own from him (and occasionally other senior staff members). I figured out early on that he likes information short and to the point - a summary statement of each ongoing project is provided at every meeting. and. that’s. it. I naturally am incredibly long-winded; when I talk I always interrupt myself and forget to breathe which that translates into my writing, even in formal settings.

One of my first projects was to analyze the STAAR, EOC, and TAKS scores for SBISD and KIPP students (Texas’ standardized tests), which Duncan called an ‘executive summary’. Since I was unsure about what that was (if it was even anything specific), I about.com’ed it and pretty much copied the template/outline they provided, which was a summary of all the results/conclusions I had compiled in the 15pg document (it did have graphs, so not all words) into 1 title page. I cheated a little and slightly enlarged the page margins with single-spaced font, but watching Duncan go through it, I knew I made the smart decision writing that initial page. I summarized the most radical and relevant trends so that he could flip to the page with the graph that reflected the trend’s statement. I know that Duncan appreciates my analysis skills, but I also think it’s because my presentation of them is in a way that he can quickly assess and respond to.

Throughout the summer, I think the other most relevant point that Gabarro and Kotter brought up is effectively, efficiently, and respectfully using our time with our boss. It would be really easy for me to spend hours with Duncan talking about Spring Branch, running a school district and everything else that goes along with education and its inequality, but he simply doesn’t have that kind of time. I try to get in little tidbits with him before or after meetings or around break times so that it attaches to the end of something he already had scheduled instead of an extra meeting he needs to make time for.

#Adrianna Chrestopolous

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