Chapter 83. Accept That Bosses Are as Scared as You Are at Times

Poor thingss; they too get frightened, paranoid, lost, feel unloved, confused, vulnerable, and alone. Your job is to take away your bosses’ pain and their fears and make them relax.

You are a manager and have to manage not only downward but upward as well. When you deal with your bosses don’t ever

• Threaten

• Usurp

• Intimidate

• Pressurize

• Menace

• Disrespect

• Question (apart from under Rule 82)

• Undermine

• Ridicule

Instead you have to support, back, encourage, comfort, console, cheer up, relieve the pressure on, be utterly dependable, take the strain, guard the fort, and eventually perhaps replace them—with yourself of course.

Some bosses are so stricken with panic they are incapable of making decisions. You will have to make decisions for them and reassure them that everything is fine—the doctor is in the house now, and they can go and lie down.