Even the second most powerful man in the world still has a boss. In fact, apart from a small minority, everyone in society has somebody above them. People who do not have a boss constitute a relatively small proportion of the working population; that includes such professions as self-employed lawyers, doctors, consultants, and owner-managers of companies. This chapter will show what U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (born in 1942) can teach us about working effectively with a hierarchical superior.
Biden is a veteran politician. He joined the U.S. Congress as one of its youngest ever senators back in 1973, and is today one of America’s most experienced politicians. Biden’s extensive experience was definitely one of the main reasons why Barack Obama chose him as his running mate. Under the U.S. Constitution, the vice president is president of the Senate, the upper house of America’s bicameral legislature.
The U.S. vice president automatically steps in for any president unable to discharge his duties. This happened in April 1945, for example, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt died while in office and was replaced by Harry Truman. Truman had virtually no foreign policy experience because Roosevelt had barely involved him in that domain. This makes Truman’s achievements all the more impressive, because he took office during the difficult final phase of World War II, and his subsequent performance proved him to be a competent president in all respects. Another occasion when a vice president took over the top job was after John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, and Lyndon B. Johnson had to step up to the plate.
There is no doubt that Joe Biden could competently assume the mantle of president. Usually it is the incumbent president who decides how much political largesse to give to his deputy.
What can Joe Biden now do if he is interested in cooperating effectively with his colleagues and staff? And what can he do to manage his boss, Barack Obama? Contrary to the popular assumption that only bosses are responsible for managing their workers, people in charge also need to be managed. There is absolutely nothing new about this idea: Peter F. Drucker described it in detail as long ago as 1967 in his book The Effective Executive, and even that description was based on the thoughts about organization and collaboration set out in 1954 in a previous Drucker book, The Practice of Management. Nonetheless, it remains a strangely neglected notion, one that bosses themselves are loath to pass on, even though it is surely very much in their interest to do so, as will become apparent below.
At the same time, not only bosses need managing. Many people fail to see that colleagues need to be managed, too, which is of course a far more challenging task than managing workers who are your subordinates. Since workers are aware that their superiors are authorized to issue them instructions, they tend to make sure their boss has no need to do so.
Anyway, if a boss frequently manages by decree, there is a more fundamental problem on one of the two sides involved. The four recommendations set out below should help to guarantee effective cooperation in practice.
One characteristic of today’s knowledge society is that most people actually have several bosses. For instance, they will have a direct superior, but if they are working on a project, they will also have a project manager above them in that connection. In the context of their own work, these people are dependent on the results that you achieve, and at the same time you will be dependent on others. You would be very well advised to begin by drawing up two such dependency lists, the first titled “People on whom I depend (with regard to my results),” and the second headed “People who depend on me (with regard to their results).”
Lists of this kind should not remain limited to dependencies within the compiler’s organization. Many partnerships in business fail because dependencies outside the organization in question are not sufficiently kept in mind or taken seriously. So make sure that you include customers, joint ventures, strategic partnerships, and any other scenarios in which you and others might be mutually dependent. Dependent relationships most definitely do not stop at the outer limits of an organization. Many people know this but fail to act on it, even though doing so would yield them a ready benefit. The questions you should discuss with the people on your lists are:
“What can I do, and what do you need to work effectively?”
“What am I doing or what is our department doing that makes it difficult for you to attain your objectives?”
Also let your dialogue partners know what results you need from them to achieve your targets, though in most cases they should ask themselves this question anyway. Update your dependency lists at least once a year and every time you switch jobs or whenever your job changes or fresh assignments are assigned to you.
The most important principle for effective cooperation with your superior is to make your boss effective. Pay attention to the working methods used by your boss and gear your approach accordingly. Attempts to make your boss change will not succeed. If ever you feel uncertain about something, simply ask your boss how she or he wants things to be. You may end up facing a not entirely pleasant acclimatization phase, but only in this way will your efforts be effective.
Both Obama and Biden were clever to enter into their partnership as president and vice president. Before Biden was appointed, he criticized Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience. In one interview Biden said that Obama was superior to John McCain in every domain “with one exception: political experience. That is something people think a president should have more of.”1 Then again, such an impressive track record in the foreign policy domain, among others, happens to be Joe Biden’s major strength. If Obama is to be an effective president, he needs partners just like Biden, people who can help Obama draw on his strengths and deploy their own wherever the president’s are not yet strongly established. The “secret” of good managers is that they make their boss effective. Of course, the same applies to colleagues, workers, and any other people featured on your dependency list.
If a boss is to prove effective, he or she must know where things stand at any time. In other words, your boss needs to be informed, know what your objectives are, and be aware of where your priorities lie. You must never forget that your boss is in turn accountable to a superior and needs such information to form and convey a realistic picture of the situation. A self-assured Joe Biden said he would, “Be Obama’s ‘top advisor.’” adding: “I’ll be in the room whenever he makes an important decision.”2 From the viewpoint of ensuring the reliable flow of information, itself an essential prerequisite for good, effective decision-making, this can only be good news. But of course good, dependable exchanges of information are just as significant for the other people on your dependency list.
There is a reason why your boss is your superior and not vice versa. Younger employees in particular often tend to have problems with this notion. It is very easy to see what bosses are unable to do, but it takes a great deal more experience to spot—and learn to appreciate—their strengths. In this connection, younger people would be well advised to seek out intensive contacts with the older generation. In human history, knowledge and experienced have always been passed down from one generation to another, so why should that practice have lost its validity today?
Never underestimate your boss. Should you repeatedly experience difficulties with your boss, take heed of what Jack Welch had to say about the issue: “Generally speaking, bosses are not awful to people whom they like, respect, and need. If your boss is being negative to you—and mainly you—you can feel pretty confident that he has his version of events, and his version concerns your attitude or performance.”3 So think about your results and attitude.
Draw up the two dependency lists as explained above, the first titled “People on whom I depend (with regard to my results),” and the second headed “People who depend on me (with regard to their results).”
Speak with the people featured on the lists and discuss the questions set out above.
Make the people featured on your dependency lists effective and keep them informed.
Seek dialogue with people from other generations.