Managing Up

Has your manager ever asked you to do something that literally cannot be done?*

I would say there are four different effective responses in this situation:

1) Try to give your manager the outcome/output they are asking for.

This option works best when you have a positive and open relationship with your manager, and when you have leverage with your stakeholders. Consider if you are able to get to the desired output without going through the process your manager expects. Do you have a good enough relationship with your stakeholders to get them to complete something faster than they normally would? However, If you’re going to pull off a ‘hail Mary’, you need to get credit for it and be VERY clear that this is not to be expected from you regularly. If you trust your manager to have your back, maybe you can make the impossible possible occasionally.

2) Help your manager redefine what an acceptable outcome looks like.

Are you are able to deliver 85%-95% of what was asked for by the deadline? Are you able to push for some wiggle room on the completeness of the project or the deadline? Be prepared to negotiate. I recommend this option when you have to deliver ‘something’ to leadership, but the guidance on what they want is vague enough to allow you to decide what to give them. This also means you need to be able to rely on your manager to explain leadership that what you delivered is what they wanted in the first place.

3) Stand firm on the “no”, but don’t do it alone

Sometimes you just can’t do it. How to say no to leadership is a whole other post, but when you go this route, you will want as many allies as possible. Talk to all of your stakeholders and get clear responses from them about why they cannot accommodate the request, or re-work it, or give an alternative. If possible, try to get your partners ready to back you up - try not to be the ‘only one’ saying no to the request (unless it is illegal- but that’s also another post). Sometimes those at the “working-level” forget that they actually are the reason anything in the organization gets done and sometimes they need to stand in that power. The way you navigate pushing back to leadership will have a huge impact on your career, so try to move with intention.

4) Say “yes” and do nothing (I bet you weren’t expecting this as an option!)

Honestly, if you are asked to do something without the necessary resources (time, people, materials, etc), and you know there won’t be any real follow up, I would seriously consider just telling your manager what they want to hear. AGAIN, this is very dependent on whether or not there will be legitimate follow up- but if your leadership is prone to assigning work based on whims, save your energy for the stuff that matters.

*I put this experience in the middle of the spectrum between things that “shouldn’t” be done (because they are ethically or strategically wrong), and being asked to do something that is illegal. I know if you think about it, you have absolutely been asked to do things both against your ethics and against the law at work…Oh, just me? Ok then