Who’s the boss?
This might sound strange to some, but the “boss” might not be the boss.
One important skill I learned from my previous role was to ‘read the room.’ By paying attention to both the explicit and the underlying conversations, I am able to identify the power brokers in the meeting and, ultimately, who the boss is.
What many fail to realise is that formal and informal structures exist in any organization. Knowing where they diverge is key to successfully navigating the organization and getting things done as the informal is the more powerful of the two.
In one of my past roles, a new Director had just joined the organization and he attended a staff meeting chaired by the Group Director for the first time. During the meeting, this new Director challenged the views of those in the meeting, dismissed their ideas, and gave instructions to the people present at the meeting to follow up.
What this new Director failed to realise is that there was an informal power structure in the group. While he was a Director, and what he asked for was agreed to by the Group Director, the Group Director was in-charge only in name. There was an informal group of Deputy Directors and Assistant Directors, in key roles, who were de facto…
