【中英双语】想学会向上管理，这七个问题能帮到你
我在咨询工作中学到的最重要的事情之一，便是帮助人们做好向上管理，这与做好自我管理一样重要。这通常意味着要重新学着适应组织，与前老板有效开展工作的所有做法，在新老板这里都未必适用。我曾离开了一位善于交际、喜欢享乐，且果断自信的老板后，为一位安静、谨慎又严肃的老板工作。我的性格没变，但我要改变习惯，调整行为，重新学着适应一切。
One of the biggest things I learned in my coaching career is that helping people manage their bosses is arguably as important as helping them to manage themselves. This often means relearning what it means to adapt to an organization, as everything that may have made you effective with your previous manager may not necessarily help you with your new one. For example, I once went from working for a very sociable, hedonistic, and assertive boss, to working for a very quiet, cautious, and serious boss — my personality stayed the same, but I was forced to learn new habits, adjust my behaviors, and relearn how to adapt.
要提升与新老板相处并有效工作的能力，没有捷径或简单公式可以套用，提出正确的问题会大有裨益。以下七个问题可以帮你更好地理解老板，互相沟通：
While there’s no universal or simple formula for improving your ability to get along (and work effectively) with your new boss, the good news is that you will make a great deal of progress if you can ask the right questions. Here are seven to consider:
1. 我应该与团队之外的哪些人多交流？
Who should I meet with outside of our team?
尽管如今组织更多以人才为中心，以业绩为基础，老生常谈依然有效：你认识谁往往比知道什么更重要。这就是办公室政治重要的原因。如果能迅速掌握支配新团队，或组织中社交关系的潜规则或非正式关系网，你便能提升自己的影响力。老板是提供这类信息的理想人选。
Although we have come a long way to make organizations more talent-centric and merit-based, the old premise is still true: what you know is often less important than who you know. This is why office politics are so important; your ability to figure out how to influence others will improve if you can get to a quick understanding of the unspoken or informal networks that govern the social dynamics of your new team or organization. Your boss is ideally placed to provide you with this intel.
2. 你善于哪种沟通方式?
How do you prefer to communicate?
许多人都不确定自己近期的工作状态——居家办公，回办公室，还是以某种方式混合办公等。有鉴于此，以灵活的方式与老板沟通非常重要，还没与新老板见面时尤其如此。
With many people uncertain about their short-term work environment — working from home, returning to the office, some type of hybrid work, etc. — it is important to be flexible about how you can best communicate with your manager, particularly if you have never met them in person.
3. 得到意见和反馈的最佳方式是什么？
What’s the best way to ask for your input and feedback?
制定一个时间表，保证自己能定期收到相关表现反馈，哪怕只是每周15分钟的谈话或定期邮件沟通。这将有助于你管理并调整自己提升表现的方式。
Establishing a cadence where you can get regular feedback on how you are doing, even via 15-minutes weekly chats or regular email check-ins, will help you regulate and calibrate your efforts to improve your performance.
4. 我应如何支持团队，提升组织价值？
What can I do to support the team and add value to the organization?
这个问题将帮助你厘清自己的职责，与老板建立起一致的期望目标，并有效地对工作任务和努力方向进行优先级排序。管理者往往不会明确阐明首要任务，解释对下属的期待，或明确解释工作内容。迅速了解这些，可以帮助你完成最重要的工作。
This question will enable you to clarify your role, align with your boss on expectations, and strategically prioritize tasks and efforts. Managers often fail to clearly and explicitly articulate what their top priority is, how they see team members fitting in, and what they mostly need from them. Understanding this quickly will help you deliver where it matters most.
5. 换作是你，你会怎样做？
What would you do if you were in my shoes?
这个问题不仅会让管理者对你的处境感同身受，站在你的角度看问题，还可以表现出你对他们的尊重，看重他们的专业见解。不管收到的建议如何，这都能让你与老板建立起良好的关系，进一步加深你对管理者思维、感受和行为方式的理解。
This question will not just invite your manager to empathize with you — allowing them to see things from your perspective — it will also show them that you respect them and appreciate their expertise. No matter how logical or insightful their advice may be, it can create a good connection between the two of you and further deepen your understanding of how your manager thinks, feels, and acts.
6. 如何进一步发展自身潜力？
How can I further develop my potential?
才华横溢的伦敦商学院教授赫尔米娜·伊巴拉（Hermina Ibarra）指出，伟大的领袖善于培养和辅导下属。你可以请老板扮演这一角色，评估并开发你的潜能，不仅关注你的绩效表现，还要关注你的潜力。当今世界对我们更新技能的要求越来越高，我们不应忽视拓宽视野、乐于重新想象，或重塑自身才能的重要性。顺带一提，这个问题还能明确升职与发展的现有标准，帮助你制定更为客观、务实的发展规划，并且可以让你知道管理者的真实想法。
As the brilliant Hermina Ibarra noted, great Leaders excel at coaching and mentoring their people. You can nudge your boss to play this role by asking them to assess and develop your potential. This means going beyond your performance to focus also on what you could do. In a world that is increasingly pushing us to reskill and upskill, it is hard to underestimate the importance of expanding our horizons and being open to reimagining or reinventing our talents to future-proof our career. Incidentally, this question will also clarify the existing criteria for promotion and advancement, which will help you be objective and pragmatic about your plans (and will keep your boss honest).
7. 是否可以做得更好？
What could I be doing better?
入职几周后提出这个问题，可以促使老板对你提供重要指导，帮助你更加接近老板预期。许多管理者会努力避免冲突，并保持积极士气，因此难以给出负面评价。这种寻求反馈的措辞，可以帮助他们更加注意你的改进空间。同时这个问题表明，即使当前表现良好，你仍然希望了解自己可以改进的地方。
After a few weeks on the job, asking this question may encourage your boss to provide you with much-needed guidance for closing the gap between how you are performing and what your boss expects from you. In their attempt to avoid conflict and maintain positive morale, many managers find it hard to provide employees with negative evaluations, so wording your feedback request in this way can help them focus on your improvement areas. It also signals that you are eager to understand how you can get better, even if you are doing well.
最后还有一点：每个人都是独一无二的，你和你的老板也不例外。以上问题可能不完全适用于你的情况，以及不断发展的关系。但整体原则依然如此：如果你能更好地管理与老板之间的关系，便能更快走向职场成功。你需要更理解老板，从明智的提问开始，制定一套精心规划的策略将对此有所帮助。
A final point to consider: every person is unique, including you and your new boss. Invariably, this means that some of these questions might not be be applicable given the situation and your growing relationship. But the general rule still stands: you will accelerate your career success if you can manage your boss better. This requires you to understand them better, and a deliberate strategy that starts with smart questions can help.
托马斯·沙莫罗普雷穆日奇是 ManpowerGroup 的首席创新官，伦敦大学学院和哥伦比亚大学的商业心理学教授、哈佛大学创业金融实验室（Entrepreneurial Finance Lab）的研究学者，著有《才能不佳的人为何可以成为领导者，以及如何改变这一现象》（Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? and How to Fix It）一书，他的TEDx演讲便以这本书的内容为基础。
托马斯·沙莫罗普雷穆日奇（Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic）| 文
孙莉莉 | 译 蒋荟蓉 | 校 孙燕 | 编辑
