Whatever the situation, when your boss is wrong, you have to make a series of quick judgment calls.
You're in a meeting with a prospective customer. Your company's future hinges on whether this client decides to buy. Your boss is in the middle of the pitch and you realize that he has said something wrong. Totally wrong. Wrong enough that the deal is jeopardized. What do you do?
Dealing with mistakes made by the boss is one of the toughest situations you can face in your career. It is a dilemma fraught with emotion and laden with ego. After all, you are dealing with the person who decides how much you are paid and whether you get promoted. Handle their mistakes deftly, and your boss will appreciate that you are watching his or her back. But handle the boss' mistakes the wrong way and you can lose a lot, maybe even your job.
So what do you do? Tom, the senior technologist who heard his CEO make the mistake in the pitch meeting, related that his only choice was to "aggressively seek a way to jump in" to the CEO's pitch. Time was of the essence, and it helped that the error concerned the technology that Tom had developed. Tom interrupted quickly and politely, rephrasing the CEO's misstatement using some of the same language so that the idea became technically correct. This tactic helped the CEO "save face" and made clear to the client exactly what the technology could do. Also working in Tom's favor was the nature of the corporate culture in his Internet start-up firm--the structure is loose, the technology is complicated so everyone works as a team, and the CEO appreciates heads-up plays.
Whatever the situation, when your boss is wrong you have to make a series of quick judgement calls.
First, you have to assess the nature of the mistake. Is it a big mistake that needs immediate remedy or is it merely annoying to you? If the boss makes a call that you disagree with, are you willing to go to battle to save it? Is it worth your time, your reputation and maybe your career? |
You also have to assess what your position is on the corporate ladder. Do you have a special expertise, like Tom's, that makes your input valuable? Have you proven yourself within the organization as a team player? Can you say things to your boss freely and openly?
Then, you have to decide whether the error needs to be addressed in front of others, like Tom had to do, or one-on-one. Realize that few of us enjoy apologizing. You have to decide whether calling attention to your boss' mistake or wrong call in front of others is going to put your boss in an awkward situation. Is that going to be a good thing or is it simply unavoidable?
One effective tactic is to go to your boss privately and run through the possible repercussions of his or her decision. Don't say that the boss is right or wrong, just offer alternative ways of looking at the issue. This gives you the opportunity to position yourself as helpful to the boss in a non-threatening way.
The worst thing you can do is talk about the mistake with your peers, ginning up the office grapevine and undermining the boss by second-guessing the decision. Invariably, this kind of talk circulates through the organization, gets back to the boss and hurts your reputation and growth within the organization.
Finally, use your intuition. If the boss is an egocentric megalomaniac, it's probably not useful to correct him or her in public. It may not even be possible to raise the possibility that he or she is wrong in private. If that's the case, the best thing to do may be to find a new boss--one who is willing to admit mistakes and move on. |
