Credit Hog

When someone does something – anything – right, he's there to take the credit. The more public and spectacular the success, the more vocal he is.

To hear him tell it, you'd never suspect he actually has a department of people doing the work.

Your fantasy responses:

Ask detailed questions he can't answer while he's taking credit… Outshout him… "Hey, wasn't that my project?!"

Why:

• He might think that his taking credit is really a reflection of the department taking credit
• If he's used to being a technical heavy-hitter, the fact that he doesn't have much in the way of personal project-related achievements while in a management role may be extremely uncomfortable.
• He might be very insecure, and this is a way of ensuring that his own management realizes that he's contributing by way of his department
• He may just be using the department to make himself look good, get that next promotion, and move on.

Tips for Dealing:

• When you achieve anything major, announce it yourself. Either do it in a meeting – if you can manage it without your boss cutting in – or announce it via email to all the right people. You can do this under the guise of supporting your project team (whatever you do, don't take the credit for yourself if it's a team effort – give credit to the team in that case or else you're being a Credit Hog yourself) or as a status, or even as a celebration (whoo hoo! It's finished!).
• Keep backup data – status reports, etc. – and be sure to include your accomplishments in every status report. Keep them in a handy place so that when review time comes around, you can provide the list in your self-review. (If you company doesn't solicit self-reviews, do one anyone on your own initiative.)
• When he makes these announcements, follow them up with a resounding 'yes! What a great project team' and enumerate the contributors. If it was an individual effort, you can use the opportunity to thank anyone who *may* have helped you along.
• If your department operates more as a group of individuals than as a team in the kind of work you perform, form a cartel and pat each other on the back instead of blowing your own horn.

Move the Mouse to the Left…Now!

The classic micro manager.

This guy wants to know what you're doing every minute of the day (and thinks you could do much better if only he could direct every move).

In extreme cases, he actually tells you what to do on at least an hourly basis. He wants to review every report and every significant email you send before anyone else sees it. It's hard to get anything done with him looking over your shoulder.

Your fantasy responses:

• "Obviously, you should just do this all yourself."
• "I could have done this twice in the time it took you to tell me how to do it."
• "Do you want me to work or just report status?"

Why:

• He may not really understand what his department is doing and desperately wants to be able to talk about it intelligently.
• He may have had situations in the past where he didn't pay enough attention to what was going on in his department and got burned for it.
• Someone in the department may have gotten him in trouble by not letting him know what was going on (this happens more than we'd all like to think, and micromanagement is sometimes a boomerang reaction to the situation)
• His boss may be a micromanager and be demanding all the details of what's going on in the department.
• He may be a genuine control freak.

Tips for Dealing:

• Your best bet is to be proactive with information. On your checklist for getting anything of significance done, just put an action item send it to him for review. Chances are good that if you're proactive and consistent he'll calm down and back off a little bit. 
• Give him a regular (probably weekly) status report. This is less work than it sounds – all you need is a format and the first report. After that, you just make updates every week and send it out – 10 minutes tops. Try to get away with just status from the last week and no future plans (less for him to try to control). If that doesn't work, go from less to more in steps, waiting until asked. Start with 'future plans' and no timeframes. From there you can go to 30 day/over 30 day, and if he's still not satisfied you can go to 30/60/90. You will probably need to put estimated due dates for in-process items, though, or he's just going to come back and ask for them. If his boss is the one causing the micromanagement you're giving your own boss enough information to take forward.
• Sometime he just wants to feel like he has input into the process, so give him that opportunity. With luck after a few weeks of settling in he won't give excess and detailed feedback (but will give you some help where you need it).
• Nod politely at his suggestions and incorporate them when they make sense. Everyone wants to feel like their suggestions count.
• As a last ditch effort, inundate him with information until he cries uncle.

Ms. Oblivious

This is the manager who doesn't remember what her folks are doing between one meeting and the next.

She never notices that you need help, and is equally hopeless at noticing that you've done great work. She never sees that one person who doesn't pull his weight, or the other who are making up for it. She's unable to talk about your work to her manager because she doesn't seem to remember it at all. Dying your hair purple won't even make her blink.

Your fantasy response: "Yoohoo! Anybody in there?"

The Waffler

This is the manager who can't stick with a decision to save her life. You know, the one who has you change the graph 5 times before deciding…and then changes it back ten minutes before the big presentation.

Sometimes she can't even remember what decision she made, and she always expects you to nod your head and happily make the change, and to back her up in meetings when you're in shock over the about-face.

Your fantasy response:

Shake her and say "MAKE UP YOUR MIND!" (Ever see Airplane?)

Why:

• She feels like she doesn't have full information, so she keeps digging. Every new piece of information changes her viewpoint.
• She's made a few bad decisions in the past and been punished for them, and it makes her very nervous about making any decisions now.
• She can see many points of view and goes with whichever one seems best at any given moment.
• Her manager is on her case all the time about decisions.
• She might not even be aware that she changes her mind as often as she does, or that it upsets the natural order.
• She's just a very indecisive person. She probably hasn't painted her house in many years because she can't decide on a color. She drives a 12 year old car because there are too many choices for a new one. In other words, this is how she lives.
• She's not very smart, and/or she likes to make your life miserable.

Tips for Dealing:

• Try to articulate the goals for any decision. This will help keep her focused, and give you a baseline to which to retreat and start again.
• Let her know what any about-face is costing – in time, dollars, whatever it takes.
• When possible, record in a public place (email, wiki, etc.) any significant decisions and the reason for the decision.
• Beat her to the punch – if you know she's going to ask for a presentation three different ways, just do it that way to begin with. It's more work if she doesn't ask for the changes, but if she runs true to form you'll save yourself a lot of last-minute hassle.
• Speak up – when she backpedals, verbally confirm that the decision had been this, and is now is that, and note the reason.