Managing the manager

Dragon, short fuse,
monster... are these and worse some of the epithets you use to refer to your boss? Then you definitely must be one of the unfortunates who has to deal with a boss from hell. The reasons for your boss' behaviour can be many -- he may believe that being a despot is the only way of managing the staff, or he may find losing his temper a stress-buster, or he even may be a perfectionist and anything less triggers his anger. Big Break gives
you some tips to manage his anger:



Know your triggers
If you keep track, you'll soon come to know what set's off your boss' bad mood and later escalates into a blow out. This could be something as simple as his morning coffee not being hot enough or the weekly office review not being presented on time. Keep these triggers at bay and you will have a relatively peaceful time.

Have a cooling off period
If you know that your boss is furious right now don't meet him immediately. Give him some time to cool off and use that period to plan your approach or defense. Find a stress-buster that works for you, this could be listening to soothing music, meditating or just squeezing a stress ball.

Be cool and confident
The most important thing is to know your inner strengths and have faith in yourself. When you boss is angry he is quite likely to hurl accusations at you, be
prepared for such behaviour and at all times remain polite and calm yourself. Never yell back, give him the respect due to a boss --worse come to worse, when HR is reviewing the situation with your boss, you will emerge shining!

Make notes
It's very easy to lose track of what you want to convey in a heated conversation. Before your boss meets with you on any matter make a few notes on what you want to discuss, what his possible objections or complaints would be and your reply or rebuttal of those. This way you can convey your points in a calm and collected manner and dissipate some of your boss' anger as well.

Accept responsibility There may be instances where you have made a mistake which has triggered your boss' anger. In such a situation the smartest thing to do is not just accept responsibility but also provide a solution to the problem.

When a person agrees that he is wrong and is willing to take the consequences and make amends, there's not much left to yell about. The most important thing to remember is to control your own behaviour and reactions to the situation -- be cool and let your boss turn red in the face!