When The Boss’s Demand Seems Unreasonable…

You’ve seen it countless times. The boss says he wants this done. You know it doesn’t make sense and will be a waste of time or worse.

“I want to do a deal with XYX. Get the papers drawn up.” You think: “Do business with them? We shouldn’t even be talking with those guys.”

“We need a new product that has this feature, just like our competitor has.” You think: “We don’t need a whole new product for that.”

“We can’t wait to have this system up and running by next Summer. We’re going to have to move up the delivery date by 3 months.” You think: “There’s no way we can have all these features fully functional by then.”

That’s what you THINK. But what do you actually DO?

Typical go-to responses to unreasonable demands look something like this:

The Grudging Compliance. This is where everyone shakes their heads but then gets down to work as usual, trying to stuff their reservations and saying nothing. Who knows? It might work. And if it doesn’t, at least we’ve done what we were asked to do, so the failure is on him. But it’s more likely it will be cast as a great idea that failed because of “poor execution.” That’s on you.

The Rope-a-dope. Everyone goes into the project half-heartedly and at half-speed, hoping the thing will fail. This is a disaster for morale. Nobody wants to work in an environment like that.

The Open Resistance. This one might seem brave and heroic, but it’s not. Someone stands up and says “This is crazy and will never work.” Everyone’s in awe and gives the leader of the “rebellion” credit for “speaking truth to power” (or some other mindless use of a clichéd expression intended as a compliment). The response of management is to ask for proof to back up that assertion and, with no analysis having been done by the Resisters, their case for stopping it has no more weight than the one for doing it.

There are several problems with these approaches:

• The project never really gets the vetting it deserves.
• The boss feels she’s not being supported by her team.
• The workers feel they are getting “bad direction” and may conclude they have a Bad Boss.

So what do you do? Try these five steps:

• Adjust your attitude. Some things are above your pay grade — beyond your control. Your boss’s position — and yours — exist within a hierarchical organization. Each comes with its own prerogatives and constraints. Your boss gets to propose initiatives that she believes will further the company’s goals and objectives. Your job is to de-code what he SAYS, confirm what she MEANS and then provide feedback about what it would look like as and when it is brought to fruition.
• Make sure you understand the higher-level purpose for the request. What does the boss want to tell HER boss she accomplished? What does she want to list on her list of things she got done this year?
• Generate several different alternative scenarios. No more than 3 or 4, including the one most-obviously suggested by the boss’s initial request, each of which would accomplish the higher-level purpose.
• Evaluate each scenario for benefits, time, cost, resources, and potential consequences — intended and unintended-but-likely.
• Present a recommendation back to the boss, showing how it accomplishes the higher-level purpose and how it differs from the other scenarios you generated.

What happens then? Maybe the boss goes with your recommendation. Or, maybe she picks one of the others. Maybe she asks for more analysis and some discussion. Maybe she decides to table the whole thing. Whatever the decision, at least it will be based on solid facts and analysis rather than horseback opinions and knee-jerk responses.

When the boss says something, there is simply no place in any organization for stubborn resistance or grudging compliance. Your boss and the organization are counting on you to make a good faith effort to analyze and evaluate every proposal, request or demand that comes down from higher levels, and to communicate your findings clearly and without resentment or posturing, rancor or emotion, all in the interest of finding the best way forward. That’s the only way meaningful progress happens in any organization.