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How to manage your boss when you dislike authority
It’s not them, it’s you
I would never want to manage an employee like myself in my 20s. I resented following orders. I disliked it when my boss got to present my work instead of me. I often thought that I would prefer not to have a boss. I was a nightmare.
Early on, I could get away with it. I avoided much contact with my bosses and focused on being good at my job. I was lucky enough to have many managers who enjoyed my independence and were happy to delegate. I quickly rose through the ranks.
But, at some point, my disdain towards authority started having a toll on my career. I wasn’t hiding it as well as I thought I was. One manager told me off for unknowingly rolling my eyes whenever he assigned boring tasks to me. Another became hostile towards me as she felt threatened. I started being passed over for opportunities as I was not in my boss’s “inner circle.” I realized that it was impossible to continue my career progression unless I fixed my relationship with my superiors.
In the HBR article “Managing your Boss,” the authors call this resistance to authority counterdependent behavior. People with counterdependent behavior struggle with their superiors. Especially with authoritarian bosses or micromanagers. Paradoxically, they are great managers themselves. They…
