What to Do When You Know More Than Your Boss By Janet Britcher.

Keith was an engineer who enjoyed his role and his autonomy. His boss Eric was also an engineer, but in a different specialty. He gave Keith a lot of freedom to problem solve and create according to his own skills and expertise. This worked well most of the time.
There were two times it did not work well:

1. When Keith knew more but Eric mandated a different solution.
2. At year-end when Keith wanted to be acknowledged for his work yet Eric didn’t have enough information to evaluate it.

Clients I’ve worked with experience knowing more than their boss around mid-career or later. This is most common in industries that require multiple disciplines to accomplish a task, including:

• Computers and hardware
• Biotechnology
• Medical devices
• Medicine and healthcare
• Software and systems

Get Credit

How can Keith still establish priorities, exercise influence and get credit when his boss doesn’t know what he really does?

1. Become exquisitely informed about the company, which is the context of the work. Take every opportunity to invite himself into his manager’s world. It is only by knowing the manager’s point of view that Keith can translate his accomplishments into relevant language.
2. Invite Eric into his world. Keith should not be reluctant to include Eric for fear he will disagree with a course of action. Better to know at the beginning of a project than months later.
3. Keith needs to understand his manager’s motivation and rewards. What accomplishments are expected of Eric? How is Keith a part of that? How can he align his contributions?

No matter how superb Keith’s skills and accomplishments, if it’s not what the company needs, he won’t get the excellent recognition he thinks he deserves. For some, it is challenging and frustrating to be evaluated by someone who has less expertise. Your manager however is the messenger of what will be well regarded by the organization.
Just because Keith has expertise doesn’t mean the company wants all of it. That’s why it is so important to jointly establish expectations. Keith may have more knowledge, but Eric likely has a valuable perspective about what is important, and what will be recognized.

Ongoing Year-round Rapport

Keith should get in the habit of presenting no more than three bullets related to what he wants to convey. When meeting with his manager, give a high level executive summary first. There is a very high probability that a manager with a different expertise can be overwhelmed or can be dismissive of too much detail. Therefore contributions and information needs to be presented with the audience in mind. Not too superficial, but not too technical all at once.
Another delicate area is the dilemma of Keith teaching Eric. This contradicts the explicit hierarchical relationship, so it’s important for Keith to respect Eric’s competence and authority while sharing specialty knowledge. Talk more about:

• what matters about the product or project
• how it impacts the department and company
• why it’s cool technology or process (but at a very high level)
• how and why it’s exciting to work on this
• and less about the details of what it took to achieve the expertise or the outcomes

Connect directly back to the sense of accomplishment, autonomy and commitment as a source of confidence, and be as willing to learn from your manager as you are to teach.
Keep in mind when working for a manager who does not have your expertise, you will have best results when you align your contribution with the strategy of the whole organization. Talk about how your knowledge creates results that benefit the company.

Good Management

Good management is the ability to orchestrate performers who have different kinds of talent. No one expects a conductor to be able to play every instrument superbly. It is the same with management. A manager who did not grow up through the particular functional specialty (engineering, finance, science) will not micromanage. Rather than relying on prior expertise, good mangers:

• Give direction
• Elicit ideas
• Foster collaboration
• Provide support
• Inspire
• Give feedback
• Provide career development

A good tuba player can improve the performance of another tuba player, but good managers ensure a quality result of the entire team, regardless of whether each function has previously been a part of their career. Following these tips provides a greater chance of orchestrating a good outcome.
KINGSMITH.