ALT-2 Steps to take when you Strongly Disagree with a Managers Actions
For most career professionals, there are plenty of times when a manager’s decision is not ideal for all concerned. In many cases, the best solution is to simply accept things and move on, but there are times when the decision is extremely difficult to swallow.
Where this is the case, a different course of action is worth considering. Individuals must ensure that they protect their professional reputation and maintain a good relationship with their boss, while not allowing bad decisions to go unchallenged. If you are in this position, take heed of the following advice and try and work your way through what could be a very difficult situation.
Assess the situation objectively
Before taking any course of action, it’s important to establish why you feel so strongly about your manager’s decision. Look at this in terms of risk. What is the risk from the decision that your manager had made? Will it reduce productivity or create unnecessary effort? Is there a risk that customers could be negatively impacted? Is there a risk to health and safety? Look objectively at the situation and ensure that your response is not just an emotional one. If that’s the case, you would probably be best advised to take no further action.
Start constructive dialogue
It’s important that you explain to your boss how you feel about the decision. It’s unlikely that it would be a good idea to do this in front of everyone else, so arrange a quiet, relaxed 1:1 session with your boss at a mutually convenient time. Calmly explain your position and try to ensure that you are objective, professional and focused on solutions. As well as highlighting why you think the decision is wrong, talk about what you think could be done differently to show that you are focused on the decision and that there are no personal politics. Alison Green, writing forUS News, describes this perfectly as ‘a polite and collaborative manner’.
Consider escalation – carefully
If you do not get a satisfactory response from your boss, you may want to consider taking the matter to the next level up. This is potentially a serious step to take. In many larger organizations, you will need to do this quite formally, as part of a grievance procedure, and that could damage the relationship with your boss irreparably. This decision should be made based on a balance of the risk of the decision versus the risk of damage to your career. At this stage, you should start to capture the details in writing. Record conversations in an email or a document and ensure that you can demonstrate what you have done to resolve the problem.
Is it serious enough to resign?
In some cases, a decision may be significant enough to run against your political, social, religious or ethical principles, in such a way that you cannot simply accept or ignore it. When you have tried to resolve the matter as far as you constructively can, you may need to consider resigning. Nobody needs to remind you that this is a serious decision, but it’s worth bearing in mind that you might have to accept that a decision simply won’t be overturned.
The relationship between you and your manager is critical and your career success depends on how you manage it. As with all career-related matters, take time to think about what you really need to do and learn to balance your emotional responses against decisions where you can identify a genuine business risk.
