Managing Up

9The Evaluator

“If a task has once begun. Never leave it till it's done. Be the labor great or small. Do it well or not at all.”

—Anonymous

 

Real‐Life Story

Chrystal works for a professional services firm and her new boss, Brenda, is driving her crazy. Brenda is nice enough and seems to really care about her job and the work produced by her team. But Chrystal often feels that Brenda is constantly looking over her shoulder and doesn't let her do her job. Brenda asks a lot of questions and never seems satisfied with the updates that Chrystal provides. Chrystal thinks that Brenda is too detail oriented and is not very adaptable with different people. She has one style and treats everyone the same way.

One day, Chrystal was leading a call with a client to review the client project plan and timeline. Before the call, Chrystal met with Brenda and updated her on the meeting agenda and project timeline. During the call, though, Brenda kept interrupting to ask for more detail and in the course of the meeting, changed the project timeline and action items. Chrystal felt defeated, micromanaged, and distrusted.

 

Everybody likes things to be right but nobody needs it more than the Evaluator Boss. The Evaluator Boss is driven by producing high‐quality, accurate work at all costs. Often slow and methodical, Evaluators value getting things right through logic and proven processes. They will often question everything to the extent that it will feel as though they are micromanaging ...