It may be an advantage if you manage it.
By Assertive Way
Does your boss ever get into long conversations with you in the middle of the workday?
Perhaps your boss enjoys chatting with you to fulfill his/her need for conversation. Perhaps they just give long detailed explanations that are unnecessary. Perhaps your boss just likes to go on long rants with everyone.
Its best to take the emotions out for a moment and evaluate how those conversations can be helpful and how it impacts you negatively.
Whatever the reason, its best to take the emotions out for a moment and evaluate how those conversations can be helpful and how it impacts you negatively. Then manage the conversation with the tactics we’ll share below.
How a talkative boss can be useful
I’ve had several bosses that liked to chat. I found these random chats useful to connect with the boss and learn things that I wouldn’t know otherwise. I’d learn about what the boss’s main concerns were at the moment, what they were overwhelmed with, what they were excited about at work and in life, what interactions they had with senior members of the organization, and what they liked and disliked about other people in the organization and team.
My ex-bosses shared what stressed them, what they were reading, what they were planning for their next vacations, their perception of other people in the organization, networking events they attended, their top priorities in their to-do lists, what diet there were on, what hobbies they were getting into, their side business performance, how their family was doing, and so on.
This information helped me connect with them, gain their trust, understand their pain-points and offer the right help they needed, volunteer or ask to be involved in projects they were working on, reduce their work stress and understand how they like to work. All of which was extremely helpful for positive day to day interactions and for getting excellent performance reviews.
If you had a boss that didn’t communicate, then you’d have a much bigger problem. If you still want to manage the amount of talking or the type of content in the talking, then evaluate the situation and try the tactics below.
Evaluate the situation
- Observe if the boss talks too much with everyone or just with you.You may be doing something that engages the boss in further conversation.
- Is it affecting your productivity or work-life balance? Then communicate that to the boss.
- Do you want to shorten the conversation or participate more in the conversation?If you want to participate more then take advantage of short pauses to speak or interrupt politely to get your point across.
- Is it about work or non-work topics?If it’s non-work topics you may want to disengage from it. But not necessarily as I mentioned before.
- If it is work, is it useful or not useful such as speaking negatively about others?If it’s not useful try to avoid it.
- If it is useful is the boss not succinct?Then help the boss summarize it.
Shorten or manage the conversation
Then deal with the conversation. Here are some overall tips to shorten or manage the conversation:
- Don’t engage– Don’t ask questions or give your opinion because that will invite the boss to keep talking.
- Say you need to go to a meeting or somewhere else– This is a very straightforward escape tactic.
- Say you’d love to keep chatting but need to get back to work to meet deadlines– This is effective at the moment, will also contribute to you looking responsible, but doesn’t solve the problem long-term.
- Postpone it – You can suggest a different time to talk such as at lunch time.
- Interrupt nicely and summarize what the boss is saying– Then ask if the boss agrees with your summary.
- Schedule a meeting and say what you feel– For a more long-term solution say that you feel like the conversations with the boss are affecting your performance and that you’d prefer to keep it to certain scheduled times.
- Shift the conversation to a relevant topic for you– That way you will get more out of it
If you have a boss that doesn’t communicate, then you’ll have a much bigger problem.
As you can see dealing with a boss that talks to much is a positive problem. You have the ability to keep the parts of the conversation that help you and reduce or eliminate the ones that don’t help you.
SUMMARY
A talkative boss can reduce your productivity. But sometimes a talkative boss can be useful to learn what issues they are focused on and get access to information you might not get otherwise. It can help build rapport and trust. First evaluate their behavior by asking yourself these questions. Observe if the boss talks too much with everyone or just with you. Is it affecting your productivity or work-life balance? Do you want to shorten the conversation or participate more in the conversation? Is it about work or non-work topics? If it is work, is it useful or not useful such as speaking negatively about others? If it is useful is the boss not succinct? Then, determine which approach is more appropriate. Shorten or manage the conversation. Don’t engage too much. Say you need to go somewhere else. Say you’d love to keep chatting but need to get back to work to meet deadlines. Postpone it. Interrupt nicely and summarize what the boss is saying. Schedule a meeting and say what you feel. Shift the conversation to a relevant topic for you.
ADDITIONAL POSTS
For more articles on how to manage a difficult boss visit these posts:
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw, Irish political activist