Show Your Manager "I got this."

How do you get your manager to mentor you?

Trick question. You may not be able to.

Often, a manager's first priority isn't their team - it can be their bosses, the org’s goals and strategy, a full zoom cal, their ego. So finding the time, skill or will to mentor. It may not be in the cards.

Don't get me wrong, there are managers that love to develop their team, but I’m not talking about them.

Let’s help you succeed with the other kind, the Absentee Manager. The one you need to manage.

But sometimes you need to manage yourself first.

3 Objections Managers Have About Their Teams And How to Overcome Them

“Don't bring me problems, bring me solutions.”

Unless you are blessed with a coach as a manager, most managers won’t be your career coach. It’s up to you to understand what you want from your career and present that to them, to see if they can help you get there. This isn’t exclusively a manager thing. Most people are better at delivering for you if they’re clear on what your'e going for. Otherwise, they’re likely to go with their impression, which may be outdated or self serving.

Don't tell me what you can do. Show me.

Whatever you're reaching for, your manager needs to know you have the ability to do it. The best way to do that is to proactively bring them opportunities to put you to the test - devise projects that align with your career goals and the org's objectives. To show you have both vision and strategy chops, tell them a few first steps. Feel free to start small. Make it easy for your manager to say yes to smaller initiatives first and build trust in your new abilities. Or shoot the moon if you’re ready to don your spacesuit 👩🏼‍🚀

“I can't consider you a manager until I see you manage your own work.”

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a manager who has a team member who keeps delivering is going to keep asking for more stuff. I’ve seen this lead to crazy overwhelm… and also a lack of communication around boundaries. If something is too much, it’s time to see what you can manage (delegating, deprioritizing, delaying or dumping) and then let your manager know what’s possible from there. Unless this person is super unreasonable, it will be common to work through it together. Having done what you could to solve the situation (see “bring me solutions not problems”) and shown your manager the ability to form a proactive plan (“show don’t tell) will go along way to prove your management capabilities. At the next level, what’s called for is not doing, it’s managing.

Need support MOVE PAST the individual contributor mindset that's keeping you stuck in the doing vs. leading, and understand how to UPGRADE your skills & network to step confidently into becoming a visionary leader who can see and express your career future — WITHOUT OVERWORK OR OVERWHELM? After coaching over 400+ womxn at Google, Oracle, Panasonic, Apple, Nike and more, I might be able to help with that 👉🏽 www.acelectric.co/work