Advice & Resources

Make Your Supervisor Look Good
by Leylanorman - 2015-04-27

No one wants to be a kiss up or to be perceived as one. However, you can be real in your efforts to make yourself look good through your boss. Without overdoing it, you can help your boss appear like a pro, which makes you look good. When someone needs to take on some new, delicate responsibility at work, you may be just the person she goes to. This can lead to more promotions and raises.

Stephen Pollan, a life coach, financial mentor, and lawyer, suggested in a May 2013 article at Forbes.com by Richard Eisenberg, that you should try to help your supervisor look good if you want any professional recognition. If you do, you gain the respect of your supervisor because his supervisors will think he's great. Without top-notch supporters, your supervisor could not do his job as well as he does.

Don't adopt the attitude of a suck up. No one likes those. That will only get your supervisor angry at you. You should, instead, try to find ways to help your supervisor appear to be the best person at her job. For example, Pollan suggests that you should try to come up with an idea to help the company. Even better, come up with an idea that helps the supervisor help the company. Submit your idea to your boss. That can show you value her opinion and that you are going through the right channels -- that you're not looking for personal recognition.

Additionally, protect your boss. Pollan says it's a good idea to appear as though you have got his back and front. Avoid speaking negatively about your supervisor to others, even if you really cannot stand him. If nothing else, you will appear to be above the petty office problems and to really be a person who concentrates just on work.

If you work to make your boss look good, you will act as "your own propagandist," according to Eisenberg's article. Instead of tooting your own horn, tell your boss thanks for the professional development you've received and find small and big ways to support him. Make your supervisor's job easier, and she will likely repay you in the future.