How to communicate competence to your boss every day

Show
your boss that you’re competent.

Strelka
Institute/Flickr/Attribution License

• John Heggestuen leads research for Business
  Insider Intelligence and manages a team of more than 20
  analysts and editors in New York and London. 
• “A key to getting ahead is understanding that managers
  often have an overabundance of employees with problems, but the
  people that they most like to work with are those that solve
  them,” he writes.
• In his career, he’s found that the way he communicates
  problems to his managers makes a big difference in how they few
  his competence.
• He advises his own team to be smart about communicating
  their own problems.

When you face a problem at work, how you communicate it to your
manager can have a big impact on whether or not you move to the
next level in your career.

It’s made a big difference in my own career and it’s one of the
top things I look for when I’m considering promoting people on my
team. 

I lead research for Business Insider Intelligence and manage over
20 analysts and editors. At some point, everyone on my team has
had an issue come up where they asked me to step in and help out.
These issues are usually relatively tough to solve — otherwise
they wouldn’t need to be escalated. And that means new work and a
new time commitment. 

A key to getting ahead is understanding that managers often have
an overabundance of employees with problems, but the people that
they most like to work with are those that solve them. Bringing a
solution to the table rather than a problem is an indicator that
you are competent and can big trusted to take on more
responsibility. 

It’s really easy to spot competence. It’s all in how you
communicate the problems you’re facing:

Level 1: ‘I have a problem. What should I do?’

This is a very junior way to communicate a problem. You are
creating more work for your manager because you are asking them
to solve the problem for you.

It’s okay for entry level employees or employees who are training
for a new role, but if you don’t get beyond this type of
communication, your career is going to stagnate and you might
even be let go. 

Level 2: ‘I have a problem. Here are potential solutions.’

Just showing that you’ve thought about how to solve a problem is
an indicator of next level potential. You’re still giving your
manager work, but if you provide good options for solving the
problem, then it’s a lot less work. 

Related:

Here’s exactly how to write an email so your super busy boss gets
back to you

Level 3a: ‘I have a problem. Here are potential solutions. This
is what I recommend. Here’s why.’

If you can do this habitually and your recommendations are sound,
your manager will absolutely love you. No matter what level you
are in your career, there are situations where this is the best
way to communicate a problem — some problems are going to be
outside of your purview to solve and you need a nod from your
manager, or the CEO, or the board before you can act (level 3b
wouldn’t be appropriate in these cases). 

Level 3b: ‘A problem came up. These were my options. I chose to
do this, and here’s why. It’s handled.’

“It’s handled” is music to a busy manager’s ears. This is how to
communicate issues that have come up that you have authority to
make a decision on. It keeps your manager in the loop, so if
they’re asked about the issue they aren’t caught off guard, and
it doesn’t create additional work. 

Related:

21 psychological tricks that will help you ace a job
interview

Level 4: ‘It sounds like you are having this problem. Here are
some options to solve it. Here is how I can
help.‘ 

If you are anticipating your manager’s needs and providing
solutions, then you’ll likely become his or her most relied-upon
employee. This is someone who is operating at the next level. The
caveat is that in order to do this effectively, your own
responsibilities already need to be handled — otherwise it’s
going to backfire. 

Learning to communicate in a way that will get you to the next
level is the easy part. The hard part is developing the skills to
solve problems, coming up with good solutions, communicating
competence habitually, and following through on what you say you
are going to do. 

John Heggestuen is the Vice President of Research for
Business Insider Intelligence,
Business Insider’s premium market research service covering
digital transformation. He manages a team of over 20 analysts and
editors in New York and London.