If you come for the King, ensure you don’t miss!
Everyone tends to complain about their boss, it’s just an inevitable and predictable part of life, as common and mundane as the setting sun. How many times have you or someone else mumbled about being able to do the boss’s job better than they can, especially when said boss has made an unpopular decision!?
But if you genuinely feel you can do better than the current holder of that position – whether or not you like your boss or find him interminable – then making a move against them carries with it both high risk and reward. If you plan accordingly, do it in a smart and stealthy manner, with tact and patience, you could find the opportunity to assume that position may happen. But if you rush into it where angels fear to tread, in a hasty and brash manner, you could well find yourself stuck with that boss who now has a grudge against you, or at worst, have your employment terminated entirely.
For this article, we will outline 5 ways to ensure you succeed in replacing your boss with yourself… and do it in a way that doesn’t end with you on the unemployment benefit line!
Ready to indulge in some skullduggery? Let’s go…
1. Assess The Situation
First thing you need to do is accurately survey the landscape of your position. How might the boss step aside from their position, and is it imminent? Perhaps they might resign from the company, go on maternity leave, or get promoted/reassigned to another position. Either way, it means that position will be open and someone needs to replace it.
2. Position Yourself As Successor
This requires no small amount of guile as you need to convince the boss, if he has such authority, to name or recommend you as his successor. There are essentially two ways you can do this:
- Play dirty – if your boss is unpleasant and perhaps not doing his job very well, expose him to the higher management. Get evidence of his incompetence and try and gain corroborating witnesses in the workplace to testify to that person’s disruptive and negative influence on company productivity, especially if that boss is still in his probation period within the company.
- If that boss is a genuinely pleasant person whom you admire and respect, and who is an effective team leader, strengthen their hand by bolstering their credibility and esteem with management that could lead to that individual being considered for promotion in the short-term, and their current position becoming vacant!
3. Ingratiate Yourself
An effective way to get yourself in the boss’s good books is to make yourself a useful and advantageous member of his team.
One highly effective way to do this is to give yourself 100% to fulfillment of tasks given to you by the boss. Ensure your work is of the highest standard so that your boss never has to second-guess you. Another way would be to contribute ideas and solutions regularly, engage in a highly participatory fashion and make yourself indispensable.
4. Lighten Your Boss’s Workload
According to studies, one of the best ways to both win your immediate superior’s favor and familiarize yourself with his responsibilities is to learn and develop new skills pertaining to the boss’s position.
Upon doing that, suggest to the boss about you assuming some of his more menial tasks so he can concentrate on larger, more important ones. Not only will this help the boss look favorably upon you but if you do those tasks successfully and gain more important ones as a consequence, the boss will see you as a highly competent team member… and potential worthy successor should the position open up!
5. Keep Your Ear To The Ground
Information is power, as the old saying goes. And you can’t make a play for the throne if you don’t understand the workings of the kingdom (so to speak). To that effect, learn everything you can about your company’s business, its goals and targets, responsibilities and personnel within and between departments, engage socially with co-workers and management alike, familiarize yourself with their personalities and become someone they can talk to and confide in.
But in staying informed about the company, ensure that your plans for promotion stay to yourself. Don’t outline your grand Master Plan to co-workers arbitrarily or in random conversations. If that information reaches the boss – and believe us when we say that it almost certainly will – that person will not look too kindly at you going over their head… and all your ingratiating efforts to date will be for nothing!
Hoping to assume your boss’s position is not necessarily an immoral act of self-service. Much in business is about promoting yourself, positioning yourself for future opportunities, and trying to better your professional life. But in doing so, be smart about it, do it correctly, have patience, don’t be rash, and choose your moments with clarity and conciseness. Good luck!
