<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" Let&amp;#039;s face it: No matter how well you get along with your manager, he or she is your boss, not your friend. You know that instinctively in some situations \u2014 while you might complain regularly to your husband about your slacker coworker, for example, you say far less to your boss, lest you come off as a tattletale or whiner. Harder to navigate is the gray area of advancement. Your boss obviously likes you \u2014 she laughs at your jokes, eats lunch with you sometimes, asks your opinion of the shoes she might buy. But work shouldn&amp;#039;t be confused with friendship, says Robert E. Kelley, Ph.D., author of How to Be a Star at Work and a professor of management at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. To build a workplace relationship that will get you the assignments you want and the raises you need, make your manager really like you by doing your job well, boosting the bottom line, and helping her look good. How to do that? Here are tips from supervisors in many fields about the way to their hearts \u2014 and to your next big raise.  Nothing personal, but...concentrate on work Whether it&amp;#039;s calling the utility company about your bill or conferring with your husband about who&amp;#039;s picking up the kids, personal issues often need to be handled between nine and five. The question is how. If you and your boss are friendly, she may sympathize with your child-care woes and cut you some slack for phone calls or even mad dashes to Timmy&amp;#039;s school. But don&amp;#039;t kid yourself: The boss part of her brain is not pleased. Putting personal needs first in the workplace means you&amp;#039;re putting business second \u2014 even if it&amp;#039;s just to have a cigarette. &amp;quot;I once had to speak to someone about her many, many smoking breaks,&amp;quot; says Deborah Spence, director of marketing at PaperCity Magazine in Houston. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m all for relieving stress, but not when it&amp;#039;s every hour, on the hour. That much personal time is bad for business.&amp;quot;  &amp;quot;LIKE ME!&amp;quot; LESSON If there&amp;#039;s an ongoing situation, such as child care or elder care, that you&amp;#039;ll have to address frequently from the office, let your boss know in advance \u2014 and also let her know how you&amp;#039;ll make up the time, Kelley says. For the most part, he advises, take care of your own affairs at lunchtime or on breaks, even if there&amp;#039;s no official rule about that in your workplace. And speaking of breaks, remember that frequent smoker \u2014 and keep yourself on a clock.  Sigh less, solve more Participating in a watercooler complaint session might be cathartic, but it could also get you in hot water with the boss. &amp;quot;When I walk onto the ward, I don&amp;#039;t want to hear a background buzz of staff complaining about each other, the patients, or the visitors,&amp;quot; says Leah Harp, a social work consultant who&amp;#039;s responsible for supervising social workers at a Chicago hospital.  &amp;quot;LIKE ME!&amp;quot; LESSON  If you&amp;#039;re unhappy with some aspect of your work situation, try to be proactive rather than resentful, advises Kelley. Set up an appointment with your boss and offer suggestions on how you can remedy the situation. For example, if you&amp;#039;re teamed up on a project with a colleague whose work style doesn&amp;#039;t mesh with yours, go to the manager \u2014 not to criticize your partner but to offer ideas about who you&amp;#039;d like to work with and how the change would benefit the department. &amp;quot;Present yourself not as a problem but as part of the solution,&amp;quot; says Harp.  Don&amp;#039;t just show up \u2014 perform! It happens in every workplace. Maybe it&amp;#039;s the assistant principal, slipping in the side door just as the bell rings and never turning up for the school band&amp;#039;s Saturday-night performance. Maybe it&amp;#039;s your fellow sales associate, the one who never seems to get stuck sorting hangers when business is slow. And meantime, you&amp;#039;re grading papers well into Saturday evening or covering your department the day after Thanksgiving. Why do some people get away with what looks like the bare minimum, while you&amp;#039;re slaving on evenings and weekends? Probably because they deliver outstanding results in some important area of the job \u2014 talking an irate parent out of suing the school, or selling a ton of those expensive swimsuits that the buyer ordered too many of.  &amp;quot;LIKE ME!&amp;quot; LESSON  In today&amp;#039;s world, says Kelley, &amp;quot;it&amp;#039;s not how many hours you work, but how much value you add. Bosses want performance, and they&amp;#039;re looking to you to manage your own time.&amp;quot; The more productive you can be, the better value you are for your salary, which can help you in arguing for a raise. &amp;quot;The most valuable people are the efficient ones, who finish up quickly so they can move on to other projects,&amp;quot; says Irad Eyal, a television producer in New York City. So you can cease the 17-hour days (as long as you get your work done) \u2014 but you still want to have face time with your boss. If you know she&amp;#039;s going to be in at 8:45 A.M., it can&amp;#039;t hurt for you to be there too \u2014 and to make sure she sees you.  Break the bad news Admitting to problems and mistakes can be embarrassing, but it&amp;#039;s essential once you know this basic fact of bossdom: They hate surprises. Harriet Bachman, program manager of an after-school program in Baltimore, remembers the day that one of her employees let her know that a parent was angry about something she, the staffer, had done. In general, people don&amp;#039;t like to tell the boss about the dustup, but what mattered most to Bachman was being prepared in case the client called. &amp;quot;We all make mistakes,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;But if one of my people does something inappropriate \u2014 or just something a parent doesn&amp;#039;t like \u2014 the last thing I want is to hear about it for the first time from the client.&amp;quot;  &amp;quot;LIKE ME!&amp;quot; LESSON According to Laura Morgan Roberts, Ph.D., a professor of organizational behavior at the Harvard Business School, &amp;quot;The only way your supervisor can manage efficiently is if she has as much information as possible. If you can&amp;#039;t complete something or you need assistance, your boss needs to know, so she can manage around that.&amp;quot; Go the extra mile To make an A+ impression on the boss, show that the needs of the organization are a priority for you, whether or not they&amp;#039;re part of your job description. As director of a preschool in New Haven, Connecticut, Mary Ann Bonenberger always notices the staff members who volunteer to feed and care for the school&amp;#039;s guinea pigs during breaks. To her, this seemingly small gesture makes a big point: that this teacher or aide &amp;quot;is thinking about the job even when school is out.&amp;quot;  &amp;quot;LIKE ME!&amp;quot; LESSON Make sure you take on projects that really count, Kelley advises. &amp;quot;Your extra tasks should be tied to your firm&amp;#039;s mission, like helping coworkers with a tight deadline,&amp;quot; he says. Organizing a spectacular company party, on the other hand, may endear you to your colleagues, but it won&amp;#039;t make the profit margin pop. Play well with others Your job performance doesn&amp;#039;t depend on just you \u2014 it&amp;#039;s a team effort. &amp;quot;Good employees understand that they&amp;#039;re working toward a common goal,&amp;quot; says Kelley, &amp;quot;so they help each other out. They collaborate instead of compete.&amp;quot; Vicki Lyons, a senior manager at Ernst &amp;amp;amp; Young in Washington, D.C., agrees: &amp;quot;The best people always give credit to others. When someone does that, it shows me that the person understands they can&amp;#039;t do it all by themselves. If one person tries to hog the spotlight, it affects everyone else&amp;#039;s morale.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;LIKE ME!&amp;quot; LESSON &amp;quot;If your teammate does something well, you should let your manager know,&amp;quot; says Kelley. &amp;quot;The boss will be pleased to see you recognize a colleague.&amp;quot;  Be a Girl Scout Remember the five p&amp;#039;s: Proper planning prevents poor performance. Thinking ahead can help you manage even the simplest things, like getting to work on time. &amp;quot;A lot of employees are frequently late,&amp;quot; says Crystal Wiggins, a manager of the accessories and hosiery departments at Nordstrom in Norfolk, Virginia. &amp;quot;They don&amp;#039;t plan on bad traffic or a long line at the ATM.&amp;quot; Anticipating potential problems can help you deal with or even prevent them (get cash on your lunch hour instead of on the way to work; leave home early enough so that trailer-truck accident doesn&amp;#039;t keep you from getting in on time).  &amp;quot;LIKE ME!&amp;quot; LESSON Before tackling an important work task, says Kelley, think through alternative scenarios, such as What will I say on the sales call if the customer&amp;#039;s reaction is X? OK, what if his reaction is Y? If you&amp;#039;ve armed yourself with answers for the three likeliest responses, you&amp;#039;re much more likely to come back to the office with a sale.  Laugh a little &amp;quot;Everyone at work just wants permission to be human,&amp;quot; says Roberts, &amp;quot;and that means being able to laugh sometimes.&amp;quot; Your ability to crack a joke can reassure those around you \u2014 including your boss. Philip Lehigh, a nursing clinical manager at a community hospital in Missoula, Montana, appreciates employees who can lift a room with humor. &amp;quot;Nursing is hard, stressful work,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;A nurse who laughs shows she&amp;#039;s at ease. Her attitude is infectious, and as a result everyone works better.&amp;quot;  &amp;quot;LIKE ME!&amp;quot; LESSON Without acting like the class clown, be the person who lightens tense times with some humor. Your boss will appreciate your good disposition.  Love your job The bottom line: If you really like your job, your boss will probably really like you. &amp;quot;When someone genuinely enjoys their work, they&amp;#039;re more motivated, and people are more willing to work with them,&amp;quot; Kelley says.  &amp;quot;LIKE ME!&amp;quot; LESSON If you&amp;#039;re not feeling very positive about your work right now, take a step back and remind yourself why you chose the career you did. &amp;quot;Look, no one goes into teaching for the money,&amp;quot; says Karen Yoast, an elementary school principal in Durango, Colorado. So when she gets to work at 6:30 A.M. and sees half her teaching staff already in their classrooms, energetically preparing for the day, it makes her proud. &amp;quot;These teachers love their jobs,&amp;quot; she says, &amp;quot;and their dedication shows.&amp;quot; \u2014 Additional reporting by Pamela Stock and Alice Oglethorpe  TIPS:  &amp;quot;Treat your job as your own business. It will give you greater insight into what&amp;#039;s going on in your boss&amp;#039;s life.&amp;quot;Donald Trump, Chairman and president, The Trump Organization  &amp;quot;Be as organized as you are original.&amp;quot;\u2014 Cynthia Rowley, Fashion designer  &amp;quot;Treat everyone as if they have a sign around their neck that says &amp;#039;Make me feel important.&amp;#039;&amp;quot;\u2014 David Holl, President and chief operating officer, Mary Kay  &amp;quot;Be the &amp;#039;can-do&amp;#039; person. If you can always get the job done \u2014 and done right, on time, and within budget \u2014 your boss will remember you when a higher position opens up.&amp;quot; \u2014 Carole Black, President and chief executive officer, Lifetime Entertainment Services "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/career/advice/a16182/winner-boss-nov04/>