Leverage Your Way Out of Your Bad Boss's Department by Cultivating a Higher Up Mentor!

You stew, you worry, you fret: yours is a Bad Boss, and despite your long hours of dedicated work, you’re getting nowhere.

You’d like to get the attention of your boss’s boss--or somebody with some clout in a different department--but you know that complaining to them won’t do a bit of good. Not only that, but appealing to a higher-up to get you out of your current position will only backfire, because that higher-up is bound to either see you as “a problem employee” or report on your dissatisfaction to your Bad Boss.

How can you get out of your dilemma successfully?

Develop a mentor relationship with a higher up you value and admire.

According to Dorie Clark, branding expert, “The truth is, because so many people limit themselves, there's often not a lot of competition at the top. If there's a senior executive at your firm you really admire, reach out and see if he'll agree to be shadowed for a day. Unless you're writing to the worldwide CEO, there's probably little demand and he'll be flattered.”

Oh, you may not develop a mentor relationship in a day, but you’ve taken the first step towards it. Little by little, as you follow your mentor-to-be’s suggestions and advice, adopt his/her behaviors and attitudes as appropriate, you’ll gain the higher-up’s positive attention, which is how you can eventually leverage your way out of your Bad Boss’s department.

All of that without a single word of complaint about your Bad Boss, oh “not a problem employee” you!