Whenever you find yourself coming to your manager with a question, stop for a moment and try to replace it with a proposal for her to review.
“What should I do with x?” → “Regarding x, I’m thinking on..”
“What do you think is better x or y?” → ”I think y is better because… Do you agree?”
“What should my priorities be?” → “ I think my priorities should be..”
This will result in:
- You understanding things better.
- You getting better at making decisions.
- You building confidence in your work.
- Your manager feeling that you made an effort to save her time.
Many times your proposal will be altered significantly, or completely denied. This can be discouraging, especially when you put much effort into it. Even in those cases, remember it was not for nothing, Because:
- It’s a lot easier to change/replace a proposal than to build it from scratch.
- This is the only way you would get better at this (for that, try to understand the deep reasons for the change).
Oh, and one last thing. After you change your question to a proposal – check to see if you actually need a review, or did you solve it all by yourself.
-Nivge