“You should be spending ninety percent of your time on the revenue cycle business line,” my boss said. “That makes no sense - we have six business lines,” I thought. There is no way I could spend that much time on this one project. I immediately concluded he was out of touch and ignored his direction. Have you ever had your boss provide you feedback (or tell you to do something) that you ignored as irrelevant?

I hear leaders share experiences like this with me regularly. Often the leader is frustrated and she tells me her boss does not understand her role. “They need to open their eyes to see what I actually do.” She can find many reasons to discard this feedback. So what is the boss trying to get across?

We can take for granted that our boss views the organization and its goals differently than we do. Try not to reject a suggestion out of hand. We can work on understanding the perspective of our boss. I leaned into why my boss gave me this feedback. I did change how I spent my time, instead of rejecting the specific request as impossible.

I worked with a product leader who was frustrated that his boss would ask him to be less negative. “I’m not negative, I’m realistic!” He loved the work the company. “Why doesn’t my boss see that?” He raised the negative consequences of decisions or problems he saw on the horizon in order to better prepare for the future. You control your actions, you cannot control how they are perceived.

If your boss uses words like “you should consider changing this” or “you should do this differently” it means you are not delivering the results your boss expects. You are paid to deliver results. Your boss will bring to you outcomes that are important to her. These outcomes should become important to you because YOU are an extension of your boss and the organization. For example, my boss asked me “How do the staff feel? Are they happy and engaged?” As a very task-focused leader, I thought “Who cares if we’re delivering results?” I came to realize my boss wanted to know about my projects AND my staff satisfaction. I became more effective at supporting his organization.

Ignoring change guidance from your boss is dangerous. When your boss tells you something should change it means you are not meeting some needs, and that will reflect on your performance evaluation. Tune in to these situations and prioritize figuring out the adjustment. Address the gaps at the root of the feedback. Do not let it become a bigger performance problem that shows up on your review from your boss.