A Very Good Question

Every supervisor (read: boss) that I have ever had told me early on in our relationship
that one thing they wanted from me was, “No surprises.”

While this is easily understood on the surface, it is not a clear cut directive upon
close inspection. What is considered a surprise worthy of mentioning? I doubt that
telling my boss what I will be having for lunch is what they had in mind with this
direction.

This issue came to a head for me recently when I was asked by a direct report what
I wanted to be told about and what I didn’t. I did not have a good response off the
top of my head and admitted as much on the spot. With this in mind, I went to my supervisor
and asked the same question with similar results. She was unable to quickly articulate
a good answer without thinking about it, either. Fair enough, it is a tough one.

After a week of talking it over with people and thinking a lot about this, I am prepared
to answer the question. If you are a direct report to me, here is what I want you
to tell me before I have to ask.

1. All personel issues
   
   If someone is disgruntled, if someone is experiencing a performance problem, if there
   is an attendance issue, if someone is sick, I want to know about it earlier than later.
2. Budget impacting decisions
   My wife and I have the same rule that I ask people on my team to adhere to,
   we call it the “Hundred Dollar Rule.”

   If I am going to spend money on a unpredicted purchase, and it is $100 or less, go
   ahead. Your discretion. If the purchase will be over $100, then let’s talk about it.
   It doesn’t mean that the purchase won’t be made, far from it. It just means that we
   should talk about it first. Maybe there is another way or maybe we already have it,
   who knows? Maybe it is just a good idea to sleep on it or run it by another person
   as a sanity check.

3. Things that differ what we agreed
   A significant amount of effort goes into planning and setting expectations
   for what we will achieve, or how we will achieve it. I want to know when those plans
   get interrupted. If we are going to fail to deliver something or if a new priority
   has entered your life that will usurp a goal that we had agreed to pursue, then let’s
   talk about it.

   Not unlike the $100 rule, this one is simply a request that we discuss it. Heck, whatever
   the plan of action is, it will probably not be mine. I just want to know what is going
   on.

What do you think? Are these reasonable? Am I missing anything?