My department has been reorganized, and I will now be reporting to someone I feel is less skilled than I am. Should I stay and try to make things work or try to find something else?

Working for someone less competent than you is likely to happen more than once in your career, so you need to learn how to work through and around someone like that if you want to keep moving ahead. You may have to accommodate this person, give them credit for your work, and perhaps even carry them at times. But by skillfully managing the situation, you'll hasten your move beyond this person and ultimately build a wider reputation for yourself at the company.

The key is to make sure you don't lose all the credit for your work. So while you're accommodating and carrying, you should also make a point of subtly conveying—and subtlety is of utmost importance—your skills to other senior people. As I've emphasized before, this notification of senior folks should be under the guise of getting their perspective and advice on dealing with situations and relationships so that they know what you're dealing with. Assuming they can read the situation well, ideally you'd be able to progress beyond this position more quickly than the customary 18 to 24 months.

I once worked with an engineer at a large consumer-products company that underwent a reorganization that left him reporting to a boss who was not as sharp as him and was threatened by my client's ideas. Rather than get frustrated, my client worked at crafting and disseminating his ideas in a way that would showcase his boss in a good light. He allowed his boss to shine as much as possible, but in most cases, when it came to explaining his ideas in big meetings and presentations, his boss would turn to him to go over the details. In this way, my client won his boss's support and also gained visibility at the company. He also established a reputation as a strong performer who wouldn't outshine his bosses, which has enabled him to rise to now become an officer at the company.

One way to keep your sanity in a situation like this is to look at the big picture and see yourself working for someone beyond your immediate boss, such as your clients or boss's boss. Rather than get frustrated by the actions or incompetence of your boss, keep those higher directives in mind and work towards them.
 
Dr. Ron Brown is a leading expert in the fields of leadership development and organizational change. He is the founder and president of Banks Brown, a management-consulting firm that specializes in providing skills to optimize the performance of leaders and organizations. He can be reached at rbrown@banksbrown.com or 415-788-5444. Questions for Power Plays can be submitted on this page.