Senior leaders are incredibly busy. As a manager yourself, you know your boss is sometimes at the mercy of things that pop up that they can't control: a customer emergency, a sudden trip now that we're traveling again or a conference call that their boss initiates. It's impossible for them to keep all their commitments all the time. But when your boss cancels as a rule, not as an exception, it's incredibly frustrating.
As an executive coach who has coached and trained thousands of people within both large public companies and startups, I've seen this behavior often. If you find yourself on the receiving end of too many cancellations, it's essential to talk to your boss about it directly. Because that can be an awkward conversation, here’s a set of strategies you can use to address the problem in a productive way.
A cancellation may feel like a slight against you, but chances are, if your manager misses your meetings, they’re probably canceling other meetings at the last minute, too. Take note of your boss’s schedule and be attuned to what other people say. Where appropriate, you can discreetly ask a trusted colleague if they’ve experienced the same thing.
Please select this link to read the complete article from Harvard Business Review.