When Larry Rudner started his career as a chartered accountant at a small accounting firm in Montreal, he reported to not one, not even two, but five bosses.
Every day, all five piled work onto Mr. Rudner's desk, each expecting his to be completed first. New to the company and anxious to please everyone, Mr. Rudner spent many late nights scrambling to meet the workload.
Later, as controller and then chief financial officer of a manufacturer of steel building products, Mr. Rudner found himself reporting to CEOs of several of the company's subsidiaries.
Each boss had a different view of revenue management, capital spending, sales projections and the like, and Mr. Rudner found it increasingly frustrating trying to please them all. Inevitably, tension grew.
"Ideally, you're working for a company where [bosses]share common goals and philosophy. If you don't, there are problems," Mr. Rudner says.
In a work world filled with multiple projects, multiple priorities, multiple roles and multiple managers, it's growing more common for employees to find themselves suffering from what the experts call multiple-boss syndrome.
They may be reporting to several division heads or they may be running cross-functional divisions, where they need to report to several different people at the head office or around the world.
Whatever the case, having many bosses with different agendas, priorities, styles and expectations all competing for your attention to attend to at once can set the scene for major clashes, stress and an inability to work most effectively.
Yet, according to the experts, there are ways to juggle multiple bosses without losing your balance.
Randall Craig, a management consultant at Pinetree Advisors in Toronto and author of the career-planning book Leaving the Mother Ship, says multiple-boss syndrome rears its head for different reasons.
"Typically, there's not enough time to do what one manager wants versus the other," he says. "Or there's a conflict of priorities -- both managers say this is priority one, or in fact you know in your heart that both are No. 1 priority but it's very difficult to make the decision as to which one to do.
"Sometimes it's a conflict of strategy," he adds. Problem is, "you can inhale and you can exhale but it's very hard to do both at the same time."
Sometimes it comes down to a conflict of understanding, especially when bosses in other countries speak a different language or have cultural differences. Then you might misinterpret what they're asking for and "end up manufacturing problems" that didn't even exist, Mr. Craig said.
"They said what they need and they expect you . . . to understand what to deliver."
Ralph Shedletsky, managing director of Toronto-based Knightsbridge Human Capital Management, says multiple-boss syndrome also becomes problematic when senior executives don't agree on corporate strategy.
"Typically, if the second person you report to identifies different indicators for the job and they appear to be mutually exclusive [to what the first boss identifies] that's your concrete sign that there are going to be problems," he says.
It's also common for people to have different personal agendas based on geographic location, political situation or what's going on in the marketplace, says Ron Cuperfain, managing partner at Toronto's Re:Search Associates, an executive recruiting firm in Toronto. When that happens, "it's not always easy to get on the same song sheet and have everybody moving in the same direction."
So what's an employee afflicted with too many bosses to do?
The first thing, the experts say, is to have a clear understanding of what each of your many bosses expects of you.
David Weiss, Knightsbridge's vice-president and chief innovations officer and author of The Leadership Gap, says a "pivotal moment of power" comes when an employee faces off against the needs of multiple bosses. Right at that time, he says, all tasks and responsibilities should be discussed so that you can figure out what you are expected to handle, what you can handle and what needs to be offloaded to others.
Bringing the "competing" managers together in the flesh is also a good idea, Mr. Craig says. Sit them down and ask for their joint help in setting your priorities.
Whatever you decide, get it in writing. Have your areas of responsibility clearly spelled out, Mr. Cuperfain says, "and have everybody sign off on it." If you don't, he warns, "you end up walking a tightrope."
Mr. Weiss also advises documenting your contributions for each and every boss "to demonstrate your overall value during performance review time."
If you find yourself juggling tasks in an effort to please everyone, try to think creatively. Mr. Craig suggests looking for "out-of-the-box solutions," such as outsourcing, doing only part of everyone's work to keep them happy for the moment or delegating some responsibilities to other team members to lighten your load.
When he was a middle manager years ago, he had a number of projects on the go at once and, like Mr. Rudner, had all bosses expecting him to complete their work first.
"They had deadlines, they made commitments to the client," he recalls. "But when I looked around, there was only one of me."
So he thought creatively: He told each of the bosses that he would deliver three-quarters of the project immediately and the remaining quarter later. The tactic worked. "Usually, you can deliver most of it first and keep everybody happy."
If things get out of control, start talking. Tim Hamilton, manager partner at executive search firm Hamilton Hall Soles/Ray & Berndtson Inc. in Calgary, says it's easy to keep all parties in the loop, given the widespread use of technology, including e-mail, BlackBerrys and teleconferencing.
"If you're working with Person A, copy Person B so that everyone knows what you're working on. If there are any contradictory messages, that will bring it to the fore immediately," he says.
Sometimes the simplest things will solve a mounting problem, he adds: "I've seen many cases of a simple e-mail to competing managers [ending the conflict] Often there's a little bit of wiggle room, or there's a senior manager above the two who can resolve the problem."
If all else fails and you have to choose whom to please, Mr. Rudner has one word of caution.
"If you're working for two different bosses and they have different directions, you better feel comfortable with the direction you're going to go in," says Mr. Rudner, who is now his own boss as president of SBLR Capital Corp. in Toronto. "Make sure you can live with yourself after the decision."