> I has bosses that expected me to do things their way
This is a reason you need to learn to manage up.
I'm pretty clear that I'm oriented around the final objective: I don't want to be told how to do something (though I'm happy to collaborate and listen to suggestions). If someone starts telling me the "how" before the "what" and "why" I interrupt and steer the conversation there first. If you really want to be telling someone only the "how" I'm not the right person to employ, and I'm clear about this early on.
The very few times I've got in trouble with this there's been some hidden objective or constraint I wasn't made aware of, and the discussion I have afterwards is that is not compatible with my way of working. This has always resolved successfully and I've never had this issue with someone more than once.
> The very few times I've got in trouble with this there's been some hidden objective or constraint I wasn't made aware of, and the discussion I have afterwards is that is not compatible with my way of working.
I’ve had this, but working in hardware development, this things are big problems.
I have to admit though, and in those situations the main problem was conveying to the manager (who tends to be an experienced engineer) that they’ve messed up and the specifications they’ve agreed to are physically impossible to construct.
This is a reason you need to learn to manage up.
I'm pretty clear that I'm oriented around the final objective: I don't want to be told how to do something (though I'm happy to collaborate and listen to suggestions). If someone starts telling me the "how" before the "what" and "why" I interrupt and steer the conversation there first. If you really want to be telling someone only the "how" I'm not the right person to employ, and I'm clear about this early on.
The very few times I've got in trouble with this there's been some hidden objective or constraint I wasn't made aware of, and the discussion I have afterwards is that is not compatible with my way of working. This has always resolved successfully and I've never had this issue with someone more than once.