In one line: Your relationship with your boss is yours to manage. Learn their style, expectations and pressures, align your work with them, and keep them informed, especially in a new role.
Core idea
The program studies this through a business-school case about a talented young salesman promoted into a marketing role. Within months he is in trouble, not because he can’t do the work, but because his style and his boss’s expectations have quietly diverged. He works directly and independently, favors talking with customers over writing memos, and sometimes goes over his boss’s head. His boss wants to be consulted, prefers formal analysis, and resents being challenged in front of others. A senior executive above them both has interests of his own. By the time anyone names the problem, trust is badly damaged.
How it works
Managing up rests on a few habits:
- Diagnose the boss. What are their goals, pressures, strengths, blind spots and preferred way of receiving information (data or conversation, detail or summary)?
- Know yourself. Where does your own style clash with theirs?
- Agree on expectations early and explicitly: what success looks like, how often to check in, which decisions are yours.
- Keep them informed, so they are never surprised, above all in front of their own boss.
- Respect the chain while using the network. Going around the boss may be justified, but it always has a cost.
- Read the hidden agendas. Ask what each player stands to gain or lose (see Political Mapping).
In practice
The case is a warning for every new role: competence is necessary but not sufficient. In the first months, learning how your boss wants to work matters as much as learning the job itself (see Taking Charge). If you sense distance growing, ask directly how they would like you to keep them updated, and what you could do differently. That is cheaper than repairing the relationship later.
Questions to ask yourself
- How does my manager prefer to receive bad news, and do I deliver it that way?
- What does my manager’s boss expect of them, and how does my work help?
- Have we ever explicitly agreed on what “good” looks like in my role?
Connections
- Part of: Leading from the Middle. Tools: Political Mapping.
- Especially important when: Taking Charge of a new position.
- Related to: Followership, Situational Leadership (what readiness you show your boss).
- Capabilities exercised: Communicating and Advocacy, Interpersonal Skills, Inquiry.