How to Manage Your Manager

Your manager can have an enormous effect on how much you enjoy your job.

But managers are people. Some communicate badly. Some micromanage. Some constantly change their priorities. Some barely manage you at all.

Waiting for them to suddenly become the perfect boss probably isn’t a great strategy.

This guide helps you work out what you can influence from your side of the relationship.

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Get The Guide – £7

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Managing upwards isn’t manipulation

You don’t need to manipulate your manager or spend your career trying to keep them happy.

You do need to understand how they work.

What information do they need? What makes them nervous? How much detail do they expect? How do they make decisions? What does “keep me updated” actually mean to them?

Understanding those things can make the relationship considerably easier.

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What you’ll learn

By the end of the guide, you’ll know how to:

• Understand what your manager actually expects from you.
• Get clearer priorities when everything seems urgent.
• Improve communication with a manager who doesn’t communicate well.
• Get more useful feedback.
• Deal with micromanagement.
• Handle constantly changing expectations.
• Recognise which problems you can influence and which you probably can’t.

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Build your Manager Manual

One of the practical tools inside the guide helps you create your own Manager Manual: a simple picture of how your particular manager operates and how you can work with them more effectively.

Because generic advice about “communicating with your boss” is nowhere near as useful as understanding the actual person you’re dealing with every week.

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Written by Lee Harding

I’ve spent 20+ years working in recruitment, Talent Acquisition and leadership, including senior and Director-level roles.

My advice comes from years spent on the other side of workplace decisions – hiring people, managing teams and working closely with managers and senior leaders.

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Improve the relationship from your side

But you can often make the relationship a lot easier to work with.

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Get The Guide – £7

Explore All Career Guides

This is one of 15 practical guides covering the career problems most of us eventually run into — from pay rises and promotions to difficult managers, career changes, redundancy and starting a new job.

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