What does your boss want?
I made my life simpler when I figured this out: your life gets easier if you make your boss’ life easier. This may be being kind on your part, but it’s also being selfish- it much quicker to give them what they want before they want it than them to come and ask for it (see here for how to manage up). This is means less imposition on you, and less effort for them.
Managing you is on top of doing their job
Almost always, your boss has regular work to do on top of looking after you and their other reports. There may be time budgeted in their workload, but this is unlikely. Time spent on you is likely taking away from time they need to do their daily tasks. So they want more time to do this, and if you help them out by lightening your demands on them, that makes their life easier.
What does their boss want?
This is a simple idea, but one easily forgotten. Every boss has a boss. Even a CEO/owner has a board/wife/husband/partner/children who they need to justify things to. Your boss is not driven by their own interests and fancies, but instead by what their boss expects them to do. If you figure out those expectations upon your boss, you can help them meet those expectations. Everyone wins here.
Not being embarrassed by not knowing
This is very similar to the above, but different because we need to think about knowledge. Knowledge can be power, and not knowing can be embarassing and make you appear powerless. It could be your instinct to keep information from your boss, especially if it’s bad news. But bad news is a slippery fish- it always gets out, and it’s not good for either you or your boss if they don’t know what’s going on. Remember that they have meetings, which often include general discussions on ‘how things are going’. Your boss doesn’t want to hear in those meetings from a colleague (especially a rival) what they should know already. Make sure your boss knows what going on going into those meetings to make life easier for you. Remember this if you feel your boss is pestering your for information.
Everything is fine, we are all succeeding over here
This is what your boss wants to convey about your team/department to the rest of the business. See here for discussion of how it looks for them when things go badly. But in general, your boss wants their area to be perceived as fine, functioning, succeeding, and everyone is growing and developing. This may not be true, and they may not be hiding it or faking it, but it’s what they aspire to.
To keep their house
Finally, remember their life is on the line. Not literally, but the life they have set up is at risk if they don’t keep their job, just like your’s is. Their financial obligations, their future career prospects, even their sense of identity. This is perhaps self-evident, but remember this if you find yourself thinking- ‘they should go in to bat for me’. Should they? Will they? These are their stakes, are you worth it? Would you do it for them?
