Building a better relationship with your manager

Sharon Koenen • February 28, 2023

“Your boss can be your biggest ally or your biggest detractor. And, trust me, life is a lot easier if they are your biggest ally.”*

Chances are your manager plays a substantial role in your day-to-day work, as well as in your future career. So there are plenty of reasons to build a good / better relationship with your manager, as it will likely to lead to:

A better understanding of each other
(less miscommunication / wrong assumptions)

More opportunities for learning and mentorship
(rather than a quality-control check)

A more human-to-human connection
(rather than a manager-subordinate role play)

A more aligned way-of-working
(rather than ‘living apart together’)

How well do you know your manager? For example..

Do you know..

What their main objectives and key concerns are? And how your work fits into this?
What drives them in their work?
What they see as the main attributes to their success?
What their biggest learnings have been?

Which questions have helped you build better relationships with your manager?

* Quote from LinkedIn article by Paul Petrone