【正文】 s strengths and weaknesses, priorities, and work style – everyone wins. In the 25 years since it was published, this article has truly improved the practice of management. Its simple yet powerful advice has changed the way people work, enhanced countless managerboss relationships, and improved the performance of corporations in ways that show up on the bottom line. Over the years, it has bee a staple at business schools and corporate training programs worldwide.If you forge ties with your boss based on mutual respect and understanding, both of you will be more effective To many people, the phrase managing your boss may sound unusual or suspicious. Because of the traditional topdown emphasis in most organizations, it is not obvious why you need to manage relationships upward unless, of course, you would do so for personal or political reasons. But we are not referring to political maneuvering or to apple polishing. We are using the term to mean the process of consciously working with your superior to obtain the best possible results for you, your boss, and the pany.Recent studies suggest that effective managers take time and effort to manage not only relationships with their subordinates but also those with their bosses. These studies also show that this essential aspect of management is sometimes ignored by otherwise talented and aggressive managers. Indeed, some managers who actively and effectively supervise subordinates, products, markets, and technologies assume an almost passively reactive stance vis224。t really understand what happened. This much is known, however: While the pany was bringing out a major new product a process that required sales, engineering, and manufacturing groups to coordinate decisions very carefully a whole series of misunderstandings and bad feelings developed between Gibbons and Bonnevie.For example, Bonnevie claims Gibbons was aware of and had accepted Bonnevie39。 Gibbons swears he did not. Furthermore, Gibbons claims he made it clear to Bonnevie that the introduction of the product was too important to the pany in the short run to take any major risks.As a result of such misunderstandings, planning went awry: A new manufacturing plant was built that could not produce the new product designed by engineering, in the volume desired by sales, at a cost agreed on by the executive mittee. Gibbons blamed Bonnevie for the mistake. Bonnevie blamed Gibbons.Of course, one could argue that the problem here was caused by Gibbons39。s inability to manage his boss. Remember, Gibbons was not having difficulty with any other subordinates. Moreover, given the personal price paid by Bonnevie (being fired and having his reputation within the industry severely tarnished), there was little consolation in saying the problem was that Gibbons was poor at managing subordinates. Everyone already knew that.We believe that the situation could have turned out differently had Bonnevie been more adept at understanding Gibbons and at managing his relationship with him. In this case, an inability to manage upward was unusually costly. The pany lost $2 million to $5 million, and Bonnevie39。s job and decisions affect other parts of the organization, as was the case in Bonnevie39。s immediate boss can play a critical role in linking the manager to the rest of the organization, making sure the manager39。s work styles and assets, is characterized by mutual expectations, and meets the most critical needs of the other person. This bination is essentially what we have found highly effective managers doing.Understanding the Boss Managing your boss requires that you gain an understanding of the boss and his or her context, as well as your own situation. All managers do this to some degree, but many are not thorough enough.At a minimum, you need to appreciate your boss39。s organizational and personal objectives, and what are his or her pressures, especially those from his or her own boss and others at the same level? What are your boss39。s behavior bizarre. Unfortunately, the president39。s goals. His most immediate goal had been to make the pany more profitable quickly.Nor had the new vice president known that his boss was invested in this shortterm priority for personal as well as business reasons. The president had been a strong advocate of the acquisition within the parent pany, and his personal credibility was at stake.The vice president made three basic errors. He took information supplied to him at face value, he made assumptions in areas where he had no information, and what was most damaging he never actively tried to clarify what his boss39。s priorities and objectives.Managers who work effectively with their bosses do not behave this way. They seek out information about the boss39。s behavior. Although it is imperative that they do this especially when they begin working with a new boss, effective managers also do this on an ongoing basis because they recognize that priorities and concerns change.Being sensitive to a boss39。s work style differed from that of his predecessor. To the degree that he did sense it, he experienced it as too much control. As a result, he seldom sent the new president the background information he needed, and the president never felt fully prepared for meetings with the manager. In fact, the president spent much of the time when they met trying to get information that he felt he should have had earlier. The boss experienced these meetings as frustrating and inefficient, and the subordinate often found himself thrown off guard by the questions that the president asked. Ultimately, this division manager resigned.The difference between the two division managers just described was not so much one of ability or even adaptability. Rather, one of the men was more sensitive to his boss39。s needs than the other was.Understanding Yourself The boss is only onehalf of the relationship. You are the other half, as well as the part over