You will be able to find out your manager's priorities, pressures and preferred way of working.
Three months in, Wei Ling sent Daniel a detailed two-page update on the team's progress. He replied with one line: "Thanks, can we discuss the Changi renewal?" She had not mentioned the Changi renewal, because she didn't know it was on his mind. Daniel's own boss had been asking him about it for a week.
Wei Ling had been managing her team carefully and her manager hardly at all. Her relationship with Daniel was the one she had put least thought into, and it was the one that most shaped how much she could do for her team.
Your manager is judged on something. Their goals, and the pressures from above, shape what they care about, what worries them, and what they will notice about your team. If you don't know what those are, you are setting your own priorities partly blind.
So ask directly. "What are you being measured on this year?" "What's worrying you most right now?" "What does a good year for my team look like from where you sit?" Most managers are pleased to be asked. Few of their reports ever do.
When Wei Ling asked, Daniel told her that client retention was his main measure, and that two of the largest accounts, including Changi, were up for renewal in the next six months. That changed how she saw her own charter from lesson 1.4, Write your first-90-days manager charter. Her outcomes on report timeliness and escalations mattered to Daniel because they fed directly into renewals. She added a line on renewal readiness to her team's goals.
Managers differ in how they want to hear from you. Some want written updates they can read when they have time. Others prefer a quick conversation. Some want detail, others want the headline and will ask if they need more. Some want a weekly summary, others only want to hear when something changes.
None of these is right or wrong, but getting it wrong wastes both your time. Wei Ling's two-page update was well written and thorough. Daniel, it turned out, reads updates on his phone between meetings and wanted five lines.
Ask about preferences early. Written or spoken? Detail or summary? How often? What's the best way to reach them for something urgent? Communicate at work covers the updates themselves in lesson 3.1, What your manager actually wants from an update, and the rhythm in lesson 3.3, Agree how and when you update your manager. As a manager, the same habits apply, with higher stakes.
The authority levels you set for your team in lesson 3.2, Match your involvement to their experience, apply upward too. There are decisions you can make on your own, decisions where your manager wants to be told after, and decisions they want to be consulted on first.
Most new managers never ask, so they guess. Some guess too cautiously and bring every small decision upward, which makes them look unsure. Others guess too boldly and make a call their manager expected to hear about first, which damages trust.
Ask about specific kinds of decision. Can I approve leave without checking? Adjust workloads between team members? Agree a deadline extension with a client? Spend from the team budget, and up to how much? Change a team process? Write down the answers, and revisit them after a few months, because the boundaries usually widen as trust builds.
One rule matters more than the rest. Bad news should reach your manager from you, early, before it reaches them any other way.
A manager who hears about a problem from you, with time to act, can help. A manager who hears about it from their own boss, or from an angry client, feels blindsided. It doesn't matter much how small the problem was. What they remember is that you knew and they didn't.
So when something goes wrong, or looks likely to, tell them as soon as you know enough to describe it. You don't need the full solution first. "Heads up: the Tan & Co weekly report will be a day late because of a data problem at their end. I've told the client and we'll have it out tomorrow by noon." That message takes thirty seconds and saves a difficult conversation later. Lesson 8.3, Bring problems with options, covers the bigger problems, where you need a decision.
Wei Ling and Daniel now meet every two weeks for 30 minutes, with a five-line written update on the other weeks. He knows about problems before his boss does. She knows what he's worried about before it lands on her team.
Before your next meeting with your own manager, write the questions you need answered about their priorities, their preferences and what you can decide alone.
Prepare five questions for your manager about their priorities, preferences and decision rights, and ask them in your next meeting.
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