When your boss is the problem

Your boss changes their mind after you have started, goes quiet when you need a decision, or picks your work apart in front of others. You start avoiding them, saying less, and complaining to peers. That feels safe, and it makes everything worse: they hear less from you, trust you less, and the gap keeps growing — and your team feels it too.

This lesson is for new managers stuck with a difficult working relationship upward. It covers why most friction is a mismatch in working style rather than bad intent, one calm question that usually starts to shift it, and the habit that quietly damages your own team. It also says plainly where this approach stops and something else is needed. You get the exact words to open the conversation and a way to judge, a month later, whether it is working.

Part of the Growth track. About two minutes to read, with a seven-day practice plan and a recall check a week later.