[dagw]

"Make your boss a hero" is one of the most deranged things I hear managers say.

Why? If my bosses boss is happy with my boss then our department gets a bigger budget, more interesting projects and, most important, we get more autonomy and get left alone more. All of those things directly improve my quality of life. If I can keep my bosses boss off my bosses back, then my boss won't be on my back.

[NPMaxwell]

The challenge for some people is the issue of whether to accept and forgive your boss for appearing to be stupid or mentally deranged. Bosses may fail to share all the information they have. The results are that their decisions may look crazy stupid, having no apparent justification. And some bosses ARE stupid or have mental problems. (For example, I once worked for one who had a brain tumor.) For some people this starts a vicious cycle of resentment -> poor communication -> more resentment -> worse communication. Other workers accept that part of a job is to supervise bosses and try to diminish their foolish/harmful/incompetent behavior -- to make them look good in spite of themselves. For these accepting reports, there is no perception of injustice in the need for reports to manage wayward supervisors: it's just how things are. This sets up a virtuous cycle of improved communication -> more mutual good will -> improved communication -> more good will. The boss-critical employees tend to endorse meritocracy. The boss-accepting employees see no moral issue in who is assigned leadership responsibility and compensation. If you see nothing morally wrong with your having to rescue your bosses from themselves, you're probably a boss-accepting employee.

[internet555]

Your boss is entrusted with other people’s money, resources, employees to manage it in a way that generates value for them. How he looks and how his image impacts you feeling like you got an interesting project is irrelevant except exactly insofar as it influences this.