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The fact is that I would have given this book a six star rating if the title was something like, "Help Your Boss and Your Team Succeed" or "Influencing Your Boss." The sixth star would have been extra credit for avoiding the current-day compulsion to label everything good as "leadership."

But the publishers and perhaps the author, John Baldoni, chose Lead Your Boss: The Subtle Art of Managing Up as the title for the best book I've read on a subject that most managers want to know more about. I know that from a quarter century of training men and women entering their first job as a boss.

In every class, we identify the things that these people want to learn about. There are only two items that ever come out on top. One is confronting team members about poor performance. The other is dealing with the boss.

This book is not a compendium of theory or a program that promises success if you just follow the author's five, or five hundred, "easy steps." It won't be easy. What John Baldoni describes in this book is some of the pick-and-shovel work you have to do if you have a boss.

After you read this book, you'll still have a lot of work ahead of you. But the good news is that you'll know what you need to do. You won't have to learn on the job and you won't try a lot of things that don't work.

Baldoni has divided the book into three sections. The first two direct you to ask two diagnostic questions: "What does the leader need?" and "What does the team need?" That's head work.

The pick and shovel work comes when you ask the question that guides the third section: "What can I do to help the leader and the team succeed?" That's a critical question because it moves things out of your head and on to your To Do list.

That action orientation is one thing that makes this an excellent book. But there's more.

The advice is helpful. Baldoni doesn't just suggest you "think like a boss" and leave it at that, the way many other authors do. He suggests three simple behaviors that will help that happen. The first one, "Be around" is similar to what my research identified as a key behavior of top performing supervisors. I called it "show up a lot."

The book is practical and realistic. Too many books of advice act like things will always work. They ignore the fact that there will probably be times during your career when you work for a great boss and there will probably be a time when you work for a jerk.

Even if you work for a good boss, sometimes he or she won't think your ideas or recommendations are the thing to do. What then? You'll find a guide to what to do next in a section at the back of the book called, "The Smart Guide to Positive Pushback. It's worth the price of the book all by itself.

There's a bonus here, too. The advice won't just work for dealing with your boss. It will also work for you if you are a boss.

Boss's Bottom Line

Lead Your Boss will help you do a better job of influencing the boss so that you, your boss and your team succeed. And if you're the ultimate boss, this book will suggest ways you can do your job better.

Additional Resources

In addition to this book, John Baldoni has a blog called "Lead by Example" and a regular column on the Harvard Business Publishing site called "Leadership at Work."

I've written two blog posts on this topic. One addresses the challenges and benefits of "Leadership without Position." The other post comments on an article by Patrick Lencioni. It was titled "How to manage your boss."

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.