Maybe you are fortunate enough to have relatively stable, clear, and orderly reporting relationships at work. You know exactly who your bosses are: You answer to boss-a on project-a. You answer to boss-b on responsibility-b. You answer to boss-c on tasks-c. With each boss, you have firmly established standards for the work and you have a routine for working together. With each boss, you have an ongoing one-on-one management dialogue about your work for that boss. Each one-on-one management dialogue is regular and well functioning; customized to fit the needs of your boss and you; and covers the management basics when it comes to your work with that boss. That would be the ideal situation.
Maybe your situation is even narrower. What if you answer to just one boss? There is no lack of clarity. You answer to one boss on all of your projects, tasks and responsibilities. The standards for your work are whatever your one boss says they are on any given work at any given time. The routine for working together is whatever your one boss says it is on any given day. If you have just one boss, then you definitely have an ongoing one-on-one management dialogue with that boss.
If you have just one boss, then CONGRATULATIONS! You are rare and you will certainly avoid many frustrating complications facing most people in the workplace nowadays. That is, at least, as long as the situation lasts. For your sake, I hope the situation lasts a long time. Just remember, if you only have just one boss, you are heavily invested with that boss. The stakes of that relationship will always be very high. I mean, golly, if you only have just one boss, then all your boss-managing eggs are in one basket. You had better make darned sure your sole one-on-one management dialogue with your sole boss is of a very high quality.
If your management relationship with your sole boss is of a low quality, then your career will be effectively on-hold. Your chances for success will be in serious doubt. You would only have two choices: CHOICE ONE. Go find another boss! CHOICE TWO. Radically improve your management relationship with that boss.
Even if your management relationship with your sole boss is of a very high quality and is likely to continue for a long time, then it's even more important that you keep working on maintaining the very high quality of that relationship. No relationship is static. All relationships are dynamic and changing. You need to keep working on that relationship to keep it growing in the right direction.
No matter how many bosses you actually have in the real world, your goal must be to maintain a very high quality management relationship with every single boss. Do you have a regular and well-functioning one-on-one dialogue with every boss about your work for that boss? Is that dialogue customized to fit the needs of that boss and you? Does that dialogue cover the management basics when it comes to your work with that boss? Those are the questions that you need to be answering on an ongoing basis to maintain a high quality management relationship with every single person you answer to.
